HISTORY OF MUMMIES
Ancient writers, modern scientists, and the mummies themselves all help us better understand the Egyptian mummification process and the culture in which it existed. Much of what we know about the actual process is based on the writings of early historians such as Herodotus who carefully recorded the process during his travels to Egypt around 450 BCE. Present-day archaeologists and other specialists are adding to this knowledge. The development of x-rays now makes it possible to x-ray mummies without destroying the elaborate outer wrappings. By studying the x-rays or performing autopsies on unwrapped bodies, experts are learning more about diseases suffered by the Egyptians and their medical treatment. A better idea of average height and life span comes from studying the bones. By learning their age at death, the order and dates of the Egyptian kings becomes a little clearer. Even ties of kinship in the royal line can be suggested by the striking similarities or dissimilarities in the skulls of pharaohs that followed one another. Dead now for thousands of years, the mummy continues to speak to us.
Websites and Books on Ancient Egypt, 2012 (PDF)
Anthropology Outreach Office, Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
Reference ; https://www.si.edu/spotlight/ancient-egypt/mummies
Bogs body, any of several hundred variously preserved human remains found in natural peat bogs, mostly in northern and western Europe but also elsewhere. Such bogs are anaerobic (oxygen-free) environments, a condition that prevents decay. They are also heavy with tannins, a group of naturally occurring chemicals used in tanning leather. The tannins preserve organic materials such as human bodies, including the soft tissues and the contents of the digestive tract.
Reference ; https://www.britannica.com/science/bog-body
What is Mummy?
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay further if kept in cool and dry conditions. Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least 1615 AD.
Mummies of humans and animals have been found on every continent,[1] both as a result of natural preservation through unusual conditions, and as cultural artifacts. Over one million animal mummies have been found in Egypt, many of which are cats.[2] Many of the Egyptian animal mummies are sacred ibis, and radiocarbon dating suggests the Egyptian Ibis mummies that have been analyzed were from time frame that falls between approximately 450 and 250 BC.[3]
In addition to the mummies of ancient Egypt, deliberate mummification was a feature of several ancient cultures in areas of America and Asia with very dry climates. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada, in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old. Before this discovery, the oldest known deliberate mummy was a child, one of the Chinchorro mummies found in the Camarones Valley, Chile, which dates around 5050 BC.[4] The oldest known naturally mummified human corpse is a severed head dated as 6,000 years old, found in 1936 AD at the site named Inca Cueva No. 4 in South America.[5]
Reference ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy
Mummies as Medicine
According to a 1927 abstract published in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, medicinal preparations made from powdered mummies were popular between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. During that time, countless mummies were disentombed and burned to meet the demand for “mummy medicine.”
The interest in mummies as medicine was based on the supposed medicinal properties of bitumen, a type of asphalt from the Dead Sea. It was thought mummies were embalmed with bitumen, but that was rarely the case; most were embalmed with resins.
Reference ; https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-the-mummy
Regarding mummies, the Ancient Egyptians believed that each individual possessed a ka, a life force, that departed the body after death. Upon death, the ka needed to continue to receive offerings of food, whose spiritual essence it still consumed. But a person also had ba, a set of spiritual characteristics unique to each person. These remained attached to a body after death and would return each night to receive new life. Due to the post-mortem importance of a body, Egyptians believed bodies had to be preserved. While elaborate versions of this practice were only reserved for the highest levels of Egyptian society, mummification was a cornerstone of Egyptian religion. This was the importance of mummies in Ancient Egypt.
After death, a body begins to decompose. Regarding mummies, In order to prevent a body from decomposing, it is necessary to deprive the tissues of moisture and oxygen.
The earliest Egyptians buried their dead in shallow pits in the desert. The hot, dry sand quickly removed moisture from the dead body and created a natural mummy. However, the Egyptians discovered that if the body was first placed in a coffin, it would not be preserved. This was what would necessitate mummies in ancient Egypt.
In order to ensure that the body was preserved the Ancient Egyptians began to use a process called mummification to produce their mummies. This involved embalming the body and then wrapping it in thin strips of linen.
Reference ; https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-egyptians-mummies|
Name ; Krisha C. Calixtro
Grade and Section ; 11 - Proverbs