How to Make an Egyptian Mummy: Step Three – Drying the Body
Dr. Bob Brier and Dr. Ronn Wade were uncertain about the amount of time needed to leave the mummy covered in natron. According to Dr. Brier, a passage in the Bible alluding to the death of Jacob, father of Joseph, speaks of Jacob’s mummification taking only 40 days while he was mourned for a total 70 days. As some of the 40 days would have been taken up by the cleaning of the body, the removal of the internal organs and other rituals, Dr. Brier and Dr. Wade hypothesized that a total of 35 days coated in natron would sufficiently remove the moisture from the body. The doctors left their modern mummy beneath the natron for the allotted 35 days. Upon their removal of the natron, which had caked solid around the body, they found him looking dry and dark, just as the ancient Egyptian mummies looked, but he still retained a little moisture. Unsure of whether to continue the mummification process or return the mummy to the natron, Dr. Brier and Dr. Wade decided they would leave the mummy under the natron for a total of 70 days. The mummy became completely dehydrated in the final month beneath the natron (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpU_sbdmSvw&feature=quicklist&playnext=2&playnext_from=QL).
This complete dehydration proved to be slightly problematic for Dr. Brier and Dr. Wade. They wanted to mummify the body in the Pharaonic style with the arms crossed over the chest or abdomen. As they tried to manipulate the arms once the body was completely dry, however, they found the tissues to be too resistant and dry. The reason for limiting the amount of time the body is coated in natron to 35 days became clear. After 35 days in natron, the body is dried to the point where it will not decompose, but it is still supple enough to be manipulated into the desired mummification position. Unfortunately for the body Dr. Brier and Dr. Wade were mummifying, the body was too brittle to give him a Pharaonic mummification (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpU_sbdmSvw&feature=quicklist&playnext=2&playnext_from=QL).
While the mummification process, as was mentioned in How To Make An Egyptian Mummy: Step One, was imbued with rituals, it also quickly became a ritual in and of itself. The time frame for the mummification was carefully constructed from a religious prospective. The star Sirius was very important to the ancient Egyptians and they followed its movements in the sky very carefully (http://www.egyptartsite.com/mummy.html). Sirius was known to the ancient Egyptians as Sopdet (or Sothis to the Greco-Romans), whose consort was Sah (Orion) and whose son was Soped. These three were often equated with the familial trinity of Isis, Osiris and Horus. There is a period of 70 days when Sirius disappears beneath the horizon of the earth. The reappearance of this star for the ancient Egyptians signified the New Year and the annual flooding of the Nile would soon begin. The disappearance and reappearance of Sirius soon became equated with death and rebirth. Thus it was the mummification process took on the same time frame as the time period for which Sirius had “died” (http://www.egyptologyonline.com/astronomy.htm).
The internal organs are also removed from the natron at the same time as the desiccated body. Depending on the time period, the organs were either placed within four jars, known as Canopic jars, or bandaged and returned to the body. The four Canopic jars were protected by the four sons of Horus, Imset protected the liver, Hapy guarded the lungs, Duamutef protected the stomach and Quebehsenuef protected the intestines (http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcr06e.shtml). In later time periods, beginning with the 21st dynasty, the organs were not placed in Canopic jars, but returned to the body. This gave rise to the practice of burying dummy Canopic jars with the body to symbolically protect the organs (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/92938/canopic-jar).
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