Mummification in Ancient Egypt: Methods, Beliefs and History

Mummification in ancient Egypt was the practice of preserving the bodies of the dead so that their spirits could live on in the afterlife. Developed over the 4th and 3rd millennia BC and fully established by around 2600 BC in the Old Kingdom, it continued for more than 3,000 years until the spread of Christianity. Egyptian mummies remain among the most studied human remains on Earth, revealing ancient beliefs, medicine, diet and disease.

Beliefs behind mummification

Egyptians believed that a person consisted of several elements. The ka was the life force, which needed offerings of food and drink, and the ba, often shown as a bird with a human head, could travel between the tomb and the world of the living. Both needed a body to return to, so the corpse had to be preserved and kept recognisable.

The model was the god Osiris. In myth he was murdered by his brother Seth and dismembered, then reassembled and wrapped by his sister-wife Isis with the help of Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming. Osiris was revived to rule the dead, and every properly mummified person hoped to share his resurrection.

After death the deceased faced judgement. The heart was weighed against the feather of Maat, the principle of truth and order, in a scene often illustrated in the Book of the Dead. A preserved body, protective amulets and correct rituals all helped the dead pass safely into the afterlife.

Origins: from sand burials to embalming

In the Predynastic period people were buried in shallow pits in the desert sand, where heat and dryness could preserve bodies naturally. A well-known example is the Gebelein man in the British Museum, a naturally preserved body from around 3400 BC.

Research has shown that deliberate treatment began early. Chemical studies published in 2014 found resins, plant oils and other embalming ingredients on linen wrappings from Predynastic graves at Mostagedda in Upper Egypt, dating to the 5th and 4th millennia BC. A later study of a Predynastic body from Gebelein, held in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, identified a similar embalming recipe from around 3600 BC. These finds push the roots of the practice back more than a thousand years before the pyramids. Similar ideas arose independently elsewhere: the Chinchorro mummies of South America are even older.

As tombs became larger and bodies were placed in coffins away from the drying sand, they decayed. Egyptians therefore developed artificial methods to achieve what the desert had once done naturally.

Old Kingdom developments

The earliest clear evidence for removing internal organs comes from the burial of Queen Hetepheres I, mother of King Khufu, at Giza around 2600 BC. Her tomb contained a calcite canopic chest divided into four compartments, still holding organ packages soaked in natron solution, although her body was never found.

Old Kingdom embalmers often wrapped bodies in many layers of linen soaked in resin or plaster, modelling the face and limbs so the deceased looked lifelike. A man named Ranefer, found by Flinders Petrie at Meidum, had his organs removed and his body wrapped and modelled in this way. His remains were later destroyed when the Royal College of Surgeons in London was bombed in 1941.

The classic method

Techniques reached their height in the New Kingdom (about 1550 to 1070 BC) and the Third Intermediate Period. Combining Egyptian evidence with modern scientific study, the main stages for a wealthy person were:

1. Washing and purification of the body in a tent or workshop, often near the river.
2. Removal of the brain, in later periods usually by breaking the bone behind the nose and drawing out the tissue with a hooked instrument. The brain was discarded, as Egyptians did not consider it important.
3. Removal of the organs through an incision in the left side of the abdomen. The lungs, liver, stomach and intestines were dried and preserved separately. The heart, regarded as the seat of intelligence and moral character, was usually left in place.
4. Drying by covering and packing the body with natron for about 35 to 40 days.
5. Anointing and packing the body with oils, resins and linen to restore its shape; in some periods material was inserted under the skin to plump out the limbs.
6. Wrapping in hundreds of square metres of linen, with amulets placed between the layers, followed by a mask and coffin.

The whole process traditionally lasted about 70 days. Priests recited spells throughout, and at the funeral the Opening of the Mouth ceremony restored the deceased’s senses so the mummy could eat, breathe and speak in the afterlife.

The organs were often placed in four canopic jars protected by the Four Sons of Horus: human-headed Imsety for the liver, baboon-headed Hapy for the lungs, jackal-headed Duamutef for the stomach and falcon-headed Qebehsenuef for the intestines. Amulets gave extra protection. The most important was the heart scarab, a stone beetle placed over the chest and often inscribed with a spell from the Book of the Dead asking the heart not to testify against its owner at the judgement. Others included the djed pillar, linked with Osiris and stability, and the wedjat eye of Horus, a symbol of healing and wholeness.

From the Third Intermediate Period onwards, organs were sometimes wrapped and returned to the body, while dummy jars were still placed in the tomb.

What Herodotus described

The Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt in the 5th century BC and gave the fullest ancient description of embalming, in Book 2 of his Histories. He reported three grades of service at different prices.

In the most expensive, embalmers drew out the brain with an iron hook, opened the side with a sharp stone blade, cleaned the body cavity with palm wine and spices, filled it with myrrh and cassia, and then placed the body in natron for 70 days before wrapping it in linen strips coated with gum. In a cheaper version, oil of cedar was injected to dissolve the organs. The cheapest method simply cleaned the intestines and dried the body in natron.

Modern research confirms much of his account, though the 70 days he gave for drying probably reflects the total period of mourning and preparation rather than time in natron alone. Herodotus also noted that embalmers were professionals with their own workshops, which Egyptian documents confirm.

Who was mummified

Mummification was expensive, and the best treatment was reserved for kings, priests and officials. Royal mummies such as those of Seti I, Ramesses II and Tutankhamun show the highest skill. Over time simpler versions spread to wider sections of society, especially in the Late and Graeco-Roman periods, when many ordinary people received at least basic treatment.

Animals were mummified too. Pets were sometimes buried with their owners, and sacred animals such as the Apis bull of Memphis received full royal-style burials. In the Late and Ptolemaic periods, millions of cats, ibises, falcons, crocodiles and other animals were mummified and sold to pilgrims as offerings to the gods, filling vast catacombs at sites such as Saqqara and Tuna el-Gebel.

Decline and end

Under Roman rule, mummies were often given painted wooden portrait panels, known as Fayum portraits, placed over the face. These realistic portraits are among the finest surviving paintings from the ancient world.

As Christianity spread through Egypt from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, traditional mummification declined. Some Christians continued to wrap and preserve their dead for a time, but the full religious ritual disappeared, and by around the 7th century the practice had ended.

Science and modern study

In the 19th century mummies were often unwrapped in public demonstrations, and many were destroyed. Earlier still, ground-up mummy, called mummia, was sold in Europe as medicine from the Middle Ages into the early modern period.

Modern science is non-destructive. CT scanning, X-rays, DNA analysis and chemical tests reveal age, health, diseases such as arteriosclerosis and tuberculosis, and the ingredients used by embalmers. In 1994 the Egyptologist Bob Brier and the anatomist Ronald Wade mummified a modern donated body using ancient methods and tools, confirming that the techniques work.

In April 2021, 22 royal mummies were moved in a public procession from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, showing the continuing importance of these ancestors to modern Egypt.

Timeline

• 5th-4th millennia BC: Resin-treated linen wrappings are used in Predynastic burials at Mostagedda.
• c. 3400 BC: The Gebelein man is naturally preserved in a sand grave.
• c. 2600 BC: Canopic chest of Hetepheres I gives the earliest clear evidence of organ removal.
• c. 1550-1070 BC: New Kingdom embalming reaches its highest skill.
• c. 1323 BC: Tutankhamun is mummified and buried in the Valley of the Kings.
• 5th century BC: Herodotus describes three grades of embalming.
• 1st-3rd centuries AD: Fayum portrait mummies are made under Roman rule.
• 4th-7th centuries AD: Mummification fades as Christianity spreads.
• 1994: Bob Brier and Ronald Wade carry out an experimental mummification.
• 2021, April: 22 royal mummies are moved to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

Why it matters

Mummification shaped Egyptian religion, art and architecture, from canopic jars to the pyramids built to protect royal bodies. Today Egyptian mummies are a unique archive of ancient lives, allowing scientists to study diseases, diet and family relationships thousands of years after death.