The ancient Egyptians firmly believed in the afterlife and spent their time on earth preparing for it. Elaborate burial rituals included preparing the burial site, providing for all of the deceased’s material needs (food, clothing, jewels, and tools of their trade), and preserving the corpse so that it would not decay. This preservation was accomplished through a process of mummification. The ancients left no written accounts as to examine mummies and establish their own theories. The embalming process might have taken up to seventy days for the pharaohs and nobility and only a few days for the poor.
The embalmers spread a variety of compounds of salt, spices, and resins in and over the corpse to preserve it. They followed this with a prescribed wrapping, a procedure in which they wound strips if fine linen around, over and under the body while placing various amulets within the wrappings to protect the deceased from harm on the long journey to the afterlife. They also painted resins over the wrapped linen. Finally, a pharaoh or noble would have been encased in wooden box before being placed in a sarcophagus.
How have been able to learn about the mummification process?