martes, 1 de octubre de 2013

Natrón

Metm Museum. saquito de natrón de la tumba de Tutankhamon
El cadáver momificado puede conservarse cientos de años, si el proceso de momifcación ha sido el adecuado y siempre que las condiciones de conservación de la momia son también buenos.   En el Egipto antiguo se utilizaba el natrón como elemento principal para la conservacón del cadáver.
                Vamos a hablar ahora de los distintos materiales que eran utilizados en el proceso de momificación y preparación de cadáveres.Comenzamos con el natrón (hesmen) , el significado de este término es "sal divina".Este material se obtenia libremente y como es normal, su ciomposición variaba según la zona donde era recogido.Su color es blanco, grisaceo o puede aparecer también incoloro y esta formado por pequeños cristales.Sus componentes son el ClNa (cloruro sódico), el sulfato de sodio (Na2SO4), el carbonato sodco (Na2C03) y el bicarbonato sodico (NaHC03).
                Se utilizaban grandes cantidades de natrón para la momificación sobre todo, aunque también era utilizado para la conservación de alimentos , en medicina y también se utilizaba para la purificación.El natrón se depositaba como mezcla de evaporizas en las áreas, por ejemplo en la zona de los lagos salados en Uadi El Natrum . Después de desecarse la zona quedaron grandes cantidades de natrón. Dependiendo de la cantidad de carbonato sódico que contenga, es más o menos alcalino.
A la sal común, ClNa se le daba el nombre de sal del Bajo Egipto.En ese área la obtenian después de haberse producido la evaporación del agua del mar.Por su poder osmótico se usaba como desecante y en medicina aparece en varias recetas.Fue utilizada sobre todo en la momificación en época cristiana
Wrapped natron salt offering (Second Intermediate Period) in the shape of a mummy (containing no actual human remains) on display at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. RC 1109

miércoles, 14 de agosto de 2013

An ancient Egyptian murder mystery

A scan of an ancient Egyptian child's mummified body has revealed what could be the terrible secret of a murder committed more than 2,000 years ago.
Scientists were intrigued to discover a spear-like object within the upper spine and skull of the mummy, but are unsure whether the implement killed the child, or if it is simply an example of improvised embalming.
"It was certainly a 'wow' moment," said Ellen James, spokesman for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. "But it's not known if the embalmers did that to keep the head steady in the sarcophagus."
The CAT scan performed at the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh also revealed that the child lived at some point between 380 BC and 250 BC and was probably between three and five years old, which is younger than previously thought.
Scans are increasingly popular as a non-intrusive method of gathering information about mummies. "There were no complaints from the patient either," said Miss James.
An earlier scan had showed that the child had an unusually large head. The follow-up, carried out with more up-to-date equipment, was hoping to explain the malformation, but researchers have still not discovered its cause and also remain unable to confirm the sex of the deceased youngster.
However, such good images of bone structure have been obtained that they hope to eventually a put a facial reconstruction of the child on display at the museum.
In 2005 a CAT scan on Tutankhamun dampened decades of speculation that the ancient king had been killed by foul play. Instead, the likeliest explanation for the suspicious hole in the back of his head is that it was drilled by embalmers.
The Pittsburgh mummy, which has been on display since 1989, dates back to the Ptolemaic dynasty, whose most famous member was Cleopatra. In the Victorian era mummies were so common that aristocrats were said to have unwrapped them for parlour entertainment, while novelty teas were made from the wrappings.
North American museums were also heavily involved in the rush for mummies which were continually being unearthed during the period. The remains of what may be Rameses I ended up in a "daredevil museum" near Niagara Falls, after having being bought, possibly from grave robbers, in 1860.
A museum in Atlanta later determined the body to have been royal and returned it to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities



A scan of an ancient Egyptian child's mummified body has revealed what could be the terrible secret of a murder committed more than 2,000 years ago.
Scientists were intrigued to discover a spear-like object within the upper spine and skull of the mummy, but are unsure whether the implement killed the child, or if it is simply an example of improvised embalming.
"It was certainly a 'wow' moment," said Ellen James, spokesman for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. "But it's not known if the embalmers did that to keep the head steady in the sarcophagus."
The CAT scan performed at the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh also revealed that the child lived at some point between 380 BC and 250 BC and was probably between three and five years old, which is younger than previously thought.
Scans are increasingly popular as a non-intrusive method of gathering information about mummies. "There were no complaints from the patient either," said Miss James.
An earlier scan had showed that the child had an unusually large head. The follow-up, carried out with more up-to-date equipment, was hoping to explain the malformation, but researchers have still not discovered its cause and also remain unable to confirm the sex of the deceased youngster.
However, such good images of bone structure have been obtained that they hope to eventually a put a facial reconstruction of the child on display at the museum.
In 2005 a CAT scan on Tutankhamun dampened decades of speculation that the ancient king had been killed by foul play. Instead, the likeliest explanation for the suspicious hole in the back of his head is that it was drilled by embalmers.
The Pittsburgh mummy, which has been on display since 1989, dates back to the Ptolemaic dynasty, whose most famous member was Cleopatra. In the Victorian era mummies were so common that aristocrats were said to have unwrapped them for parlour entertainment, while novelty teas were made from the wrappings.
North American museums were also heavily involved in the rush for mummies which were continually being unearthed during the period. The remains of what may be Rameses I ended up in a "daredevil museum" near Niagara Falls, after having being bought, possibly from grave robbers, in 1860.
A museum in Atlanta later determined the body to have been royal and returned it to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities

viernes, 14 de junio de 2013

esquistosomiasis (bilhariazis)

  esquistosomiasis (bilhariazis).  Esta enfermedad es actualmente uno de los principales padecimientos crónicos de salud en Egipto, eunque va disminuyendo poco a poco.

Según datos de la OMS, el 12 por ciento de personas estaban infectadas en el año 1993.

Hay 3 clases del vermes platelminto esuistosoma. En Egipto el que afecta es el S. mansoni y el S. haematobium. Descritos por Bilharz en el año 1852, por eso se les llama bilarzios a los gusanos.

Se da un complejo ciclo vital alternado entre dos huéspedes , los seres humanos y los caracoles de agua dulce.

La cercariae penetra por la piel y llega a las venas del huésped humano. El macho adulto mide casi 1 cm de largo y la hembra el doble de tamaño.

Uno de los síntimos principales es la hematurria, presencia de sangre en la orina.



como se contagia:

en charcos, aguas estancadas ................








Quizas por esa hematuria,, los soldados napoleónicps informaron que Egipto era la tierra de los hombres menstruantes.
Se puede tener anemia grave que produce gran laxitud, falta de apetito, infección urinaria y pérdida de resistencia a otras enfermedades. Tambien puede producirse inferencia con las funciones del hígado.

La infección se adquiere al sumergirse en aguas que contengan cercariae,

La forma del gusano que es soltada por el caracol y que es capaz de nadar libremente en el agua. La cercarie penetra en la piel y llega hasta las venas del huésped humano. No resulta fácil verlos, sobre todo en la antigüedad.

Los vermes adultos e cree que se aparean en la vena porta, que es la que va de los intestinos al hígado, y después emigra a las venas de la vejiga y del recto, donde los huevecillos son depositados después y llegan a la orina.

Se auto eliminan huevecillos los cuales vuelven al agua y hacen eclosión, v

Salen nadando y buscando el huésped intermediario… para formar un nuevo ciclo.

unas observaciones sobre la bilarciosis o bilhariazis:


Epidemiología. Son propias de países templados, cuya extensión geográfica es muy amplia, y afecta a grandes masas de población, siendo, después de la malaria y el paludismo, la segunda enfermedad que causa de morbilidad grave y mortalidad, en el ámbito mundial, con más de 200 millones de casos al año. En la actualidad las bilarziasis se incrementan y expanden debido a las obras de control de las aguas con embalses, lugares que constituyen el área de reproducción de los caracoles hospedadores intermediarios. Así pasó con la construcción de la presa de Assuán, en Egipto donde, antiguamente, las periódicas crecidas y sequías del Nilo mataban muchos caracoles y con la construcción de la presa aumentaron las poblaciones de caracoles parásitos intermediarios, y paralelamente, la incidencia de estas enfermedades en la población humana vecina.

Ciclo Biológico. Los huevos puestos por las hembras adultas (pocos huevos en muchas puestas) salen con la orina y las heces, para lo cual la hembra debe de perforar los tejidos. Llegan al agua donde surge una larva miracidio que busca y penetra en el caracol adecuado, ( de las familias Physidae, Planorbidae, e Hydrobiidae, respectivamente según las especies). Allí se transforma en un esporocisto con grandes masas de células germinales, que origina otra generación de esporocistos hijos, y posteriormente se forman cercarias (no existen redias), que salen de caracol atravesando el tegumento del molusco y viven libres en el agua buscando activamente a su hospedador definitivo, que es el hombre y otros mamíferos, atraídos por la agitación del agua y reflejos quimiotácticos. De un solo miracidio podrían originarse unas 10.000 cercarias en un plazo e 2 a 12 semanas, dependiendo de la temperatura del agua. Las cercarias penetran activamente ya que con sus glándulas cefálicas perforan la piel desnuda del hospedador y el tejido subcutáneo, y perdiendo la cola pasan al torrente circulatorio, donde, a través del corazón llegan a los pulmones. Allí permanecen unos 15 días, después pasan al sistema porta- hepático donde alcanzan la madurez sexual y se reproducen.

Fuente de este post:
www.uniovi.es/bos/Asignaturas/Zoologia/Parasitos%20Humanos%202004
 





huevo


Schistosoma mansoni
 

fuente fotos : wiki


Características de protozoarios y helmintos capaces de causar diarrea aguda en humanos

pdf

http://www.ejournal.unam.mx/rfm/no45-2/RFM45205.pdf
 zoología aplicada: la vida parasitária: àrásitos humanos
y la autora es Ana Quero
pdf

Estudio de un caso de parasitosis vesical
schistosoma Haematobium

http://www.soveuro.org.ve/svunuevo2/articulos/Vol%2036%20ene%20dic84/cap4.pdf
 Rastreando en momias egipcias la historia de la esquistosomiasis


Las pistas obtenidas en momias procedentes de diversos puntos a orillas del Nilo muestran que las técnicas de riego del Antiguo Egipto pudieron impulsar la propagación de la esquistosomiasis, una enfermedad parasitaria transmitida por el agua y que en la actualidad sufren alrededor de 200 millones de personas.

El equipo de la antropóloga Amber Campbell Hibbs (Universidad Emory, Estados Unidos) ha realizado un análisis de las momias de Nubia, un antiguo reino que floreció en lo que hoy es Sudán.

Los resultados del análisis aportan, por vez primera, detalles clave acerca de la incidencia de la enfermedad en diversas poblaciones de la antigüedad. Los datos proporcionados por el análisis también muestran que la alteración humana del medio ambiente en esa época pudo contribuir a la propagación de la enfermedad.

Alrededor del 25 por ciento de los individuos momificados examinados en el estudio, y que datan de hace unos 1.500 años, estaban infectados en vida por el Schistosoma mansoni, una especie portadora de esquistosomiasis, asociada con ciertas técnicas de irrigación.

La esquistosomiasis es causada por gusanos parásitos que viven en ciertos tipos de caracoles de agua dulce. El parásito puede salir de los caracoles para contaminar el agua, y luego infectar a los seres humanos cuya piel entre en contacto con ella.


para seguir leyendo el artículo:



ttp://noticiasdelaciencia.com/not/1593/rastreando_en_momias_egipcias_la_historia_de_la_esquistosomiasis/




pdf

Hematuria por esquistosomiasis
http://www.semes.org/revista/vol16_4/162.pdf
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0AXtyy8M_-I
 Cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni. Indirect fluorescent antibody stain. Parasite



 la primera prueba arqueológica de la existencia de la esquistosomiasis en el antiguo egipto fue el descubrimiento de huevecillos calcificados ,que hizo Ruffer y que fue confirmado en fecha mas reciente por Millet en 1980 en una momia disecada y no embalsamada encontrada en Nakht y que data del Imperio nuevo

miércoles, 17 de abril de 2013

Scans reveal detailed clues to mummy’s past




By Lori Kurtzman
The Columbus Dispatch
Mention that you’ve scanned an Egyptian mummy, and it seems the International Skeleton Society gets a little excited. Dr. Joseph Yu found his presentation quickly accepted to the society’s fall meeting in Philadelphia, and he’s willing to bet his salary that his will be among the most-popular talks.

That’s the thing about mummies.

“They’re interesting. Everybody loves them,” said Yu, a professor of musculoskeletal radiology at Ohio State University. “They’re so full of information.”

Yu leapt when the Ohio Historical Society contacted the university to see whether someone would scan its museum’s mummy. The ancient woman, believed to be at least 2,500 years old, had been X-rayed in 1930 and 1984, but no one could find the film from those scans.

Now, Yu had access to what he called the “Lamborghini of scanners,” which could evaluate the mummy down to the millimeter, creating three-dimensional images of the woman masked for centuries by bandages. A nice change of pace from the usual patients who undergo CT scans.

“I thought it would be a tremendous opportunity to spread our wings (and look at) something that’s not necessarily life-threatening,” he said.

In June, technicians spent nearly two hours scanning the mummy at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center. They winnowed down 100,000 images to about 8,400 images that they pored over for months. Yu said it’s like watching a movie again and again — something previously unnoticed pops up each time. “There’s nothing like a mummy to make normal anatomy really fun again,” he said.

Researchers have employed CT scanners to uncover secrets of both the past and the present. A few years ago, they used scans and DNA testing to determine that Egypt’s famed King Tutankhamun likely walked with a cane, had a cleft palate and died after he broke his leg and contracted malaria.

And last month, scholars who studied 137 mummy scans presented findings at an American College of Cardiology meeting that showed that hardening of the arteries was common, especially among older individuals. The suggestion: Heart disease might have more to do with aging than with poor diet. Mummies didn’t exactly have access to Big Macs.

“We’re studying the many ways that humans have been in the past and may choose to be in the future,” said Andrew Wade, an anthropologist at the University of Western Ontario.

“We get to learn about ancient health and the history of medicine and disease ... (and) what it is to be human.”

Wade is so intrigued by the study of mummies that he has been working for the past five years to build a worldwide database of their scans, beginning with Egyptian mummies. There are thousands of such mummies in known collections and likely a great deal more in private collections, not to mention inside Egypt itself, Wade said.

Most haven’t been scanned. So far, the database, set to launch this year, has 100 human mummy scans with the promise of 100 more.

At Ohio State, the unusual scans are still a novelty. On a recent day, a doctor poked his head into a room where lead 3-D technologist Darlene Meeks had scans pulled up on three computer screens. One showed a body swathed in cloth, another a close-up of the skull with a hollow pathway where the brain had been pulled from the head.

“Oh,” the doctor said, “are you doing the mummy?”

Yu said enthusiasm for the project continues to escalate, especially as researchers learn more about their subject.He watched as Meeks ran a short animated video in which the viewer goes deep into the mummy’s nose to the back of the skull. Another click, and she was flying through the tunnel created by the mummy’s clenched left hand.

She clicked on scans of the mummy’s mouth: “This is an amazing set of teeth,” Yu said. And her back: “Beautiful-looking spine.”

This woman is 2,500 years old, maybe older, and yet she’s easily recognizable. Her anatomy is the same as ours, Yu said. But she comes with both a mystery — museum curators don’t know who she is — and a story, told through the bones and tissue she left behind.

“Most people, when they think about mummies, they think about the scary part from science fiction” movies, Yu said. “But they all once upon a time were living beings ... they give us a very informative, retrospective view of what the past was.”


Joseph Yu will speak about the mummy findings at 2 p.m. on April 26 at the Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave.

lkurtzman@dispatch.com
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2013/04/14/1-scans-reveal-detailed-clues-to-mummys-past.html

By Lori Kurtzman
The Columbus Dispatch
Mention that you’ve scanned an Egyptian mummy, and it seems the International Skeleton Society gets a little excited. Dr. Joseph Yu found his presentation quickly accepted to the society’s fall meeting in Philadelphia, and he’s willing to bet his salary that his will be among the most-popular talks.

That’s the thing about mummies.

“They’re interesting. Everybody loves them,” said Yu, a professor of musculoskeletal radiology at Ohio State University. “They’re so full of information.”

Yu leapt when the Ohio Historical Society contacted the university to see whether someone would scan its museum’s mummy. The ancient woman, believed to be at least 2,500 years old, had been X-rayed in 1930 and 1984, but no one could find the film from those scans.

Now, Yu had access to what he called the “Lamborghini of scanners,” which could evaluate the mummy down to the millimeter, creating three-dimensional images of the woman masked for centuries by bandages. A nice change of pace from the usual patients who undergo CT scans.

“I thought it would be a tremendous opportunity to spread our wings (and look at) something that’s not necessarily life-threatening,” he said.

In June, technicians spent nearly two hours scanning the mummy at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center. They winnowed down 100,000 images to about 8,400 images that they pored over for months. Yu said it’s like watching a movie again and again — something previously unnoticed pops up each time. “There’s nothing like a mummy to make normal anatomy really fun again,” he said.

Researchers have employed CT scanners to uncover secrets of both the past and the present. A few years ago, they used scans and DNA testing to determine that Egypt’s famed King Tutankhamun likely walked with a cane, had a cleft palate and died after he broke his leg and contracted malaria.

And last month, scholars who studied 137 mummy scans presented findings at an American College of Cardiology meeting that showed that hardening of the arteries was common, especially among older individuals. The suggestion: Heart disease might have more to do with aging than with poor diet. Mummies didn’t exactly have access to Big Macs.

“We’re studying the many ways that humans have been in the past and may choose to be in the future,” said Andrew Wade, an anthropologist at the University of Western Ontario.

“We get to learn about ancient health and the history of medicine and disease ... (and) what it is to be human.”

Wade is so intrigued by the study of mummies that he has been working for the past five years to build a worldwide database of their scans, beginning with Egyptian mummies. There are thousands of such mummies in known collections and likely a great deal more in private collections, not to mention inside Egypt itself, Wade said.

Most haven’t been scanned. So far, the database, set to launch this year, has 100 human mummy scans with the promise of 100 more.

At Ohio State, the unusual scans are still a novelty. On a recent day, a doctor poked his head into a room where lead 3-D technologist Darlene Meeks had scans pulled up on three computer screens. One showed a body swathed in cloth, another a close-up of the skull with a hollow pathway where the brain had been pulled from the head.

“Oh,” the doctor said, “are you doing the mummy?”

Yu said enthusiasm for the project continues to escalate, especially as researchers learn more about their subject.He watched as Meeks ran a short animated video in which the viewer goes deep into the mummy’s nose to the back of the skull. Another click, and she was flying through the tunnel created by the mummy’s clenched left hand.

She clicked on scans of the mummy’s mouth: “This is an amazing set of teeth,” Yu said. And her back: “Beautiful-looking spine.”

This woman is 2,500 years old, maybe older, and yet she’s easily recognizable. Her anatomy is the same as ours, Yu said. But she comes with both a mystery — museum curators don’t know who she is — and a story, told through the bones and tissue she left behind.

“Most people, when they think about mummies, they think about the scary part from science fiction” movies, Yu said. “But they all once upon a time were living beings ... they give us a very informative, retrospective view of what the past was.”


Joseph Yu will speak about the mummy findings at 2 p.m. on April 26 at the Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave.

lkurtzman@dispatch.com




viernes, 5 de abril de 2013

el embalsamamiento según Heródoto

 Allí tienen oficiales especialmente destinados a ejercer el arte de embalsamar, los cuales, apenas es llevado a su casa algún cadáver, presentan desde luego a los conductores unas figuras de madera, modelos de su arte, las cuales con sus colores remedan al vivo un cadáver embalsamado. La más primorosa de estas figuras, dicen ellos mismos, es la de un sujeto cuyo nombre no me atrevo ni juzgo lícito publicar. Enseñan después otra figura inferior en mérito y menos costosa, y por fin otra tercera más barata y ordinaria, preguntando de qué modo y conforme a qué modelo desean se les adobe el muerto; y después de entrar en ajuste y cerrado el contrato, se retiran los conductores. Entonces, quedando a solas los artesanos en su oficina, ejecutan en esta forma el adobo de primera clase. Empiezan metiendo por las narices del difunto unos hierros encorvados, y después de sacarle con ellos los sesos, introducen allá sus drogas e ingredientes. Abiertos después los ijares con piedra de Etiopía aguda y cortante, sacan por ellos los intestinos, y purgado el vientre, lo lavan con vino de palma y después con aromas molidos, llenándolo luego de finísima mirra, de casia, y de variedad de aromas, de los cuales exceptúan el incienso, y cosen últimamente la abertura. Después de estos preparativos adoban secretamente el cadáver con nitro durante setenta días, único plazo que se concede para guardarle oculto, luego se le faja, bien lavado, con ciertas vendas cortadas de una pieza de finísimo lino, untándole al mismo tiempo con aquella goma de que se sirven comúnmente los egipcios en vez de cola. Vuelven entonces los parientes por el muerto, toman su momia, y la encierran en un nicho o caja de madera, cuya parte exterior tiene la forma y apariencia de un cuerpo humano, y así guardada la depositan en un aposentillo, colocándola en pie y arrimada a la pared. He aquí el modo más exquisito de embalsamar los muertos. LXXXVII. Otra es la forma con que preparan el cadáver los que, contentos con la medianía, no gustan de tanto lujo y primor en este punto. Sin abrirle las entrañas ni extraerle los intestinos, por medio de unos clísteres llenos de aceite de cedro, se lo introducen por el orificio, hasta llenar el vientre con este licor, cuidando que no se derrame después y que no vuelva a salir. Adóbanle durante los días acostumbrados, y en el último sacan del vientre el aceite antes introducido, cuya fuerza es tanta, que arrastra consigo en su salida tripas, intestinos y entrañas ya líquidas y derretidas. Consumida al mismo tiempo la carne por el nitro de afuera, sólo resta del cadáver la piel y los huesos; y sin cuidarse de más, se restituye la momia a los parientes. LXXXVIII. El tercer método de adobo, de que suelen echar mano los que tienen menos recursos, se deduce a limpiar las tripas del muerto a fuerza de lavativas, y adobar el cadáver durante los setenta días prefijados, restituyéndole después al que lo trajo para que lo vuelva a su casa. LXXXIX. En cuanto a las matronas de los nobles del país y a las mujeres bien parecidas, se toma la precaución de no entregarlas luego de muertas para embalsamar, sino que se difiere hasta el tercero o cuarto día después de su fallecimiento. El motivo de esta dilación no es otro que el de impedir que los embalsamadores abusen criminalmente de la belleza de las difuntas, como se experimentó, a lo que dicen, en uno de esos inhumanos, que se llegó a una de las recién muertas, según se supo por la delación de un compañero de oficio.


 Historia, Libro II, Euterpe




domingo, 27 de enero de 2013

MUMMY

MUMMY. The origin of mummification in Egypt has given rise to much learned conjecture , now, however, superseded by positive knowledge, -- comparative study of sepulchral texts having furnished Egyptologists with convincing proof that the inviolate preservation of the body was deemed essential to the corporeal resurrection of the "justified" dead. The living man consisted of a body, a soul, an intelligence, and an appearance or eidolon, - in Egyptian, a ka. Death dissociated these four parts, which must ultimately be reunited for all eternity. Between death on earth and life everlasting there intervened, however, a period varying from 3000 to 10,000 years, during which the intelligence wandered, luminous, through space, while the soul performed a painful probationary pilgrimage through the mysterious under-world. The body, in order that it should await, intact, the return of the soul whose habitation, it was, must meanwhile be guarded from corruption and every danger. Hence, and hence only, the extraordinary measures taken to ensure the preservation of the corpse and the inviolability of the sepulcher; hence the huge pyramid, the secret pit, and the subterraneous labyrinth. The shadowy and impalpable ka – the mere aspect, be it remembered, of the man – was supposed to dwell in the tomb with the mummied body. This fragile conception was not, however, indestructible, like the soul and the intelligence. Being an aspect, it must perforce be the aspect of something material; and, if the body which it represented were destroyed or damaged, the ka was liable to the like mischance. In view of this danger, the Egyptian, by stocking his sepulcher with portrait statues, sought to provide the ka with other chances of continuance, these statues being designed, in a strictly literal sense, to serve as supports or dummies for the ka. The funereal portrait statues of the ancient empire (Dynasties I. to VI.) are marvels or realistic art in basalt, diorite, limestone, and wood. As many as twenty duplicates have been found in a single tomb, and always secreted in hidden chambers constructed in the thickness of the walls of the sepulcher. The Bulak Museum is very rich in ka statues of the ancient empire; and the British Museum contains two in wood from the tomb of Seti I., of the period of Dynasty XIX.
Mummies image

Mummies

For the processes of mummification, as narrated by Greek and Latin authors, see EMBALMING. The details which follow are taken from original Egyptian sources.

The embalmment of a man of wealth, done in the costliest manner, consisted of – (1) the "going into the good abode," (2) the Teb, (3) the Kesau. The first of these was the process of evisceration, cleaning, &c., which occupied 15 or 16 days; the second was the salting or bituminizing, and took 19 or 20 days; the third wad the spicing and bandaging, and took 34 or 35 days, - making 70 or 72 days in all. there were four special "rituals" for the guidance of the priestly operators and assistants – (1) that of "going into the good abode," which was a kind of surgical manual for the use of the paraschists, enumerating the incisions to be made in the body; (2) that of "the Kesau," a corresponding manual for the use of the tarischeutes, containing lists of the necessary gums, resins, spices, &c., directions as to number and nature of the bandages, and prayers to be repeated while adjusting them; (3) the "water ritual" or service-book of litanies, to be recited during the transport of the mummy to the cemetery, which was almost always done by boat; (4) the funereal ritual, performed on consigning the mummy to the tomb. No copy of the first of these documents is known, but its substance is summarized in the Rhind papyrus. Of the other three, contemporary copies written on papyrus exist in various museums. Establishments for the reception and mummification of the dead were attached to all the great cemeteries. These mortuary suburbs, by the Greeks called "memnonia" were inhabited by a large population of embalmers, mummy-case makers, gilders, painters, scribes, priests, and the like; and its has been calculated that from 500 to 800 corpses must always have been on hand in the workshops attached to the necropolis of Memphis. To prevent mistakes in delivering the mummies to their families, the bandagers were in the habit of marking the wrappings with the name and age of the deceased, sometimes adding the name and regnal year of the king in whose time he died. The ink in which these entries were written was made from nitrate of silver, like the marking-ink of he present day. The bandages were of linen only. The texture varied with he rank of the mummy, some being as fine as the finest India muslim, and some extremely coarse. The quantity used was enormous, and persons used to save their old linen for this purpose all their lives long. Each limb, finger, and toe was first separately swathed; and finally the whole body was enveloped in numberless convolutions, the contours of the shrunken form being skillfully restored by means of padding. From 700 to 1250 yards of bandages, in strips of 3 to 4 inches wide, have been found on mummies.

The processes of mummification varied in different parts of Egypt and at different periods. The mummies made at Memphis are black, dry, and brittle, whereas those of the best Theban epoch are yellowish, flexible, and so clastic that the flesh yields to the touch of the finger and the limbs may be bent without breaking. Champollion-Figaec attributes this exquisite softness and elasticity to the injection of costly chemical liquids into the veins, whereby the substance of the flesh was preserved. The matron process, on the contrary, on the contrary, destroyed the flesh, leaving only the skin and the bones. By some schools of embalmers the cavity of the skull, after the withdrawal of the brain, was washed out by an injection of refined bitumen, the effect of which was to preserve the membranous covering which has frequently been found inside the brain-pan, dried and unimpaired. Hair is constantly found on the heads of mummies, sometimes plaited, sometimes frizzled, - thus showing that the fashion of wearing wigs was by no means universal. The under bandages of mummies were laid on wet, having probably been dipped in spirits. They sometimes come off with the solidity of a pasteboard mask; and life-like portraits of the dead have been reproduced by simply casting plaster into these masks as into a mould. When Syrian turpentine came into use the Theban mummies ceased to maintain their supremacy, and became even blacker than those of Memphis, the corpse and its bandages forming one solid mass almost as hard as stone. In Memphite mummies, especially of the Ramesside and Saitic periods, the cavity of the chest is found filled with scarabaei and amulets in pietra dura. The Theban mummies, on the other hand, from Dynasty XI. to Dynasty XXIII., were adorned with rings, pectoral ornaments, collars, bracelets, &c., in exquisitely-wrought gold inlaid with lapis-lazuili, carnelian, green felspar, and other precious stones. Under the Greeks and Romans the art of mummification declined. Rudely-painted wooden coffins were substituted for the granite sarcophagi and richly-decorated mummy-cases of former times. The mummies became ashen-grey, or, being boiled in bitumen, were black, heavy, and shapeless. Those of Graeco-Roman times are frequently found wrapped in painted shrouds, and sometimes with coarsely-daubed encaustic portraits on panel laid above the faces. Dr Birch gives 700 A.D. as the date at which mummification practically ceased. It was formerly supposed that the bodies of the dead were merely desiccated under the ancient empire, and that actual embalming was not practiced before 2000 B.C. Recent explorations among the ruined pyramids of Sakkarah have, however, brought to light the mummied corpse of King Merenra, and part of the mummy of King Pepi, his father, both of Dynasty VI. Though denuded of its wrappings by ancient tomb-breakers, the mummy of Merenra is distinctly impressed in the usual manner with marks of its former bandages; and portions of the bandages and a "well-embalmed" hand were recovered from the debris of that of King Pepi. It is thus shown that mummification was an established rite towards the close of the ancient empire, and that the processes then in use were identical with those of later times, which compels us to ascribe a very early date (possibly 3800 or 4000 B.C.) to the beginnings of the art.


The styles of sarcophagi and mummy-cases vary according to periods and places as much as do the styles of muumification. At Gizeh, Sakkarah, and Meydum, in tombs of the ancient empire (Dynasties I. to VI.), the dead are found in unpainted wooden coffins with carved human faces, these coffins being enclosed in massive rectangular sarcophagi of black basalt, red granite, and limestone. Interments of the earliest Theban period (Dynasty XI.) yield cases shaped like the mummy within, and carved out of solid tree-trunks. The masks are painted yellow, white, or black, and on the breast Isis and Nephthys are depicted as if overshadowing the mummy-case with their wings. These cases are sometimes found enclosed in large rectangular wooden coffers with flat lids. With Dynasty XVII. (Theban) there appears the mummy-case with hands carved in relief and crossed upon the breast. The ground-color of these cases is generally white or black, painted with transverse bands of hieroglyphed inscriptions, the mask is red or gilded, and a vulture with extended wings is depicted on the breast. From Dynasty XIX. To Dynasty XXI. The coffins are highly ornamented in gay colors, figures being more abundant than inscriptions, and yellow varnishes much in favor. The mummy is frequently found enclosed in two, three, and even four such cases, each a size larger than the last. Cases with black grounds are succeeded by cases with brown grounds, and these again by white, resembling those of Dynasties XVII. And XVIII. The masks are now painted red, with richly-decorated head-dresses imitating wigs. Under the priest-king or Amenide domination these triple and quadruple "nests" of mummy-cases are found enclosed in gigantic rectangular outer sarcophagi of wood, highly painted and varnished. From Dynasty XXII. to Dynasty XXVI. the inscriptions are mostly painted in green on a while ground. At Memphis, meanwhile, the granite basalt, or limestone sarcophagus – sometimes rectangular with rounded corners, sometimes mummy-shaped with sculptured hands and feet, sometimes resembling a long bath – continued to hold its ground. The Saitic period (Dynasties XXVI. to XXX.) is distinguished by the minute finish and artistic beauty of its sculptured sarcophagi in basalt and granite. Last of all, in the extreme decadence of the art, come squared wooden coffins, unpainted, unvarnished, and rudely scrawled in ink with hieroglyphed legends so corrupt as to be almost illegible. According to the religious law of ancient Egypt, the rites of mummification were universal and compulsory, being performed, not only for every native in a style consistent with his rank in life, but also for all strangers and foreigners who died in the land, for all slaves and captives, and even for outcasts, criminals, and lepers.

The most ancient mummified – or, at all events, desiccated – human remains, not being pre-historic, which are known to science are the fragments of the body of Menkara (Gr., Mycerinus), third king of Dynasty IV., and builder of the smallest of the three great pyramids of Gizeh. These fragments were found by Colonel Howard Vyse strewn on the floor of the upper chamber of that pyramid, together with the woolen wrappings and empty cedar-wood coffin of this pharaoh. All these are now in he British Museum. The fragments consist of the ribs and vertebrae and the bones of the legs and feet, the dried flesh upon the thighs being perfectly preserved. The date of these remains may be approximately assigned to 4000 B.C. Next in antiquity comes the mummy of King Merenra of Dynasty VI., now in the Bulak Museum, the date of which is about 3600 B.C. Most famous and most interesting of all, however, are the royal mummies of Dynasties XVII., XVIII, XIX., and XXI., found at Dair al-Bahari, near the great temple of Queen Hatshepsu, on the left bank of the Nile opposite karnak, in July 1881. The circumstances of this, the most extraordinary archaeological discovery of any age, are too remarkable to be passed over in silence.

The so-called "Theban Arabs" are the busiest treasure-seekers and antiquity-vendors in Egypt. But not often, apparently, have they lighted upon a royal internment. The royal sepulchers in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings and the neighborhood have tempted the cupidity of all ages; and we have the direct evidence of two legal documents of the time of Rameses IX., 7th pharaoh of Dynasty XX., to show that bands of organized tomb-breakers infested the cemeteries of Thebes at that comparatively early period.


It is now about twelve years since certain objects of great rarity and antiquity, mostly belonging to the period of the Amenide Dynasty (XXI)., began to find their way to Europe from Upper Egypt. Foremost in importance among the said relics were four funereal papyri (consisting of extracts from the Ritual or Book of the Dead written for royal personages of the Amenide family. Concurrent testimony pointed to a family of Arab brothers named Abd er Rasoul as the original holders of these papyri; it was therefore concluded that the tombs of Pinotem I. and of the Queens Notem-Maut and Hathor Hont-taui (for whom the papyri were written) had by them been discovered and pillaged. The eldest brother was ultimately induced to reveal the secret, and pointed out a lonely spot at the foot of the cliffs not far from the ruins of the great temple of Hatshepsu, on the western bank of the Nile, where the bottom of a hidden shaft opened into a short corridor leading to a gallery 74 meters in length, at the end of which was a sepulchral vault measuring 7 meters by 4. the whole of this gallery and vault were crowded with mummies and mortuary furniture, as sacred vessels, funereal statuettes, canopic and libation vases, and precious objects in alabaster, bronze, glass, acacia wood, and the like. The mummies were thirty-six in number, including upwards of twenty kings and queens from Dynasty XVIII. to Dynasty XXI., besides princes, princesses, and high priests, all of which, together with four royal papyri and a miscellaneous treasure consisting of upwards of 6000 objects, are now in the Bulak Museum.

The door-jambs of the mortuary chamber at the end of this long gallery are inscribed with various attestations of burial. These entries refer to interments of members of the Amenide line only. It is also to be observed that only members of that line were found inside the chamber, so proving that the sepulchure was the family vault of the descendants of the first priest-king. All the other royal mummies, and all the objects appertaining to those mummies (that is to say, to the representatives of dynasties XVII, XVIII., and XIX.) were found in the long gallery outside. When these earlier kings, queens, and princesses were brought out into the light of day, and conveyed to the museum of Bulak, it was discovered that the coffins of some, and the wrappings of others, were inscribed with short official entries written thereon at different times and in different places by successive inspectors of tombs. The dates of these visits of inspection are restricted to the period of Dynasty XXI., whence it is evident that the necessity for protecting the last homes of the illustrious dead was as urgent then as the "Amherst" and "Abbott" papyri prove it to have been in the reign of Rameses IX. The terms of these entries show that it was the duty of the said inspectors to enter the sepulchers of the "royal ancestors," to report upon the condition of the mummies, to repair their wrappings and mummy-cases when requisite, and, if expedient, to remove them from their own tombs into any others which might be regarded as more secure. The mummies and mummy-cases thus inscribed are five in number – namely, those of Amenhotep I., Thothmes II., Rameses I., Seti I., and Rameses II. Two entries on the coffin-lid of Amenhotep I. show his tomb to have been inspected and his wrappings, renewed in the 6th year of Pinotem II., fourth of the priest-king line, and again in the 16th year of the pntificate of Masahirtim, his son and successor. In the 6th year of Pinotem I. the same was done fo rthe mummy of Thothmes II. The three pharaohs of Dynasty XIX. – Rameses I., Seti I., and Rameses II. – seem, however, to have been still more anxiously looked after. Either because their mummies were specially revered, or because their sepulchers had already been attacked by the tomb-breaking gangs of that period, we find them continually being removed from one tomb to another. In the 6th year of Her-Hor, the founder of the Amenide line, while they yet occupied their own splendid sepulchers in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings, they were there examined by a Government inspector, who "renewed their funerary equipments" and made an entry of his visit on the coffins of Seti I. and Rameses II. After this Ramese I. and Rameses II. were removed to the tomb of Seti I. (the tomb known as Bezoni’s), whence, in the 16th year of Her-Hor, all three mummies, father, son, and grandson, were transferred to the tomb of Queen Ansera. This act of transfer is written, dated, signed, and witnessed on all three coffins. Again, in the 10th year of Pinotem I., grandson of Her-Hor, occur more intries showing them tohave been conveyed from the tomb of Queen Ansera to the tomb of one of the Amenhoteps. Finally, in bold hieratic characters, written with marking-ink upon the breast-bandages of Rameses II., we find the following memorandum recording how, ten years later still, the mummy of this illustrious pharaoh was again taken back to the tomb of his father Seti I.:-

"The year 16, the third month of Pert (i.e., seed-time), the sixth day, being the day of carrying the defunct King Ra-user-Ma Sotep-en-Ra, for the renewal of his funerary appointments, into the tomb of the defunct King Ra-men-Ma Seti, by the first prophet of Amen, Pinotem."

At what precise date these and the earlier royal mummies were brought into the Dair al-Bahari vault does not appear; but, as that vault was finally closed on the burial of Queen Isi-em-Kheb, we may conclude that, as a last resource against possible depredation, the "royal ancestors" were deposited therein at or about that time. this would be in the reign of King Menkjeperra (brother and successor of Masahirti, and husband of Isi-em Kheb), whose seal, impressed on clay, was found upon the shattered door of the mortuary chamber. The condition of the various mummies and mummy-cases thus hospitably sheltered gives every indication that their original sepulchers had been previously violated. The coffins of Thothmes III. and Rameses I, are much damaged. That of Rameses II. was probably destroyed, since the one in which his mummy now reposes is of Dynasty XXI. Workmanship. The mummy of Rameses I. is doubtful, that of Thothmes I. is missing, as are also the coffins of Queen Ansera, Queen Merit-Amen, and Queen Sitka. The mummy of Thothmes III. – greatest of all Egyptian pharohs -- greater than even Seti I. or Rameses II. – is broken in three pieces. All this is apparently the work of ancient marauders.

For these identifications, see especially two articles on Dynasty XXI. (Manethonian ) in the Zeit. f. Aegyp. Sp., 1882, by Dr R. Lepsius and Dr A. Wiedemann; also in Recueil des Travaux, vol. iii., 1883, main article on "Relics from the Tomb of the Priest-Kings at Dayr el-Baharee," by Amelia B. Edwards.
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. – G Maspero, Sur la Cachette découverte à Der el-Bahari; Verhandlungen des Fünften Orientalisten-Congresses, Berlin, 1881; G. Maspero, La Trouvaille de Deir el-Bahari, Cairo 1881; A. Rhone, "Découverte des Momies Royales de Thebes," in Gazette des Beaux Arts, 1883; A. B. Edwards, "Lying in State in Cairo,"in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, July 1882; H. Villiers Stuart, The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen, London, 1882; Colonel Howard Vyse, Operations carried on at the Pyramids of Gheezeh, &c., 1840-2; Sir J. G. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, new ed., London, 1878; Records of the Past, edited by Birch; E. Ledrain, Les Momies Gréco-Egyptiennes, Paris, 1877; T.J. Pettigrew, History of Egyptian Mummies, London, 1840; A.H. Rhind, Thebes, its Tombs and their Tenants, London, 1862. ( A. B. E.)


The article above was written by Miss Amelia Blandford Edwards, Egyptologist and novelist; founded a chair of Egyptology at Oxford; author of Debenham's Vow; A Thousand Miles up the Nile, and Pharoahs, Fellahs, and Explorers.