6th Grade Social Studies March 2014 | Page 25

The steps to making a mummy By Stephanie Brody In ancient Egypt, when a important person dies she/he will be mummified. Before the new kingdom, mummies were made by leaving a body in the hot desert sands to dry until bodies were getting lost in the sand because it was sinking in so Egyptians had to find another way to make mummies without losing them. These are the eight steps to taken to make a mummy. The first step is to push a long metal stick through the nose pushing through the skull case into the brain then mash up brain up then pull it out. The second step is to take out the body organs (liver, lungs, intestines and stomach) and put them into four jars called canonic jars. The third step is to wash the corpse in Palm wine and cover it in a natural salt called Natron that desiccated the body like the hot sands of the desert. The fourth step is after days, embalmers rubbed the skin with oils, spices and perfumes to keep it smelling fresh. The fifth step is to pack the body with bags of Natron, linen, sawdust and sand to reshape it. On some occasions the skull was packed with linen or resin but most times it was left empty. The sixth step is to wrap the body in layers upon layers of linen bandages that have been soaked in resin. The seventh step is to paint the mummy. Green paint on the eyes because it's the color of resurrection, red for men and yellow for women. The eighth and final step is to seal the mummy in its case called a Sarcophagus. After this they would be put into a tomb or cave with their belongings. To conclude, mummies took a very long time to make and embalmers used up many resources making them. Only high class Egyptians and pharaohs and their pets/children/spouses/relatives were made into mummies but they became so popular that people found ways to make them cheaper but the cheap made one weren’t made half as good as the high class mummies. Mummies were very popular until the 1900’s where they died down since then no mummies have been made in Egypt that way or at all.