Mummification Fact Sheet

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
An amulet was placed with the
the body was covered with
mummy for luck.
salts and left to dry for up
to 40 days.
When the body was dry if
These are the canopic jars
was stuffed with linen and
that contained the liver,
other things to help it keep
stomach, intestines and lungs
it’s shape. Then it was oiled
of the dead person. The heart
and bound tightly with linen
was not removed. Each jar
bandages.
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
Tutankhamen's death mask
later on. A pharaoh’s mask would have
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been made from gold and jewels.