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Mummification existed in three different processes, ranging from most expensive, moderately expensive, and most simplistic, or least expensive. [21] The most classic, common, and most expensive method of mummification dates back to the eighteenth dynasty. The first step was to remove the internal organs and liquid so that the body would not decay.
Ay, with a leopard skin, performing the opening of the mouth for Tutankhamun.Wall painting from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV 62), 18th Dynasty (c. 1325 BCE). The ancient Egyptians held the belief that to reach the afterlife, one must pass through a series of arduous trials in the duat, which involve evading perilous creatures and traps.
Mummification was a practice that the ancient Egyptians adopted because they believed that the body needed to be preserved in order for the dead to be reborn in the afterlife. [15] Initially, Egyptians thought that like Ra, their physical bodies, or Khat, would reawaken after they completed their journey through the underworld. [16]
Mummification was an integral part of the rituals for the dead beginning as early as the 2nd dynasty (about 2800 BC). [20] Egyptians saw the preservation of the body after death as an important step to living well in the afterlife. As Egypt gained more prosperity, burial practices became a status symbol for the wealthy as well.
The act of mummification described was to be done while prayers and incantations were performed ritualistically. [6]Persons necessarily present and participating within a performance of the ritual were a master of secrets or stolist (both refer to the same person), a lector, and a divine chancellor or seal-bearer (hetemu-netjer).
Masks of deceased people are part of traditions in many countries. The most important process of the funeral ceremony in ancient Egypt was the mummification of the body, which, after prayers and consecration, was put into a sarcophagus enameled and decorated with gold and gems. A special element of the rite was a sculpted mask, put on the face ...
This method was widely used in the pre-dynastic Egyptian period, before artificial mummification was developed. [7] The natural mummification that occurred with these dry sand burials may have led to the original Egyptian belief in an after-death survival and started the tradition of leaving food and implements for an afterlife. [8]
Excerebration is an ancient Egyptian mummification procedure of removal of the brain from corpses prior to actual embalming. Greek writer Herodotus , a frequent visitor to Egypt, wrote in the fifth century B.C. about the process, "Having agreed on a price, the bearers go away, and the workmen, left alone in their place, embalm the body.