Mummies in Egypt
Part of the Mummies exhibition.
For thousands of years, peoples around the world practiced mummification as a way of preserving and honoring their dead. Mummies reveals how scientists are using modern technology to glean stunning details about them and their cultures.
Egyptian mummies were prepared using a detailed process that included removing many of the internal organs, desiccating the body in a drying salt, and wrapping the preserved body in linen before placing it in a wooden coffin, like this one. The painted coffin (#30023) below, and the mummy that was inside it, are both featured in Mummies.
© 2015 The Field Museum, photographer John Weinstein
Grave robbing was a problem in ancient Egypt, but coffins made of limestone made the grave more difficult to open.
This is a small subhead
While most people couldn’t afford one, wealthier Egyptians sometimes paid for the added security. The fragment below is from a limestone coffin, also called a sarcophagus, that would have held a wooden coffin and, inside that, a mummy. The full sarcophagus would have weighed several thousand pounds.
360˚ Sarcophagus: Limestone and Grave Robbing in Ancient EgyptMummies are inextricably linked in our imagination with ancient Egypt, and not without reason. Mummification was practiced for thousands of years in Egypt and was long considered a key step in a person’s journey to the afterlife.
- This is a bulleted list style. Egyptian mummies were prepared using a detailed process.
- The process included:
- Sub-bullet style. Removing many of the internal organs
- Desiccating the body in a drying salt
This is a large subhead
The Process
In the 1200s
Mummies are inextricably linked in our imagination with ancient Egypt, and not without reason. Mummification was practiced for thousands of years in Egypt and was long considered a key step in a person’s journey to the afterlife.
Another sublevel
Mummies are inextricably linked in our imagination with ancient Egypt, and not without reason. Mummification was practiced for thousands of years in Egypt and was long considered a key step in a person’s journey to the afterlife.
Mummies are inextricably linked in our imagination with ancient Egypt
Mummies are inextricably linked in our imagination with ancient Egypt, and not without reason. Mummification was practiced for thousands of years in Egypt and was long considered a key step in a person’s journey to the afterlife.
While most people couldn’t afford one, wealthier Egyptians sometimes paid for the added security. The fragment below is from a limestone coffin, also called a sarcophagus, that would have held a wooden coffin and, inside that, a mummy.
- This is a numbered list style. Egyptian mummies were prepared using a detailed process.
- The process included:
- Sub-bullet style. Removing many of the internal organs
- Desiccating the body in a drying salt
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