Tate

MUMMIES! (My Egypt project) 4/30/2013 By: Tate Collier

Table of Contents Introduction……………………………2 Progress…………………………………2 Afterlife………………………………….2 History…………………………………..2 Mummy pets……………………………2 Conclusion………………………………3 Glossary………………………………….4 Bibliography…………………………….5

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MUMMIES Egyptians have been making mummies for about 30,000 years. They did this because they believed that if you were embalmed right you would go to the afterlife, but it would take a while for the process. You would have to survive the afterlife, very vile facts, and mummy pets.

The process to making mummies was very vile, putrid, and disgusting. They soaked the body in natron to dry the body out. The natron would make the body shrink. Then they would make a long cut on the left side of the body. Once he/she was cut, the slicer would run away and the others would throw rocks at him, because his bloody work insulted the gods. Then they took out organs and placed them in canopic jars, but they didn’t take the heart out. Then they wrapped the body in linen bandages. Skilled carpenters would make the tomb. People cried and wailed loudly even if they didn’t know the person.

They hired professionals that threw ashes over themselves when he was being shipped to the weighing of the heart. It all took 70 days. ? FACT BOX ?

They pull the brain through the nose!

The underworld world was a strange place. Mummies were buried in things that people believed that they’d need in the afterlife. If he was a pharaoh, clay sculptures of slaves would be put by your tomb to be slaves in the afterlife. The book of the dead gave them advice throughout the afterlife.

If they didn’t pass the weighing of the heart a monster would eat the heart. If they passed then they gave back the dead. There was also a monster that wanted to stop Egyptians from going to the afterlife.

In the afterlife there was water called “nun” which was very bad water. ? FACT BOX ?

The afterlife is also called “the land of two fields” and “the west.”

Here are some weird facts about mummies!: Osiris, the god, was the first mummy. The word “mummy” is from the Arabic word “mumiyah” which means “bitumen”. Tomb robbers would rob tombs for gold, glass, linen, frankincense, and myrrh. If a tomb robber was caught, slow death and torcher was the punishment. A mummy (known as the “screaming mummy”) was buried alive, wrapped in sheep skin, probably as a punishment. Mummies are great movie attractions! Butchers would use linen as paper to wrap meat. Some people believe that if you enter King Tut’s tomb you would be cursed! The curse is that you would die in less than one year. Some would burn a mummy’s limbs for fire wood or torches.

Animals were mummified, too. Even animals that weren’t pets were mummified. Animals were mummified the same way as people. If they died they would kill their pet even if it wasn’t ready to join them. They’d wrap food for the animal. They would make coffins for animals, too. People would use mummified cats for fertilizer in England. Ibis bulls were mummified because Egyptians believed they 2

have special powers. A bought mummy pet could be a gift for a god. Traders would sometimes sell fake pet mummies made of sticks and feathers. ? FACT BOX ?

Egyptians killed pets because they worried that it would get lonely in the afterlife.

See, mummies are very vile and disgusting. To Egyptians it was a tradition (a very vile tradition) that everyone in Egypt did. (DON’T DO THIS AT HOME, KIDS!)

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GLOSSARY -The AFTERLIFE is the existence after death.

-CANOPIC JARS were to hold the organs of a mummy.

- A COFFIN is a tomb used to hold the dead.

-FERTILIZER is a material used to grow crops.

-NATRON is a salt used to dry the body out.

-OSIRIS is the god of the dead.

-A PHAROH is a ruler of Egypt.

- A TOMB is a place to hold a dead body.

-TORCHER is a threat used as punishment

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Bibliography O'shei, T. (2004). 101 things you didn't know about mummies. New York,NY: Kids books.

Stewart, D. (2001). You wouldn't want to be an Egyptian mummy! New York,NY: Schoolastic.

Unknown Author. (1997, August 6). mummies of ancient Egypt. Retrieved march 22, 2013, from umich: www.umich.com

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