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Ancient Egyptian mummification was never intended to preserve bodies, new exhibit reveals

By Jennifer Nalewicki published 12 days ago

It's long been believed that mummification was meant to preserve the dead. It turns out that notion is dead wrong.


The mummy of a woman named Isaious, daughter of Demetrios. (Image credit: Manchester Museum)

It's long been believed that ancient Egyptians used mummification as a way to preserve a body after death. However, an upcoming museum exhibition indicates that was never the case, and instead the elaborate burial technique was actually a way to guide the deceased toward divinity.

Researchers from the University of Manchester's Manchester Museum(opens in new tab) in England are highlighting the common misconception as part of preparations for an exhibition called "Golden Mummies of Egypt" that opens early next year. This new understanding about mummification's intended purpose essentially upends much of what is taught to students about mummies.

"It's a big 180," Campbell Price, the museum's curator of Egypt and Sudan, told Live Science.

So, how exactly did this misconception flourish for so long? Price said the Western-led idea began with Victorian researchers who wrongly determined that ancient Egyptians were preserving their dead in a similar fashion as one would preserve fish. Their reasoning? Both processes contained a similar ingredient: salt.

"The idea was that you preserve fish to eat at some future time," Price said. "So, they assumed that what was being done to the human body was the same as the treatment for fish."

However, the salty substance used by ancient Egyptians differed from salt used to preserve the catch of the day. Known as natron(opens in new tab), this naturally occurring mineral (a blend of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate) was abundant around lake beds near the Nile and served as a key ingredient in mummification.

"We also know that natron was used in temple rituals [and applied to] the statues of gods," Price said. "It was used for cleansing."

Price said that another material commonly associated with mummies is incense, which also served as a gift to the gods.

"Look at frankincense and myrrh — they're in the Christian story of Jesus and were gifts from the three wise men," Price said. "In ancient Egyptian history, we've found that they were also appropriate gifts for a god."


The coffin of Tasheriankh, a 20-year-old woman from the city of Akhmim who died around 300 B.C. (Image credit: Manchester Museum)

He added, "Even the word for incense in ancient Egyptian was 'senetjer(opens in new tab)' and literally means 'to make divine.' When you're burning incense in a temple, that's appropriate because that's the house of a god and makes the space divine. But then when you're using incense resins on the body, you're making the body divine and into a godly being. You're not necessarily preserving it."

Like Egyptians, Victorian Egyptologists also believed that the deceased would need their bodies in the afterlife, which added more credence to the misunderstanding of mummification.

"It didn't help that there was a biomedical obsession that was born from Victorian ideas about needing your body complete in the afterlife," Price said. "This included removing the internal organs. I think that actually has a somewhat deeper meaning…and is basically about turning the body into a divine statue because the dead person has been transformed."

Archaeologists often find mummies placed with a sarcophagus that shows the likeness of the deceased.

"In English, a mask is something that obscures your identification; a portrait reveals identity," Price said. "Those objects, panels and masks give an idealized image to the divine form."

As part of the exhibition, the museum will display a number of burial masks, panel portraits and sarcophagi associated with ancient Egyptian burials, offering further proof of the original intentions of mummification.

"Golden Mummies of Egypt" will be on display at the Manchester Museum beginning Feb. 18, 2023. The museum has also published a book(opens in new tab) with the same title written by Price to accompany the upcoming exhibition.

Jennifer Nalewicki Live Science contributor

Jennifer Nalewicki is a Salt Lake City-based journalist whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, Popular Mechanics and more. She covers several science topics from planet Earth to paleontology and archaeology to health and culture. Prior to freelancing, Jennifer was a reporter at Interior Design Magazine, and before that she held an Editor role at Time Inc. Jennifer has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin.

Real science evolves with new information and understanding.

If you're ever in Atlanta, make it a point to go to the Michael C Carlos Museum.
It's absolutely worth the $6 admission.

I'm not entirely convinced this is a "180" or "essentially upends" our prior theories about this. I think it can be both. If there was absolutely no importance to keeping the body intact and preserved, they might have simply just done all these things to "make them holy" and then burn them. Besides, the working theory has always been that they somehow observed that bodies dried out in the desert and were preserved. I see now reason why it has to be one or the other and cannot be both things.

SC, excellent post man! I have good friends not too far away from Atlanta.

We’re planning a trip to see them next year. Now I gotta figure out how to fit in a trip to the Michael C Carlos Museum.

Hey lemme know when and I’ll meet y’all there!
Maybe Marzy will come too!

It doesn't surprise me at all here that this is what they are finding.

Look at the Bible; it's got probably hundreds of references of anointing people with oil and other substances to mark them as holy.

Just two I can think of right off the top of my head:

quote:

1 Samuel 16: 8-13

Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”

Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”

13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

quote:

John 12:1-7

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.[b]” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you,[c] but you will not always have me.”