Mummification

Mummification in Ancient Egypt

Mummies and the process of mummification had a great impact on the amount of knowledge that Egyptians had of the body. The ancient Egyptians believed that after the end of their life on earth that there lay before them a journey to an afterlife. In order to arrive safely in the afterlife the body of the deceased had to be in a fit condition to house the soul of the person: to Egyptians the soul was not detachable from the body as is perceived by many modern religions. In order to enable this journey the Egyptians had to ensure that the bodies of the dead were treated with the utmost respect and kept as close to the original as possible. Anatomical knowledge must surely have been acquired through this process as the internal working of the body were understood to the extent that the Egyptians realised that the internal, vital, organs would rot prior to the external parts of the body. This resulted in a process being developed to preserve the body that was extraordinarily lengthy and complex.

The body HAD to be preserved to reach the afterlife. Such was the strength of this belief that much…