The craft behind the ritual
Embalming was the practical side of Egyptian mummification: the skills used to stop a human body from decomposing and to keep its shape. It rested on empirical knowledge of how the body dried, which materials preserved it and how to handle tissues without destroying them. The religious setting is a separate matter; here the focus is on the methods and the evidence for them.
Sources for the method
Ancient Egyptians left few detailed written manuals, and the best-known description is from outside. The Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the fifth century BCE, gave an account of three levels of embalming, from expensive to cheap. In the first century BCE, Diodorus Siculus wrote a similar description. A small number of Egyptian ritual papyri, from later periods, also record parts of the process. These accounts were written long after the peak of the craft in the New Kingdom and may be inaccurate in places, so modern scholars test them against the mummies themselves.
Drying with natron
The key to preservation was removing water. Egyptians used natron, a naturally occurring salt mixture made up mainly of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, with some common salt and sodium sulphate. It was gathered from dry lake beds, such as the Wadi Natrun, west of the Delta. Natron absorbs moisture and may also have helped limit bacterial growth.
The body was washed, often with water from the Nile and sometimes palm wine, and then covered, inside and out, with natron. Herodotus says the body stayed in natron for seventy days, though modern reconstruction often limits the drying to about forty days within a longer overall process. The duration probably varied with the size of the body and the standard of work.
Removing the organs
Organs that decay fastest were taken out. Herodotus describes the brain being removed through the nose with a hook, and examination of mummies confirms this method in many New Kingdom and later cases. The brain was usually discarded, a detail that suggests it was not valued as the seat of thought. Another incision, normally on the left flank, allowed the removal of the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines. Diodorus wrote that the cutter was driven off with stones after the cut, which might reflect a ritual of symbolic punishment, though this is hard to verify.
The heart was normally left in place, being regarded as the centre of the person. The kidneys also usually remained. Tools included flint or obsidian blades, hooks and probes, and mummies show that skilled embalmers could work with remarkable care.
Canopic jars
The removed organs were treated with natron, dried, wrapped and stored. From the Old Kingdom onwards they were often placed in a set of four containers, called canopic jars. In the New Kingdom, the lids were typically shaped as the four sons of Horus:
- Imsety, human-headed, protected the liver
- Hapy, baboon-headed, protected the lungs
- Duamutef, jackal-headed, protected the stomach
- Qebehsenuef, falcon-headed, protected the intestines
The jars, placed in a chest in the tomb, were guarded by goddesses. In the Third Intermediate Period, the organs were often wrapped and returned to the body, and the jars became dummies or were omitted, a sign of how techniques shifted over time.
Packing, resins and oils
After drying, the body was cleaned and anointed with oils. The cavities were packed with materials such as linen, sawdust, resin-soaked cloth and sometimes natron bags to maintain shape. Molten resin was poured over the skin or inside the skull to seal it and make the body stiffer. The skin was treated with scented oils and resins.
Chemical analyses have identified a range of substances in embalming materials: plant oils, animal fats, beeswax, conifer resins and in some cases bitumen. Several of the plant products overlap with those used in ancient herbal remedies. Some resins came from trees that grew outside Egypt, which indicates long-distance supply. The word mummy itself comes from a Persian and Arabic term for bitumen, as medieval writers assumed it was the black substance covering the bodies, although bitumen was not always used. A workshop at Saqqara, dated by its excavators to the sixth century BCE, contained vessels labelled with names of substances and instructions for use. Analyses published in 2023 reported ingredients including plant resins that were probably imported. This was an important find because it links texts directly to chemical evidence. It is still being interpreted.
Wrapping and finishing
The last stage was wrapping in linen, often recycled household sheets, with layers separated by resin. The fingers of wealthy individuals were wrapped separately. Careful embalmers placed the arms and hands in particular poses, such as crossed on the chest for kings. The ritual side, including amulets and prayers, was part of this stage.
What Herodotus got right and wrong
Herodotus is broadly accurate on several points: the use of natron, removal of the brain by the nose, evisceration through a flank cut and the existence of different price levels. Other claims are harder to confirm. He says that the middle-grade method involved injecting cedar oil to dissolve the internal organs, and the evidence from mummies is limited. Studies have also shown that the quality of embalming varied widely, with some bodies carefully prepared and others poorly done, so that no description fits everyone.
Evidence from mummies
Modern analysis uses X-rays, CT scans and chemical tests. They show that some mummies of the Twenty-first Dynasty were packed under the skin to restore the shape of the face and limbs. Some bodies show signs of incomplete drying or of damage caused by haste. In a few cases embalmers appear to have made repairs, such as adding false limbs or replacing missing parts with linen or resin. Radiocarbon dating can also check the age of the process, although it is used cautiously.
Medical knowledge, or not
It is tempting to see embalming as medical science, but anatomical understanding was limited. Egyptian texts show some knowledge of the heart and vessels. However, embalming was not driven by an interest in anatomy for its own sake, and the Egyptian medical knowledge preserved in papyri shows little connection with the embalmer’s work. The craft was nevertheless a form of practical chemistry, learned through apprenticeship and tradition. Its skills were highly specialised and were carried by families and workshops for centuries.