Mummy originally meant asphalt, referring to a dry and uncorrupted corpse. Egypt has found the largest number of mummies, the earliest time and the most complicated technology. When the Egyptians made mummies, they first took out part of the brain marrow from the nostrils of the dead body with iron hooks and injected some drugs into the brain for cleaning. Then use a sharp stone knife to cut a hole in the side abdomen, take out the internal organs completely, clean the abdomen, fill it with coconut milk wine and mashed spices, and sew it as it is. After this step is completed, the body is put into baking soda powder for 70 days, then it is washed, wrapped with linen bandage from head to toe, and coated with gum commonly used in Egypt instead of ordinary glue, and then the body is handed over to relatives, who put it in a special humanoid wooden box and keep it in the tomb, standing upright against the wall.
Ancient Egypt liked to mummify the bodies of kings or ministers very early, and it was impossible without a high level of medical care. Unlike ancient China, mummification even became a trend in ancient Egypt. Why?
Mummy legend
In ancient Egypt, there was such a touching myth and legend. A long time ago, Osiris, the son of the land god Sebu, was very capable and was once the king (Pharaoh) of Egypt. He taught people to engage in agricultural production, such as farming, making bread, brewing wine and mining, which brought people happiness. So people worship him and regard him as the Nile God. People's lives are given by Osiris. He has a younger brother named Seth, who has bad intentions and plots to kill his brother and seize the throne.
One day, Seth invited his brother to dinner and found many people accompanying him. At dinner, Seth pointed to a beautiful big box and said to everyone, "Whoever can lie in this box will be given it." Osiris, egged on by everyone, tried it in front of everyone's interview. But as soon as he lay in, Seth closed the box, locked it, and threw him into the Nile.
After Osiris was killed, his wife Isis, the rain god, searched everywhere and finally found the body. Unexpectedly, Seth knew about it. He stole the body again in the middle of the night, cut it into 14 pieces and threw it in different places. Isis found pieces of Osiris's body from different places and buried them in situ.
Later, Horace, the posthumous son of Osiris, was born. He has been brave since he was a child. When he grew up, he defeated Seth, avenged his father and inherited the throne of the world. He dug up his father's corpse from all over the country and pieced it together into a mummy. With the help of God, he brought his father back to life.
Osiris's resurrection is not on earth, but in the underworld. In another world, he became the master, responsible for judging the dead and protecting the Pharaoh on earth.
This fairy tale began to spread among the people. Later, when Pharaoh of Egypt heard about it, he used it to deceive the people, saying that God always helped him, so he was a ruler before his death and a ruler after his death. Anyone who opposes the Pharaoh will be punished alive and will not pass Osiris's trial in the underworld after death.
Since then, every Egyptian Pharaoh has performed the myth of Osiris after his death. The first step is to hold a body search ceremony. The second point is to hold a purification ceremony, that is, to dissect the corpse, take out the internal organs and bone marrow, and make a mummy. The specific method is to soak the corpse in antiseptic solution, dissolve the oil and wash off the epidermis. After 70 days, the body was taken out to dry. Fill the cavity with spices, coat it with chewing gum to prevent the body from contacting air and bacteria, and then wrap the body tightly with cloth. In this way, the enduring "mummy" was made. The third step is to recite the mantra, open the eyes, nose, ears and mouth for the "mummy" and stuff food into its mouth. It is said that you can breathe, talk and eat like a living person. Finally, the burial ceremony, the "mummy" was put into the sarcophagus and sent to the "eternal residence" they managed for themselves before their death-the grave.
The ancient Egyptians believed that the soul would not die when it was young. They regard human death as a continuation of "life" in another world, so they are keen on making mummies and repairing graves. They use salt water, spices, ointment, linen and other things to make the body into a "mummy", and then put it in a closed grave, which can be preserved for a long time. Buried in the grave, the incorruptible body quietly waits for the dead soul to come back and cling to it.
The ancient Egyptians realized that man's resurrection can only be in the underworld, not on earth. Therefore, the reorganization of bodies and souls can not bring people back to earth, but can only live in the underground palace. Slave owners, as rulers, used all the manpower, material resources and financial resources of the country to build tombs in order to meet their needs after death, and the pyramids appeared under such circumstances. For the convenience of the deceased, all kinds of daily necessities must also be placed in the tomb.
The production of The Mummy is mixed with some mysterious and superstitious things. As far as the production of "mummy" itself is concerned, it embodies the achievements of medical level in ancient Egypt. In the process of making "mummies", Egyptians accumulated a lot of anatomical knowledge, and initially understood the relationship between human blood circulation and heart function, as well as the important role of the brain in the human body. Edwin Smith papyrus, which can be seen today, is the most important medical document in ancient Egypt. This medical work was discovered by a man named Edwin Smith in the 1960s from 65438 BC to 0600 BC, and the oldest part of it can be traced back to the period of the Middle Kingdom. The first half of papyrus systematically describes the structure of human body, which is a bit like today's human anatomy, and lists 48 cases, which are divided into treatable, refractory and incurable, and also describes the symptoms in detail. Unfortunately, the second half has been lost. In the sculptures around 2500 BC, we can see the images of doctors performing operations at that time. All these indicate that ancient Egyptian medicine has reached a high level. The medical achievements of ancient Egypt are directly related to their autopsies and mummies.