The Making Of SHEPENMUT
The mummified remains of SHEPENMUT, currently on display at RAMM are believed to date from around 870 BC. By that time, the process of mummification was well developed, especially in Thebes (now Luxor) where this mummy is thought to have been made.
The basic stages were as follows: Body brought to the embalmers workshop and ‘purified’ with prayers Body cleaned down on the outside o washed with lots of fresh water from the River Nile o palm wine and special oils rubbed into the skin to keep it fresh Body cleaned down on the inside o brain removed using brain hooking tool to push up through the nostril and into the brain, break the brain up into little pieces and remove it bit by bit through the nose o o a sharp blade is used to make a small cut in the skin usually on the lower abdomen on the left side about 10 – 12 cm in length. o internal organs removed and kept safely for use later. It was important to remove these because they were the first part of the body to decompose. The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were then washed and packed in Natron, a kind of natural salt, to dry them out. o heart left in the body, as it was thought to be the centre of intelligence and feeling, and the person would need it for the Afterlife Body dried out thoroughly in a bath of dry Natron salts o use of natron left a corpse looking more lifelike and flexible than drying it out in the hot, dry sands of the desert o drying process could take anything up to 40 days, as the salts absorb water, dissolve body fats and have a mild antiseptic effect that kills bacteria
Body prepared for wrapping o body washed again with more fresh water from the River Nile o skin rubbed with herbs and spices to help preserve it eg. cinnamon, cardamom, juniper berries, and sometimes turmeric was used on the face o oils, such as frankincense and myrrh, rubbed into the skin to soften it o Dried out internal organs, individually wrapped in linen, were placed back into the body cavity or into Canopic jars for use at the time of burial. All of the fluids and rags from the embalming process would have been saved and buried along with the body. o Other body cavities stuffed with materials, such as spare bandages or sawdust or even sand, to return abdomen and chest areas to original shape o the cut made to remove the soft tissue is then sewn up again. A magic charm showing the Eye of Horus is placed over the cut to protect the mummy. o Often the body would be anointed with warm liquid resin before wrapping. Body wrapped with linen bandages o Wrappings would be dipped into a bowl of warm resins and gums. A small fire underneath the bowl would keep the resins gooey. The linen would soak up the resin, helping the bandages to stay stuck together and to form the shape of the mummy. o Bandaging would have taken 15 – 20 days to complete, as many layers were used. Each finger and toe was wrapped separately. The face often had the most layers – 15 layers were used on SHEPENMUT! o Many special items would be placed in the wrappings, such as shabtis, amulets, jewellery and even messages to the dead written on papyrus o
o Finally a large piece of fabric would have been placed around the whole mummy as a shroud, usually laced up along the back.
Final stages would include: o painting on a face mask o painting on the persons name in hieroglyphs o encasing in a plaster cartonnage decorated with symbolic pictures
o Preparing Canopic Jars to be buried with the mummy. Previously, when the internal organs were removed from a body they were placed in hollow jars. But over the years as mummification practices changed, embalmers began returning internal organs to bodies after they had been dried out and wrapped up. Solid jars made of wood or stone were still buried with the mummy to symbolically protect the internal organs. o The lids of the jars resemble the heads of the four gods known as the Sons of Horus: Imsety human - headed god Hapy baboon - headed god Duamutef jackal - headed god Qebehsenuef falcon - headed god looks after the liver looks after the lungs looks after the stomach looks after the intestines
o placement in a decorated wooden coffin and /or stone sarcophagus with grave goods.
The mummified body was then ready for its funeral. This was usually around 70 days after the person had died. After much ceremony and special ritual the mummy was ready to be buried in a tomb or pyramid, in the hope that the soul of the person would be able to somehow return to the body and use it to live on forever in the Afterlife.