Shocking discovery of Egyptian mummies

A recent study by archaeologist Andrew Wade has made our understanding of ancient mummies reviewed.

Unlike the description of the famous Greek historian Herodotus, the ancient Egyptians did not seem to use cedar oil to remove the mummy's intestines. Besides, the ancient people took their hearts out from the dead.

This conclusion was made after researchers analyzed 150 mummies of the ancient world.

History of mummification need to be rewritten?

In the 5th century AD, Herodotus, the "father of history," tipped a little bit of the Egyptian mummification process. At that time, according to the study author, Andrew Wade, an archaeologist from the University of Western Ontario (London, UK), mummified is a business and all the tricks of the process are fine. " hide " very carefully.

Picture 1 of Shocking discovery of Egyptian mummies
Scan and capture images of 3D mummies.

Herodotus has described many levels of embalming: powers have an incision on their abdomen to remove all organs; with lower classes, parts attracted by cedar oil, are quite similar to pine resin.

According to Herodotus, the brain is also removed during mummification and some sources believe that the heart is left in the chest.

Stories about mummies

To find out how the gut process was conducted, Wade and his colleague Andrew Nelson explored the material and found details of more than 150 ancient mummies in thousands of years of ancient Egypt. In addition, they also conducted CT scans and 3D screen scans 7 of these mummies.

They found that even if they were rich or poor, they had an incision on the bodies of the mummies, but the process of embalming the rich people could sometimes take place through the anus. And there is little evidence that cedar oil has been used during mummification.

Only ¼ of the mummies are left in the heart. The removal of the heart may take place at a time when the middle class also begins to mummify. And retaining the heart can be the difference between the ruling class and the people.

Picture 2 of Shocking discovery of Egyptian mummies
Ancient Egyptians did not use cedar oil
leave the intestines and leave the heart in the mummy chest.

Contrary to Herodotus' description that the mummy's brain is removed, Wade and his colleagues discover that one-fifth of the mummies still have brains in the skull. As for the remaining mummies, the brain is removed through the nose.

After gutting, the body is immersed in a disinfecting solution such as palm wine. They are also wrapped in natron bags, usually salt, and left to dry after several days, then wrapped in linen or sheaths, sometimes marinated with flavorings.