Mummy

Mummification is a process in which the skin and flesh of a corpse can be preserved. The process can occur either accidentally or intentionally, as the result of exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air.

MUMMIFICATION OF HUMANS

While the ancient Egyptians may be the best-known mummy makers, they were far from the first. The Spirit Cave mummies of Fallon, Nevada in North America were accurately dated at more than 9,400 years old and a fishing tribe called the Chinchoros, who lived on the north coast of what is now Chile, were embalming their dead as early as 5000 BC.

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.

The bandaging of an ancient Egyptian mummy often took from six to eight months. It required a collection of special tools, including a long metal hook that was used to draw the dead person's brain through one of the nostrils. The brain was then placed in a jar.

Mummy in the British Museum

Most Egyptian mummies have hearts because Ancient Egyptians believed the center of thought and personality was in the heart, not the brain.

The linen bandages that were used to wrap Egyptian mummies averaged one thousand yards in length.

Mummies in ancient Egypt were often buried with an emerald on their necks carved with the symbol for eternal youth.

When the mummy of Ramses II was sent to France in the mid-1970s, it was issued a passport . Ramses’ occupation was listed as ‘King (deceased)'

Howard Carter opens the innermost shrine of King Tutankhamen's tomb near Luxor, Egypt.

Xin Zhui, the wife of Li Cang, the Marquis of Dai, during the Han dynasty is considered the best preserved mummy in the world. Xin Zhui died in 163BC and she gained fame more than 2,000 years after her death, when her tomb was discovered inside a hill known as Mawangdui, in Changsha, Hunan, China. Upon discovery she still had moist, soft skin, movable limbs, intact organs and veins with still small amounts of type A blood in them and distinct fingerprints.

Europe's Egyptomania in the 18th and 19th centuries led to a fascination with mummified remains, which merchants trafficked into the continent for macabre purposes. 

MUMMIFICATION OF ANIMALS

Not only humans are mummified. Many animals in ancient Egypt were considered sacred, including two species which frequent temples - ibises and cats.

Researchers believe more than 70 million animals were mummified between 800 BC and 400 AD.

An estimated 300,000 mummified cats were found at Beni Hassan, Egypt. In 1888 They were sold at $18.43 per ton, and shipped to England to be ground up and used for fertilizer.

In Ancient Egypt, the sacred temple of the jackal-headed god Anubis once held nearly 8 million mummified dogs in its catacombs.

FUN FACTS

King Francis I of France (1494 – 1547) took a daily dose of ancient Egyptian mummy to build strength—like a multivitamin made of corpse.

A pigment called mummy brown, made from real ground-up mummies, was popular among European artists during the 16th century.

During the late 19th century, it was popular for wealthy families to host mummy-unwrapping parties—using real Egyptian mummies.

Source History World