The ancient Egyptians had an intricate mummification process where they removed internal organs and placed them in canopic jars, covered and dried the body with salts for several weeks, then stuffed and wrapped it tightly in linen bandages. A priest wearing an Anubis mask oversaw the process and placed protective amulets in the mummy for luck in the afterlife. Wealthy Egyptians were then placed in decorated wooden or stone sarcophagi and sometimes given decorative gold masks for their spirits to recognize their mummified bodies.

1. Making a mummy was a The priest in charge wore a
complicated job! First the jackal mask and represented
dead person’s brain and the Egyptian God called
some other organs were Anubis.
removed and put in jars
called canopic jars. Then
the body was covered with An amulet was placed with the
salts and left to dry for up mummy for luck.
to 40 days.
When the body was dry if
was stuffed with linen and These are the canopic jars
other things to help it keep that contained the liver,
it’s shape. Then it was oiled stomach, intestines and lungs
and bound tightly with linen of the dead person. The heart
bandages. was not removed. Each jar
represented a god.
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Pictures used available from Miles
Kelly Clip Art, Dorling Kindersley,
and www.istockphoto.com

2. The Ancient Egyptians
also sometimes
mummified their
favourite pets.
Mummification was
expensive so it would
generally be something
that would happen when When it was ready for burial, a mummy
a nobleman or pharaoh had died. was placed in a special case, Some were
This picture shows a mummified dog simple wooden boxes but others would
and cat but a mummified crocodile was be shaped like the mummy and richly
once discovered by archaeologists! It decorated.
was over four and a half meters long! If the mummy was an important person,
like a pharaoh or nobleman, it would
then be sealed inside a stone coffin
A mask called a ’death mask’ was fitted called a sarcophagus.
over the face of a mummy. The Egyp-
tians believed that this helped the dead
person’s spirit recognise the mummy
later on. A pharaoh’s mask would have Tutankhamen's death mask
been made from gold and jewels. www.communication4all.co.uk