Eternal life in Ancient Egypt

Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt

Walking one level up and down a hallway one comes to a series of cases that exhibit items related to what the museum experts have learned about Egyptian burial practices, health, disease, and demographics from studying mummies. Ancient Egyptians believed that a person’s soul and life-force, or ba and ka, left the body at death. The ba and ka reunited with the body in the tomb, and the deceased would live forever in the afterworld. It was mummification that ensured that the body remained as whole as possible for the afterlife journey ahead.

Three of the cases contained mummies, one each. These are real mummies, not replications.

The first case contains the mummified body of a man who died about 2,200 years ago. Thanks to tissue and hair analysis and CAT scanning by museum scientists, we now know something about his life. Their studies showed that the deceased ate little meat, and that his lungs contained soot, probably inhaled while tending fires. Also, some internal organs remained intact, indicating that this mummy did not receive the deluxe embalming given other Egyptians.

The second case contains another adult male mummy (300 BC – 150 AD). However, when this mummy arrived at the museum, it was already partially unwrapped and little was known about its history or the individual inside. But by using 2D and 3D CT scans, museum scientists found the brain and major organs removed and rolls of linen fitted into the abdominal cavity in place of the removed organs. This type of mummification indicates that the deceased was a member of the upper class. The arms of the mummy were crossed, a practice typical of mummification beginning about 500 BC. (See video of the CT scan, below)

The third case contains the mummy of a small boy (300 BC - 150 AD). Enough of the genitalia remained to show that this was definitely a male child. This mummy differed from the other three in that the original embalmers preserved the boy’s body by simply shrouding it in a sheet of linen instead of elaborate layers of fabric strips. This is more typical of a commoner's burial, and therefore the boy must have been a member of a poorer class. The arms at the side and chin on the chest reflect mummification practices from about 2,000 years ago. Peering down at the small mummy, it is difficult not to think about the intense sorrow that his parents must have felt at his death, a life cut dramatically short of its potential.



http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/december-2011/article/close-encounters-of-the-ancient-kind