After Pharaoh's death, his body was sent to the clothing department, a special place to purify the body, where it was washed with soda water and handed over to the priest for corpse disposal. Priests first daubed turpentine on Pharaoh's face to prevent facial decay and deformation, then used a tube to penetrate into the cranial cavity from the nostril, constantly stirring and destroying the brain pulp, and then extracted it with a slender tube. The ancient Egyptians thought brain pulp was useless, so it was not preserved. They filled the evacuated cranial cavity with spices and drugs, on the one hand, to maintain the shape of the head, on the other hand, to prevent internal decay.
The next step is to deal with the internal organs, which are the most perishable parts of the human body, so the priest must remove all the liver, intestines, stomach and lungs. They cut open the abdominal cavity of the corpse with a clean knife, carefully cut off organs such as liver and stomach, put them in salt to absorb water, then coated them with turpentine and cooking oil, and then put them in jars respectively. This kind of jar is called "tent jar", which contains spices and medicines to further prevent organ decay. These jars are placed in the mausoleum not far from the body. However, during the Middle Kingdom period, the treated organs were no longer put into tents, but wrapped in linen and put back into the mummy's chest, which was said to be beneficial to the resurrection of the Pharaoh.
In the process of dealing with internal organs, the biggest taboo is to break the heart, because the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the' source of wisdom' of human beings, and once it was taken out or broken, the pharaohs could not be resurrected, so the heart was kept in the chest. After the priests drained the heart with alkaline powder and salt, they washed it with palm oil, and then put a beetle-shaped amulet on the heart to protect it from damage. The whole process must keep the heart intact. The Book of the Dead once recorded that three guards took turns to monitor the internal organs of Pharaoh. If the priest accidentally breaks Pharaoh's heart, he will be sentenced to death.
After processing the internal organs, the priests washed the chest and abdominal cavity of the corpse with palm oil, then put it in a package filled with soda, baking soda and asphalt, and put the corpse on a bed covered with baking soda and salt to dehydrate the whole body. After 40 days, the corpse was removed, the dehydrated substances in the chest cavity were taken out, and preservatives such as cinnamon and rosin were added again to prevent abdominal deformation. Then sew up the chest with a micro needle and stick a piece of skin with Horus's eyes painted on it. The ancient Egyptians believed that Horus's eyes represented the power of resurrection and had a mysterious protective effect on Pharaoh's body.
At this point, the production of the mummy was basically completed, and the Pharaoh's body was sent to the makeup artist for plastic surgery. The makeup artist made pigments from milk, wine, spices, beeswax, turpentine and tar, and drew clear lines according to the outline of Pharaoh's face to prevent his face from being blurred by mummification. The makeup artist also put on wigs, beautiful clothes and precious jewels for the mummy. Because the eyes of Pharaoh were sunken after his death, makeup artists and priests often filled them with stones or flax. By the time of Ramses III, people began to make artificial eyeballs, and made lifelike porcelain eyeballs through barbecue, and put them into the eye sockets of Pharaoh, so that Pharaoh's face appeared very vivid.
Finally, the craftsmen coated the corpse with turpentine, crossed Pharaoh's hands on his chest, and then began to wrap it with linen. The process of wrapping is considered as the beginning of dying, so the whole process is solemn and mysterious. The craftsmen carefully wrapped the linen soaked in palm oil one by one along the limbs and trunk of the mummy, leaving no gap. When it is wrapped around the face and various parts, nearby priests will pray and recite spells, and craftsmen sometimes put amulets between linen. Amulets are usually shaped like beetles or engraved with Horus's eyes. When the body is wrapped, mummification is completed, and the whole process usually takes more than 70 days.
In fact, in different periods, the methods and levels of mummification are also very different. In the early days of the ancient kingdom, Pharaoh's internal organs were not cut off, so they were easy to rot, and the internal organs treatment procedure began in the fourth dynasty; During the Middle Kingdom, people paid more attention to Pharaoh's makeup. They used black pigments to describe Pharaoh's eyebrows, beard and facial features. During the new kingdom, all the brains were removed, and some mummies also removed all the toenails and wrapped them with linen. In addition, in the process of mummification, the fragments cut from Pharaoh are not thrown away at will, but collected and wrapped and buried with the mummy, because these things belong to Pharaoh.
In ancient Egypt, it was generally believed that people could be resurrected after death, because only pharaohs in North Africa made mummies, and ordinary Egyptians also made mummies after death. However, their production process is much simpler. They often fill boxes with weeds, sawdust or reeds as desiccants and then dehydrate them in the desert. Mummies made in this way are not effective, so they are rarely preserved for a long time.
From the perspective of modern science, resurrection after death is an absurd legend, and it is even more impossible for mummies to resurrect after dehydration. However, in the long history of mummification, ancient Egyptians gradually mastered superb medical anatomy technology, drug synthesis and antiseptic technology. 1862, American archaeologist Edwin Smith discovered a papyrus manuscript in Luxor, Egypt, about 1600 BC. It systematically introduces the structure of human body, lists 48 cases and describes the symptoms in detail, and divides them into three categories: treatable, refractory and incurable. Later, this manuscript was called' Edwin Smith papyrus'. It can be seen that the medical level of ancient Egypt has made very high achievements.