A ritual before a technique
Mummification can be described as a technology of preservation, but the Egyptians treated it first as a religious act. A body that had been prepared correctly became a vessel that the ka and ba could return to, and it was identified with the god Osiris, whose own body was said to have been restored by Isis and Anubis. The practical side, such as embalming techniques, is a separate subject from the ritual setting, the people involved and the changes through time described here.
Where the practice began
The earliest Egyptian burials, in the Predynastic period, placed bodies in shallow sand graves where hot, dry conditions often dried them naturally. Deliberate preservation developed later. Attempts to wrap and treat bodies appear in the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods, when elite burials were placed in built tombs, where bodies no longer dried naturally in the sand and were liable to decay. By the time of the Fourth Dynasty, the viscera were being separated and stored, as shown by the canopic chest in the burial of Queen Hetepheres, mother of Khufu.
The seventy days
The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, said that the process took seventy days. This figure is widely used, and it probably covered the whole period of the preparation, with about forty days for drying and the remainder for wrapping and ceremonies. Some scholars have linked the figure with the roughly seventy days when certain stars were invisible in the Egyptian sky, which is the sort of detail that connects burial practice with star clocks decans and the Egyptian view of rebirth. The exact length varied, and shorter processes are known from texts and from mummies.
The people involved
Embalming was done by specialists, working under the direction of priests. Several roles appear in later texts and tomb scenes:
- a lector priest, who recited the ritual spells
- an embalmer who made the incision to remove the organs, traditionally called the cutter
- assistants who prepared the materials and handled the body
A pottery jackal head from Memphis has often been interpreted as a mask worn by a priest who played the role of Anubis, although the interpretation is debated. If correct, it would show that the embalmer was understood to act in the god’s place. The work took place in a tent or workshop, with names in texts that include the place of purification and the beautiful house, apparently kept apart for ritual cleanliness.
Prayers, offerings and amulets
Every step was accompanied by recitations. Texts on papyrus survive that describe parts of the ritual, such as the instructions for bandaging, though many details are lacking. Offerings of incense and libations accompanied the work, and the body was anointed with oils and resins that had symbolic as well as practical value. The scented resin was connected with the idea that the dead person’s flesh became divine.
Amulets were set among the wrappings, sometimes in dozens. Common ones include the heart scarab, the wedjat eye of Horus, the djed pillar associated with Osiris and the tyet knot linked to Isis. Their placement followed ritual instructions known from the Book of the Dead, and such protective objects connect to Egyptian magical practice more generally. Gold finger and toe stalls, collars and sheets of metal could be added for wealthy individuals.
Wrapping and mourning
The body was wrapped in many layers of linen, with resin brushed on between layers. Fingers and limbs might be wrapped separately before being bound together. A mask or cartonnage covering was often placed over the head and chest. Wrapping could take days, while family and professional mourners continued their roles. Two women, who represented Isis and Nephthys, sometimes wailed beside the coffin, a custom shown in tomb scenes.
The Opening of the Mouth
After the body was wrapped and placed in its coffin, a funeral procession carried it to the tomb, often involving a crossing of the Nile on one of the Nile river boats used for ceremonial transport. At the tomb entrance, priests performed the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, touching the mummy, or a statue, with ritual implements, such as an adze, to restore the senses so that the dead could eat, speak and breathe. Offerings were presented and the burial sealed. This final rite completed the transformation begun by the embalmers.
Change over time
The practice was far from static.
- Old Kingdom: Bodies were wrapped, sometimes with linen soaked in resin and moulded to suggest the contours of the living person, but the preservation of soft tissue was limited.
- Middle Kingdom: Techniques improved, and evisceration became more regular.
- New Kingdom: Treatment reached a peak of sophistication, with removal of the brain through the nose and careful packing. Royal mummies of this period are the best preserved.
- Third Intermediate Period: The skin was sometimes painted and packed with material to restore a lifelike shape, and the viscera were wrapped and returned to the body.
- Late Period to Roman era: Wrapping became elaborate, with geometric patterns of bandage, and portrait panels painted on wood were set over the face in some regions. Quality could vary, and some bodies were treated poorly beneath fine wrapping.
Large numbers of animals, including cats and ibises, were also mummified as offerings in the later periods.
Social reach and ending
Mummification was never equally available. Elite individuals could afford the full process, while many people were buried in the sand or in modest graves. Herodotus described three levels of price, and while his account is not exact, it reflects a real range. Over time, the cost fell and use spread. The practice faded in the Roman period and with the spread of Christianity, and by about the fourth century CE it had largely ended.
Why the ritual mattered
The interest of mummification for historians lies in the beliefs behind it. It expressed confidence that the person would continue, if the right actions were taken. Mummy scientific study now uses the bodies themselves as evidence for the lives of the people who underwent the process. The ritual also left a legacy in the way modern audiences imagine ancient Egypt, sometimes with exaggeration. The surviving texts and objects suggest a careful, reverent practice, not a macabre one.