While we can learn a lot about mummification from ancient examples of the practice, there are still questions about how the Egyptians prepared their dead for the next life.
In an interesting discovery, researchers have discovered an original ‘how to’ manual, hidden within an old text, which explains the essential steps for mummy spice and creation.
The mummification guide was found on a 3,500-year-old piece of papyrus known as the Louvre-Carlsberg Papyrus manuscript, so-called because half of it, mostly with medical information, is in a Museum Louvre in Paris and the other half is part of the Carlsberg Papyrus Collection at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Before this new text came to light, experts only had two original texts on mummification to work with. The process was considered sacred art in ancient Egypt, with only a few experts guided in spice techniques, and the experience was usually passed on orally from person to person.
The front cover process was reflected in the new research. (Ida Christensen)
“The text reads as a memory aid, so the prospective readers must have been experts who needed to be reminded of these details, such as unethical recipes and practices of various kinds. of bands, “says Egyptian Sofie Schiødt, of the University of Copenhagen.
Schiødt has published details of the text in her PhD thesis, and the full Louvre papyrus will be published next year.
Extract of the papyrus. (Carlsberg Papyrus Collection, University of Copenhagen)
Among the details that Schiødt has extracted from the document is a list of instructions for plucking the deceased’s face, made with a piece of red linen covered in a special fixed solution. on plants.
The solution contained fragrances as well as binders to hold the mixture together, and the saturated cloth was intended to protect against pests and bacteria while also smelling fragrant. This process has not been documented before, but it does match some remnants of spice found.
This manuscript also describes the full 70-day schedule for spice, divided into two halves: a 35-day drying time and a 35-day folding time, which themselves were divided into times four days. Common treatments for the body involved ingesting a mixture called natron, after which the organs and brain have been removed. Although the use of natron has not been mentioned in this particular text, Schiødt explains.
“A ceremonial parade of the mummy was celebrated these days, marking progress in restoring the deceased’s physical integrity, amounting to 17 marches over the cremation period,” Schiødt said.
“Between the four-day intervals, the body was covered with a cloth and covered with straw covered with perfumes to keep insects and scavengers away.”
This is the first time that half of the manuscript of the Carlsberg Collection has been studied and translated, and it complements the information already described from half of the Louvre Museum, covering information. about herbal medicine and skin swelling.
About six meters (nearly 20 feet) long, the papyrus is now an even more important source of disease and health in ancient Egypt – including what diseases were thought to be was like the work of the gods, and how they could be fought.
The Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg manuscript is older than the two previously discovered mummification manuals, so it is the oldest record of our current practice. It also includes details that are missing in the other two documents.
“Many of the descriptions of firing methods we find in this newspaper were subsequently omitted from the two manuals, and the descriptions are very detailed,” Schiødt said.
The research was not published in a peer-reviewed journal but forms the basis for the PhD thesis written by Schiødt.