mummies27

1.First a mummy maker takes the intestines, stomach, liver, and lungs and puts them in canopic jars. Each jar had a little statue of God on the top to protect the part inside. After that, the mummy maker would rinse out the body with wine.
 * MUMMIES**

2.To get the brain out, mummy makers used a long wire with a spoon on the end to scoop out the brain. Egyptians didn’t think the brain was an important part so they fed the scooped out brains to stray animals.

3.The heart was the only organ left in the body. That was because the Egyptians believed that when the person reached the afterworld, their heart would be weighed on a balancing scale against a single feather. If the heart was lighter than the feather, it would mean that the person’s heart was free of guilt. The Egyptians believed that if you passed this test, you would have a good eternity in the afterlife.

4.The next step took 70 days to complete. The mummy makers cover the body with natron and let it sit for almost two and a half months. This nifty salt absorbed all the water from the body, plus it even had a mild antiseptic in it which helped to kill any bacteria still in the corpse.

5.After being given its salt bath, the body was painted with a varnish-like substance made from trees and plants called resin. A mixture of oil, wax, and more natron was then rubbed into the skin. The inside of the body was filled with sand, pieces of cloth, even sawdust and plumped up like a pillow to give it a fluffy shape.

6.It took mummy makers fifteen days to wrap a mummy. Some mummies had over twenty layers of bandages, and the average mummy had enough linen on him to cover a basketball court. Every finger and toe was wrapped separately, and between each layer glue was applied.

7.After the mummy was wrapped, the mummy makers put the corpse into a coffin. Royalty got special treatment. They had several inner coffins that were jewel-studded silver and gold surrounded by a beautifully painted wooden coffin (or two). The whole thing was then put in a carved stone outer coffin called a sarcophagus. Some coffins were stolen by robbers for their gold and silver.

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