Mummification of a Hot Dog: Ancient Egyptian Techniques

Introduction to Mummification

The practice of mummification in ancient Egypt is probably one of the most famous elements of this ancient culture. Mummification is a technique for preserving the human body after a person has died.

There are many ways to preserve a body after death. In the twentieth century, there have been various forms of embalming — such as Lenin in Russia or Evita Perón in Argentina — and also freezing, such as that applied to legendary American baseball player Ted Williams. The Egyptian form of mummification, however, is far older and considerably simpler than these modern technological solutions.

Egyptian mummification was practiced by the priests of ancient Egypt and was, in its earliest days, reserved only for the Pharaoh or for members of the Pharaoh's inner circle, including pets and symbolic animals. Later — when Egypt had become a colony of the Greek and Roman empires — mummification became more widely available, offered simply as a service that could be paid for.

Historical and Religious Context

In its earliest days, Egyptian mummification was a religious ritual. We can see this most clearly in the famous Egyptian Book of the Dead, which is a set of prayers and rituals explaining what Egyptians believed would happen to the soul in the afterlife. This included a scene of judgment in which the gods weighed the heart of the dead person on a scale — if the heart weighed more than a feather, the dead person was sent for punishment. This concept is not very different from ideas of afterlife judgment found in many religions today.

In his translation of the Book of the Dead, the noted Egyptologist Sir Ernest Wallis Budge points out that Egyptian mummification is directly related to Egyptian belief in the afterlife, claiming that "the preservation of the corruptible body was in some way connected with the life in the world to come, and its preservation was necessary to ensure eternal life; otherwise…the time-honored custom of mummifying the dead would have had no meaning" (Budge lviii).

The Mummification Process

The act of mummification is fairly straightforward. Egyptian priests would take the dead body and wash it thoroughly in the Nile River. Once the body was cleaned, the priests would remove the brain through the nose. They would then make one cut on the side of the body to remove the internal organs — such as the heart — which were preserved in separate jars called canopic jars.

Finally, the body would be packed with a salt-like substance called natron. Natron is a naturally occurring compound containing a large percentage of what we call baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and a smaller percentage of table salt (sodium chloride). Both substances are effective at absorbing water — which is why sodium chloride is still used today to melt ice and snow. The baking soda in natron also "cleanses by chemically destroying fat and grease" (Lucas and Harris 281). Since the organs have already been removed, what remains is an entirely dry husk that does not decay in the way an ordinary body would.

Works Cited

Budge, E.A. Wallis. The Egyptian Book of the Dead. New York: Dover Publications, 1967. Print.

Lucas, A. and Harris, J.R. Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries. New York: Dover Publications, 1999. Print.