How Embalmers Prepared the Body for Mummification

The embalmers of ancient Egypt were highly trained craftsmen whose work was at once a technical procedure and a religious ritual. The seventy-day mummification process was performed in a workshop called the wabet, literally “the pure place,” and it required the coordinated labor of multiple specialists, the supervision of priests, and a substantial investment of materials. The result was a body that could be preserved for millennia and that would serve as the eternal dwelling of the soul.

The work of the embalmers is described in unusual detail by the Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the fifth century BCE. His account, written from the perspective of an outsider, is complemented by archaeological evidence, by Egyptian texts, and by the mummies themselves. Together, these sources give us a clear picture of how the Egyptians prepared the body for mummification.

The Embalmers and Their Workshop

The embalmers were organized into guilds, often hereditary, with a strict internal hierarchy. At the top was the hery sheseta, “the one in charge of the mysteries,” who was both a master craftsman and a priest. Below him were senior embalmers, who performed the more delicate operations, and junior embalmers, who did the routine work of washing, packing, and wrapping. The guild was protected by law and supported by the temple and the state.

The workshop was typically a rectangular structure with a stone floor slanted toward a drain. The walls were often decorated with scenes of the embalming ritual, and the air was heavy with the smell of natron, resin, and incense. The body was placed in a wooden or stone table, and the embalmers worked with knives of stone, copper, or (by the New Kingdom) bronze.

The workshop was attached to a mortuary complex, often near the temple of a local god. The mummification process was, in part, a religious ritual, and it required the participation of priests who recited the appropriate spells at each stage. The most important priest was the “lector,” who read from the rolls of funerary literature and who invoked the protection of the gods for the deceased.

Stage One: Purification and Washing

The first stage of the process was the purification of the body. The deceased was brought to the workshop, often in a coffin or on a stretcher, and was washed in a solution of natron and water. The body was also ritually purified with incense and with the recitation of spells.

The washing had both a practical and a religious function. Practically, it removed the impurities that the body had gathered in the days since death. Religiously, it prepared the deceased for the ceremonies ahead. The Egyptians believed that the body had to be clean before it could be presented to the gods, and the washing was the first of many acts of purification.

Stage Two: Evisceration

After washing, the embalmers began the work of evisceration, the removal of the internal organs. The procedure was carried out with great care, since the body had to be opened as little as possible and the incisions had to be hidden from view.

The brain was removed first. A long, hooked instrument was inserted through the nostril and up into the cranial cavity. The brain was liquefied by the action of the instrument and was drained out through the nose. In some cases, the embalmers were unable to remove the brain completely, and a residue was left in the skull. In the most elaborate mummies, the cranial cavity was washed out with palm wine and fragrant oils, and the skull was packed with linen soaked in resin.

The abdominal organs were removed through an incision in the left flank. The incision was usually about 10 to 15 centimeters long and was made with a single sharp cut. The embalmers then reached into the cavity and removed the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines. The kidneys were sometimes removed and sometimes left in place. The heart was almost always left in the body, since it was the seat of intellect and moral character and was required for the weighing of the heart.

The removed organs were washed, packed with natron, and stored in canopic jars, each protected by one of the Four Sons of Horus. The incision in the flank was later covered with a plate of wax or metal, or with a small piece of linen, to seal the body and to restore its external appearance.

Stage Three: Desiccation

The body, now emptied of its organs, was packed and covered with natron, a naturally occurring salt mixture harvested from the Wadi Natrun and other desert sites. The natron was both a desiccant and a mild antiseptic, and it absorbed the water from the body without dissolving the tissue.

The body was placed on a bed of natron, covered with more natron, and left for forty days. The exact composition of the natron is not certain, but modern analysis suggests that it was a mixture of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate. The proportions varied, but the effect was to dry the body thoroughly while leaving the skin and bones intact.

After forty days, the body was removed from the natron, washed, and inspected. The embalmers checked the condition of the skin, the eyes, the nose, and the limbs. In some cases, the desiccation had produced cracks or distortions that had to be repaired. The embalmers used a variety of techniques (packing the cheeks with linen, inserting linen pads under the skin, filling the eye sockets with small pieces of stone or wax) to give the body a more lifelike appearance.

Stage Four: Anointing and Packing

The desiccated body was then anointed with a mixture of oils and resins. The most common resins were myrrh, frankincense, and pine resin, often mixed with a wax-like substance that may have been a form of bitumen. Modern chemical analysis has identified a wide range of substances in mummification materials, including honey, wax, cedar oil, and various gums.

The anointing served several purposes. It softened the desiccated tissue, making the body more lifelike. It inhibited bacterial growth, slowing further decay. And it identified the deceased with the gods, who were themselves described as being anointed with the sweet-smelling resin of Punt. The body was also rubbed with a variety of unguents, including those made from lotus, lily, and water lily.

After anointing, the body was packed with materials designed to restore its original shape. The cheeks were padded with linen or sawdust. The eye sockets were filled with small onions or pieces of wax. The nasal cavity was sometimes packed with linen. The skull, which had been emptied of the brain, was often packed with resin-soaked linen. The aim was not to disguise the body’s state but to make it as complete as possible.

Stage Five: Wrapping

The final stage of the embalmers’ work was the wrapping. The body was wrapped in linen, in a complex procedure that could include dozens of meters of cloth and hundreds of individual bandages. The linen was often taken from old household textiles or from specially produced bolts, and it was sometimes inscribed with spells from the Book of the Dead before use.

The wrapping proceeded from the extremities inward. The fingers and toes were wrapped first, each separately. The hands and arms were wrapped next, then the legs, then the torso. The head was wrapped last, often with a special pattern that allowed the face to be shown through the wrappings. Amulets were placed between the layers, at the points they were meant to protect: a djed at the spine, a tyet at the throat, a scarab at the heart.

The most elaborate mummies (those of the New Kingdom pharaohs and high officials) were wrapped in layers upon layers of linen, with the outer layers often forming intricate patterns. The wrappings were sealed with resin or with a thin layer of plaster, and the entire bundle was painted with scenes from the funerary literature or with the figure of the deceased in the presence of the gods.

The Ritual Context

The technical work of the embalmers was accompanied throughout by ritual recitations. The “lector” priest read from the rolls of funerary literature, and the embalmers spoke the names of the gods and recited the spells appropriate to the work at hand. The spells identified each stage of the process with a divine act: the washing with the purification of the gods, the anointing with the unguent of Hathor, the wrapping with the bandages of Anubis.

This ritual context is essential. The embalmers were not just preserving a body; they were performing a sacred act on behalf of the deceased, transforming a corpse into an eternal dwelling for the soul. The spells and gestures they used were the same ones used in the temple rituals, and the workshop was in effect an extension of the temple.

The Embalmers’ Reuse of Materials

Modern analysis of mummies has revealed that the embalmers were often pragmatic about the materials they used. Linen from old household textiles was a common source of wrapping, and the embalmers were not above reusing linen that had been used for other purposes. The resins, oils, and natron they used were also subject to availability, and the embalmers would use whatever was at hand.

This pragmatism did not diminish the ritual significance of the work. The Egyptians believed that the materials were sanctified by the use to which they were put, and the embalmers’ reuse of old linen did not affect the spiritual efficacy of the wrapping. The important thing was the act, not the substance.

Differences by Social Class

The standard account of the mummification process applies to the most elaborate burials, those of the New Kingdom pharaohs and high officials. Most Egyptians were buried with a simpler version of the process. The poor were sometimes buried without any mummification at all, in a simple wrapped bundle in a shallow pit.

Three packages of mummification are sometimes distinguished, based on Herodotus’s account and on archaeological evidence. The first package was the most elaborate, with full evisceration, desiccation with natron, anointing, and careful wrapping. The second was simpler, with the body injected with cedar oil and dissolved in natron. The third was the simplest, with the body simply washed and wrapped. Each package was priced accordingly, and the Egyptians could choose the level of preservation they could afford.

The Embalmers in the Modern Imagination

The image of the Egyptian embalmer, masked, silent, working by torchlight on a royal mummy, is a modern invention. The actual embalmers worked in well-lit workshops, with families and colleagues nearby, and they were respected members of the community. Their work was neither secret nor sinister. It was a public service, performed for the benefit of the deceased and the family, and it was central to the religious life of the community.

The embalmers’ legacy is the thousands of mummies that have survived from ancient Egypt. They are a unique record of a civilization that took the preservation of the body as seriously as the preservation of the soul, and they are the basis of much of what we know about ancient Egyptian health, diet, and demography.