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Mummification was practiced in Ancient Egypt tin order to preserve the
body for the after life .
Ancient Egyptian believed in life after death This practice started and
early as the old kingdom time in Ancient Egypt but it reach it is peak
during the new kingdom. This ritual was essential to guarantee the
survival of both
the soul and the body. The ritual of mummification has
been through many stages of evolution and, but most of its secrets have
not been completely revealed yet.
Traditionally all what we know of the mummification came to us the
classical sources of history such as Greek writers and papyrus drawing
and wall relives and the rest through studying the mummies that e found
intact inside the ancient Egyptian tombs.,
The most common way of mummification was as follows:
The brain was removed through the nose and was discarded. The viscera
was removed and stored in jars known today as the canopic jars,
while the body was soaked into naturn salt for 70 days until it was
dehydrated, artificial ayes were placed instead
of the real eyes which
had dehydrated , then body is wrapped with 100 's of meters of gum
coated linen and the jewels were inserted within the layers of the
wrapping. Canopic Jars:
It was necessary to complete the mummification conserving the interior
limbs such as the brain , the viscera and so on , putting them into a
square chest which was at first , during the old Kingdom it was
divided into 4 compartments and was placed into a pit near to the
sarcophagus, this box was made of stone or wood. Then apart from the
ends of the Tth dynasty and en general during the Middle
Kingdom and the Modern Kingdom that chest was turned to 4 jars .The
stopper s of these jars are taken the shapes of 4 different heads (
according to the shapes of the 4 sons of Horus )
The
Canopic
jars
are as follows:
-The first was Am-sty, with human head shape.
-The 2nd one was Hapy with a monkey head,.
-The 3rd one was Dwa-mut-f with a Jackal head,
-The 4th was kbh-snw- f with a falcon head.
The Greeks called these jars the Canopic Jars relating them to the deity
of the old City ”Canop” now it is village in the province of (Abu
Kyr). That deity was carry the name of Osiris and was represented in
the shape of a jar with Osiris head. And during the Ptolemaic period
these jars were called the canopic jars.
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