Information About Mummies

By Madison, Nilson, Katherine, and Daniel

    We had tons of fun making our mummies.  First one person in the group had to lay down on a large piece of yellow paper.  Then we had to trace his figure.  Next we had to cut out two outlines of his body for the front and back of the mummy.  Then came the hard part.  We had to do a lot of research on mummies.  We had to find out what they were , how they were made, and how they were decorated.

Here is what we learned through research.

Many years ago in Ancient Egypt many rich people were mummified.  A mummy is the body of a person or animal that has been preserved so that it does not rot or decay  after death. Egyptians were mummified because they believed in that they would need their bodies in the after life or the time after they died. They believed their ka or soul would need to return to their body to eat.   It took a very long time to preserve the bodies.  Here are the steps on how mummies were made.

1.  The body was washed and purified inside and out.

2 The organs were removed from the body except for the heart.  The heart was left in the body because the Egyptians it was the center of intelligence and wisdom and emotion.

3.  The other organs were placed in canopic jars and either replaced in the body or left in the tomb.

4.  The body was stuffed.

5.  The body was then covered with a substance called natron  which was mostly sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate a type of salt.

6. After 70 days the stuffing was removed and  replaced with linen.

7.  The body was then wrapped in strips of linen and covered with a shroud.

8.  The body was then placed in a coffin called a sarcophagus.