Scope: The primary source for figuring out how the Egyptians mummified their dead is the mummies themselves. In this lecture, we look at the detective work that enabled Egyptologists to reconstruct the ancient art of mummification. We will see the differences among mummies of the Old Kingdom, New Kingdom, and Late Period. By the end of this lecture, the student should be able to look at a mummy and tell how old it is.
Outline
I. The Egyptians mummified bodies for over 3,000 years. Old Kingdom mummies were intended more as statues than preserved bodies.
A. Bandages were coated in plaster with facial details painted on the outside.
B. The earliest effective attempt at mummification was Queen Hetepheres—“Wife of a king, mother of a king”—and is a mystery case.
1. Her tomb was discovered this century near the Great Pyramid.
2. Her internal organs were in her unplundered tomb. Natron, in solution, preserved them.
3. Her sarcophagus was in the tomb. But when excavators opened the lid, they found no body.
4. The excavator reasoned that Hetepheres was probably buried close to her husband, Sneferu, at Dahshur. Perhaps robbers destroyed the body, and the guardians told her son Khufu (Cheops) of the plunder, but that the body was safe—a lie to protect themselves. So Khufu had it reburied, not knowing that only the internal organs remained.
II. Mummies of commoners varied considerably.
A. There were different price ranges for different services.
B. Almost all bodies were eviscerated on the left side.
C. The brain was removed in higher-priced mummifications via the nasal passages.
D. Resin was poured in the skull to cauterize the area.
III. Royal mummies of the Deir el Bahri cache are a primary source of information.
A. After wonderful jewelry began appearing on the international antiquities market in the 1870s, the hunt for a royal tomb began. Although arrested and tortured by the police, the grave robbers didn’t at first reveal the location of the tomb they’d discovered. In 1880, they relented.
B. Their find, soon revealed to the world, turned out to include a puzzling assortment of kings. The archaeologists found a passageway clogged with coffins from the New Kingdom:
1. XVIIIth Dynasty kings included Tuthmosis I, II, and III.
2. XIXth Dynasty kings included Seti I and Ramses II.
3. The XXth Dynasty had an assortment of Ramses—including Ramses III.
4. XXIst Dynasty royalty created the tomb.
C. Several factors brought the burials to be together.
1. The decline of Dynasty XX led to extensive tomb robberies.
2. Priest-kings took control of Thebes and wanted to put away mummies in a safe place.
IV. Meanwhile, the royal mummies were quickly removed from the tomb.
A. They were taken by steamer to Cairo at night.
B. A great deal about Egyptian mummification was learned from these mummies.
1. The brain was first removed in Dynasty XVIII.
2. In Dynasty XXI, internal organs were replaced in the body. (False canopic jars and sons-of-Horus amulets were needed.) Through incisions, the skin was packed with an organic material for a more lifelike appearance.
C. At the Egyptian Museum, the mummies were hastily unwrapped.
V. The Tomb of Amenhotep II (KV 35) provided the second royal cache.
A. In 1898, Victor Loret found the tomb of Amenhotep II. The mummy of the pharaoh with the bad teeth, Amenhotep III, was also there.
B. In fact, almost all Egyptians had bad teeth, because their bread was packed with sand from their grindstones.
Essential Reading:
Salima Ikram and Aidan Dodson, The Mummy in Ancient Egypt.
Supplementary Reading:
Bob Brier, Egyptian Mummies.
Questions to Consider:
1. What was the major difference between mummification in the Old Kingdom and mummification in the New Kingdom?
2. How did all the royal mummies found at Deir el Bahri come together?