Page 58 - September 2022 Magazine - Bumper Edition

Qebehsenuef, with the lid of a Falcons head, held the intestines, protected by the Goddess Serket
The Jars would sit in the tomb near the sarcophagus either on their own or in a Canopic Box nearby, joining them together with the body in the afterlife.
It has also been recorded that later on Jars were sometimes not used, and the mummified organs were placed back into the body, instead of before being wrapped.
Canopic Jars displayed in the Egyptian Musuem - Found in the tomb of Isetemkheb, the mother of King Psusenness II - Last Pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty
Moving back to the mummification, it is now time to wrap the body.
The body was coated in oils and resins to soften the skin and to stop fungus and make the cloth stick to the body and to each other as they wrapped the body.
This was done in stages, the first stage was to wrap the head, then the fingers individually and the toes, then the arms, legs and torso. Then they would place an amulet over the heart to protect it, and an amulet over the wound where they removed the organs to stop any evil getting in and again to protect it, then tie their feet and knees together, re-covered them in a coating of resin and wrapped the whole body. They then added further amulets and charms on the body and did a final wrapping with a shroud, they then tied this in place with thin strips of linen coated in resin.
Once dried the body was ready for dressing.
They would often paint the faces with colours and gold, give them wigs and make up, and decorate the shroud in hieroglyphs, jewellery, colours and spells to take them through the afterlife, before being put in
a very decorative coffin made from wood, which would also be coated in resin to preserve and protect it, before placing the coffin in a stone sarcophagus. They are then taken into their tomb through other rituals with all their possessions to take with them into the afterlife.
Burials were extremely expensive, and the embalmers over the years learnt how to mummify the dead with dignity in various ways, according to their purse. It seems like nothing has changed!
The practice of mummifying died out (no pun intended), with the advancement of Christianity, although it did continue up until the seventh century AD. It’s been estimated that over the thousands of years that it was practised, over 70 million bodies were mummified.
58 | The Flickering Cauldron® Magazine - Preservation of the Dead