Why was embalming important to the ancient egyptians

Its origins are much earlier than we thought". It also reveals an insight into how and when the Ancient Egyptians perfected an antibacterial embalming recipe that protected and preserved their dead - leaving behind the iconic Egyptian mummies we are now so familiar with. Embalming was just one step in the careful process of preserving a body.

The key steps of mummification were:. He added: "The afterlife was just a continuation of enjoying life. But they needed the body to be preserved in order for the spirit to have a place to reside.

Follow Victoria on Twitter. Egyptian mummy's secrets revealed. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. So the basic recipe was:. Anubis was the jackal headed god of the dead. He was closely associated with mummification and embalming, hence priests wore a mask of Anubis. Anubis Mask This is the step-by-step process of how mummification took place:.

If the person had been a Pharaoh, he would be placed inside his special burial chamber with lots of treasure! When an Egyptian died, the dead body was transferred to the embalmers on the west bank of Nile. The West was where the sun would set and the supposed home of the dead. How exactly did the process go? The best source describing the Egyptian mummification process is the historical writings of Herodotus.

He was a Greek historian who adored Egypt and wrote the year-old processes he witnessed in the fifth century B. Based on his writings, not all people were mummified the same way since the costs differed.

The perfect way was the day process. Watch it now, on Wondrium. The ideal mummification process took 80 days. Next, the brain was drawn out through the nostrils by a long needle.

Then the interior of the body was cleansed, and the incision was sewed. All this happened in the first 10 days after death. In the remaining 70 days, the body would lie in natron powder so that the humidity was all absorbed, but the skin was not blackened and hardened. Finally, the body was washed and wrapped in linen bandages.

If the family could not afford the full process, the embalmers would inject oil into the body through the anus. After a while, the oil would be released, and the dissolved internal organs would flow out. Hence, the poor had to start the afterlife without organs. Regardless of the process, the mummy was then placed in a wooden or cartonnage coffin. The relatives would pick up the coffin and take it to the tomb.

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