Ancient how-to guide reveals gruesome new details about mummification

A manual recently discovered in a 3,500-year-old medical papyrus has revealed new information about the embalming process used to prepare ancient Egyptians for the afterlife.

The Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg manual, deemed to be the oldest surviving manual on mummification yet discovered, unveiled new secret practices passed on orally from one embalmer to the other, Egyptologists believe, the University of Copenhagen said in a statement on Friday.

Until recently, only two texts on mummification had been identified.

The discovery was made by University of Copenhagen Egyptologist Sofie Schiødt, who has been studying the embalming process, which was considered a sacred art.

The medical text, which focuses primarily on herbal medicine and swellings of the skin, offers detailed descriptions of embalming techniques that had been left out of the two later manuals.

The embalming used to be performed in a purpose-built workshop erected near the grave and took place over 70 days. This time period was divided into two stages, a 35-day drying period and a 35-day wrapping period.

During the drying period, the body was treated both inside and outside with dry natron, a salt mixture from dry lake beds in ancient Egypt used for thousands of years as a cleaning product.

The natron treatment began on the fourth day of embalming after the purification of the body, the removal of the organs and the brain, and the collapsing of the eyes.

The second 35-day period was dedicated to the encasing of the deceased in bandages and aromatic substances.

The entire 70-day embalming process was divided into intervals of four days. The mummification process was completed on day 68 and the mummy was then placed in the coffin. The remaining two days were dedicated to the completion of the final ritual activities allowing the deceased to live on in the afterlife.

Read also: 2,500-year-old coffins discovered in Egypt's Saqqara

New information has emerged on the specific procedures for embalming the dead person’s face. The embalmers would coat a piece of red linen with a remedy consisting largely of plant-based aromatic substances. The linen was then applied to the dead person’s face in order to encase it in a fragrant and anti-bacterial matter, a process repeated at four-day intervals.

The Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg manual places new symbolic significance on the number four. The mummification process was divided into four intervals, with the embalmers actively working on the mummy every four days.

In between the four-day intervals, the body was covered with cloth and overlaid with straw infused with aromatics to keep away insects and scavengers.

The manuscript, called Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg because one half of the papyrus belongs to the Louvre Museum in Paris and the other half is part of the University of Copenhagen’s Papyrus Carlsberg Collection, originally belonged to two private collectors. Several sections of it are still missing.

The six-metre-long papyrus is dated to approximately 1450 BC and predates the two other examples of embalming texts by more than a thousand years. 

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