| Description |
Mummification is a practice that has spanned many cultures and almost five millenia, but its great fame was largely the result of a single culture, the ancient Egyptians. These peoples practiced mummification for over three thousand years, honing it to a fine art, and thousands of their mummies have survived to the present to reveal their insights into this unusual practice. The study of Egyptian mummies casts light on parts of the daily lives of the Nile inhabitants that would otherwise have remained unknown to modern historians and archaeologists. For example, such intimate details as the state of dental and bone health and the prevalence of certain kinds of diseases and parasites can be discerned through the investigation of the physical remains of the actual bodies, while the documents included in the burial chambers reveal social heirarchy and occupational information, among other things. What the mummies and the documents reveal most, however, are the fascinating views of both life and death held by the Egyptians. The entire purpose of mummification was to ensure a continued life after death. The belief in such an eternal existence, like the views on death in so many cultures, was rooted in religious doctrine in order to understand the entire mummification process, one must first examine this religion. The Egyptians, in death, were joining their gods, even becoming gods themselves. It was a time not for mourning the loss of a loved one, but joyous celebration of what the deceased had become death was not sad. A process that spanned over three thousand years will inevitably undergo a certain amount of change. Mummification is no exception. It began simply, slowly evolving into an intricate and very elaborate art; it did not remain simply a way of burying people. It developed into a method of worshipping the dead, as the grave goods included with and surrounding the deceased demonstrate. The engineering marvels that are the Great Pyramids, the intricacies of some ushabti figures, the detail of Egyptian paintings attest to the greatness of their civilization. The robbing of the tombs and destruction of the mummies, however, serve as poignant reminders that some problems are universal and timeless. Even the treatment that many mummies have received in the past few supposedly enlightened centuries can be deemed anything from less than ideal to outright reckless and irresponsible. Fortunately, we are learning, and the mummies are being handled much more carefully now than in previous years. |
