% 2 = * a anid Cacaiannal 4 ehesimottig is esti Mee nis he ee ae uot : oy 7) Ye “i ne von Wi i Pa 5 es Sn A : whi a . = ond A ' ‘qm Py 7 ie sj eed : an P an , wed i 4 Nov 271928 eid of bere mre oe "re i ap ae nd ne _ Coon sobtivis (Minin ve #y on Se eee 4 rf \ Wawa FF a i 4 ; ri if i) a) i. ¢ a ‘ . ao it ‘a \ we, o ay - i Hy » ¢ aa iA ‘ 1s 7 Sat ik kA | it NY) vide : ee A te ta fi Li ¢ fi oH 4 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/egyptianmummiesOOsmit pasion ite III IE AIC MUMMY IN CARTONNAGE CASING PTOLEM EGYPTIAN MUMMIES BY G. ELLIOT SMITH AND WARREN R. DAWSON WITH WOODCUTS BY A. HORACE GERRARD anp K, LEIGH-PEMBERTON AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS Lincoln Wace Veagh THE DIAL PRESS INCORPORATED New York MCMXXIV (All rights reserved) Printed in Great Britain UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, LONDON AND WOKING subsistency with a transmigration of their souls, a good way to continue their memories. “ Egyptian ingenuity was more unsatisfied, continuing their bodies in sweet consistencies to attend the return of their souls. ** But all was vanity, feeding the wind, and folly. “The Egyptian mummies, which Cambyses or time hath spared, avarice now consumeth. ** Mummy is become merchandise, Mizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for Balsams.”—(Sir Thomas Browne, 1658.) In his book with the formidable title ‘‘NEKPOKHAEIA, or, the Art of Embalming; wherein is shewn the Right of Burial, the Funeral Ceremonies and the several ways of Preserving Dead Bodies in most Nations of the World, with an Account of the particular Opinions, Experiments and Inventions of Modern Physicians, Surgeons, Chymists and Anatomists, also some new Matter proposed concerning a better method of Embalming than hath hitherto been discovered, and a Pharmacopoeia Galeno-Chymica Anatomia sicca sive incru- enta, etc.,’’ Thomas Greenhill in 1705 discussed the possible ways in which embalming may have originated :— = { GREAT part of antiquity contented their hopes of *““(1) Necessity, the mother of Invention may have driven men to render their dead innocuous to themselves ; **(2) Unexpected Results of Experiments, as when you aim and try to find out one thing and accidentally light on another ; and EGYPTIAN MUMMIES ‘“* (8) Observation of the instincts of living animals: for example, seeing flies and other insects enclosed in amber may have suggested the idea. ‘** But since these things appear rather fabulous and the pleasant flights of acute wits and inquisitive naturalists than solid truths, we must have recourse to some other course”? ; and expressed the opinion that— ““ The sands of Egypt being hot, from the reflection of the scorching sun, are capable of preserving bodies without either salination or embalming, and that only by exhaling and drying up the humidities and adventitious moisture, insomuch that it has occasioned no small contests among some authors, which of the two 1s the truer mummy, that dried in the sands or that which is embalmed with balsams and aromatics.” ** The continuance and duration of their embalmings are in some measure due to the clearness and dryness of the air.” PREFACE than a mummy, and yet, strange as it may seem, very little has been done to acquire an accurate and reliable knowledge of the technical processes and significance of mummy-making. If the reader take up any general text-book on Egypt at the present day, he will usually find a relatively short space devoted to mummies. Moreover, the account, such as it is, is generally compounded chiefly of extracts from classical writers and of a series of generalisations, many of them quite wrong, which have appeared in book after book in the last fifty years. In 1834, Thomas Pettigrew, a London surgeon, published his History of Egyptian Mummies, which, considering the archeological data then at his disposal, is a monument of exact observation. Since that time, however, so far as we are aware, no monograph has appeared based upon the examination of actual mummies and dealing as a whole with the development and significance of Egyptian embalm- ing. In recent years large numbers of mummies of various periods have been examined (and twice as many more allowed to perish without record), and we now have suffi- cient data to enable us to trace the origin and development of this singular practice over a period of at least three thousand years. We have aimed merely at tracing in outline the technical processes employed by the embalmer, and at briefly des- cribing the funeral ceremonies and other such archeological 7 [oes is nothing more characteristically Egyptian EGYPTIAN MUMMIES matters directly relating to mummies, but these subjects demand a full treatment which would be out of place in this book. We have touched but lightly on the motives that prompted the custom and of the far-reaching effects it has had in shaping the development of human thought, not only in Egypt, but throughout the world. We have indicated the ancient literature relating to embalming from Egyptian and Greek texts, but as these cannot be intelli- gibly translated without a philological commentary, we have attempted to convey their meaning rather than their exact words. The geographical distribution of mummification and the story of its spread throughout the world we have not touched upon at all, as the amount of evidence now avail- able for this aspect of the subject would, if set out, have doubled the bulk of this book. These wider questions of the origin and spread of mummification have been dealt with at considerable length elsewhere.} Mummification had a great influence on the development of the science of anatomy, and in fact of medicine in general, and Egyptian mummies themselves have furnished us with so many pathological conditions of the greatest interest in the history of medicine, that a chapter has been devoted to the subject. For more technical descriptions and for fuller information on the various subjects indicated or discussed, the reader is referred to the footnotes, in which ample bibliographical references will be found. This book is to be regarded not as a complete treatise so much as a sketch to suggest the far-reaching importance of the study of mummification and to indicate the sort of 1 G. Elliot Smith : The Migrations of Early Culture (1915) and The Evolution of the Dragon (1919) ; W. J. Perry : Children of the Sun (1923), Origin of Magic and Religion (1923) and The Growth of Civilization (1924). 8 PREFACE information that is required to complete the story. It is hoped that it may have some influence in stimulating archeologists to pay more serious attention to the investi- gation of the subject. We wish to thank Professor Capart, Director of the Musées Royaux of Brussels, for the photographs from which ° Figs. 4, 5 and 44 have been reproduced, and Mr. Fred Hall for valuable help in preparing the manuscript. For the beautiful water-colour sketch from which the Frontispiece has been prepared, we are indebted to Mrs. Cecil Firth. G. E. S. LONDON, W.R.D. March, 1924, CONTENTS PREFACE . . . . ° ° . . : ° 5 ° CHAPTER I. II. VIII. I. II, INTRODUCTION , : ° . . . . ° ° ° . THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF AN EGYPTIAN . : . . EGYPTIAN TEXTS RELATING TO EMBALMING . . ° ° EMBALMING ACCORDING TO HERODOTUS AND LATER AUTHORS MUMMIFICATION IN THE OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES . . . MUMMIFICATION IN THE XVIIITH TO XXTH DYNASTIES . MUMMIFICATION IN THE XXIST DYNASTY . ° . . MUMMIFICATION FROM THE XXIIND DYNASTY TO THE DECLINE THE ACCESSORIES OF THE MUMMY ° ° ° . . . MUMMIFICATION IN RELATION TO MEDICINE AND PATHOLOGY CONCLUSION . . . . ° . . . . . . APPENDIX THE TOMB OF TUTANKHAMEN AND THE ROBBERIES AT THE ROYAL TOMBS . . . . . ° . . . . LIST OF THE SOVEREIGNS FROM SEKNENRE OF THE XVIITH DYNASTY TO RAMESSES XI OF THE XXTH DYNASTY, INDI- CATING THOSE WHOSE MUMMIES OR TOMBS ARE KNOWN . INDEX ° . . ° . . . : ° . . . PAGE 72 110 121 133 154 163 171 184 187 Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. ILLUSTRATIONS Ptolemaic Mummy in Cartonnage Casing Frontispiece Facina Pag 1.—The earliest Body, as yet known, exhibiting an attempt at Mummification (IInd Dynasty). [From Mr. J. E. Quibell’s photograph of the Body in situ in the broken Coffin.] 2.—Predynastic Bodies with a large Cake of Resin in situ in the Grave 8.—Head of a Mummy, probably of the Vth Dynasty, from Meidim, now in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London 4.—Egyptian Funeral Procession; from the Theban Tomb of Haremhab (XVIIIth Dynasty) . 5.—The Stela No. C 15 of the Louvre. [Photograph by Professor J. Capart, reproduced by permission of the Authorities of the Louvre Museum.]. . : , 6.—An XIth Dynasty nome from Deir-el- Bahari ths Princess Henhenit . 7.—Head of the eae pes of the Pharaoh iAanmatets I exvitith Dynasty) Ree noe fs ‘ 8.—Head of the Lady Ray was XVIIIth SSN 9.—Head of the Lady Ray (Profile) . ° - - 10.—Head of the Mummy of the Pharaoh AMER OARIE) III (XVIIth Dynasty) . 11.—Head of an Unknown Man (XVIIIth Dynasty): 3 : ; . 12.—Mummy of the Elder Woman found in the Tomb of ree II (XVIIIth Dynasty) . . . : y . 13.—Mummy of the Elder Woman found in the Tomb ‘of Amenophis II (Profile) . . 14.—Mummy of the Younger Woman found’ in the Tomb of Avena phis II, showing the damage done by Plunderers to the Face and Chest (XVIIIth Dynasty) . pelt eae - 15.—Mummy of the Younger Woman found in the Tomb of AE pres: Tid Peohite ie sg es - 16.—Mummy of the Young Prince found in the Tomb of ecnpnis II, showing the ‘‘ Horus-lock.’”? The large hole in the Chest is the work of Ancient Plunderers (XVIIIth Dynasty) 17.—Head of the Mummy of the Pharaoh Tuthmosis IV ee Dynasty) wa hae 0 a 18.—Head of the Mummy of yuan (XVIIIth Dries EL 13 32 32 82 32 40 40 40 40 48 48 48 48 48 56 56 56 56 64 Fic. Fic. Fic. Fig. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fia. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. EGYPTIAN MUMMIES FACING Pach 19.—Mummy of Thuiu, wife of Yuaa (XVIIIth Dynasty) .. 20.—Head of the Mummy of Thuiu (XVIIIth Dynasty) . 21.—Head of the Pharaoh Sety I (XIXth Dynasty). 22.—Head of the Pharaoh Ramesses II (XIXth Dynasty) 23.—Mummy of the Pharaoh Meneptah (XIXth Dynasty) 24.—Profile of the Mummy of Meneptah (XIXth Dynasty) 25.—Head of the Pharaoh Sety II, encrusted with the Resinous Paste used by the Embalmers (XIXth Dynasty) 26.—Mummy of an Unknown Woman, probably Queen Tausret (XTXth Dynasty) . ; : : ; , : , 27.—Mummy of the Pharaoh Ramesses III (XXth Dynasty) 28.—Head of the Mummy of the Pharaoh Ramesses V, showing the Eruption of the Skin, probably Small-pox (XXth Dynasty) 29.—Head of the Mummy of the Pharaoh Ramesses VI, broken in pieces by the Ancient Plunderers (XXth Dynasty) . . 30.—Mummy of Queen Nozme (XXIst Dynasty) ° 31.—Diagrams showing the process of ‘‘ Packing”? in vogue in the XXIst Dynasty . ‘ : ; a es - Ry PY se : 82.—Arm of a Mummy of the XXIst Dynasty showing the Packing Material. (The Outer Skin has been removed.) . 4 ; 33.—Head of the Mummy of Queen Henttaui (XXIst Dynasty), showing the Wig and Artificial ‘‘ Packing ” of the Face 34.—Mummy of Princess Nesikhons (XXIst Dynasty), showing the Protective Disks over the Eyes > : ; . : 85.—Mummy of Princess Nesitanebasher (XXIst Dynasty), showing artificial Eyes and ‘‘ Packing’ of the Face and Neck 86.—Embalming-wound of a XXIst Dynasty Mummy sewn up with SURES iris Faciegape et R ili aioe A tae ak fee ac 387.—Mummy of an Old Woman of the XXIst Dynasty, showing the Patches of Gazelle Skin fixed by the Embalmers to cover Bed-sores. : : : ; : . ‘ . ‘ < . 88.—Mummy of a Priest of Amen (XXIst Dynasty), with the Chest- wall removed to show the Heart and Aorta left in situ 39.—Body-cavity of a Mummy (XXIst Dynasty), showing the Four Parcels of Viscera with Wax Figures of their Protective Genii 40.—Head of a Ptolemaic Mummy from Nubia . yt 41.—Head of a Ptolemaic Mummy accidentally severed from the Body and refixed on a Stick and tied with Bandages . . 42.—Mass of Resin from the Thorax of the Mummy of a Young Woman with insects embedded in it (Ptolemaic Period) 43.—Arm of an Early Christian Body with a Cross tied to it. 44.—Wooden Coffin of the Middle Empire, showing the Mystic Eyes EXDith Dynasty) 4 ae ee aye ee ee, eh 45.—Coffin and Mummy of the Pharaoh Amenophis I (XVIIIth Dynasty) ‘ ‘ : : ‘ : : ; : : 14 64 104 104 104 104 112 112 112 Fic. Fic. Fic. 4 Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fie. Fic. Fic. Fia. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. Fic. ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE 46.—‘ Civil-dress *” Coffin in the Berlin Museum (XXth Dynasty) 47.—A Rishi Coffin discovered at Thebes by the Cpe eet Museum Expedition of New York : 48.—Ptolemaic Mummy in Cartonnage Casing 49.—A Set of Canopic Jars 50.—Mummy of the XXIst Dynasty, etl the Visors wrapped i in Linen Parcels and replaced in the Body , 51.—Liver from a XXIst a cad oF Tate with Human- Headed Wax Figure 52.—Lung from a XXIst Dynasty Mummy with Ape ere Wax Figure 58.—Stomach from a XXIst Dynasty Muramy with Tana: headed Wax Figure 54.—Small Intestines of a XXIst Dynasty Mummy with atone headed Wax Figure 55.—Mummy of a Priest of Amen of the XXIst Dynasty ahawine Amulets tied round the Neck : ; 56.—Arm from a Mummy showing Amulets tied on with Serine. 57.—Arm and part of the Body of a Mummy, ition Amulets and Plate covering the Embalming-wound : 58.—Mummy of a Priestess (XX Ist Dynasty), showing the Padontilee on the Arm and the Embalming-plate : Ree: 59.—Arm of a Mummy showing Bead-bracelet . : ; 60.—Gall-stones in the Liver of a Mummy of the XXIst aan 61.—Mummy of a Priestess of Amen (XXIst Dynasty), from which the Gall-stones shown in Fig. 60 were taken 62.—Mummy of a Priest of Amen heerteses attire ds afflicted with Pott’s Disease ‘ . 63.—Vertebra affected with aberaulas Caries core a Moray of the Middle Kingdom 64.—Osteo-Sarcoma of the Thigh- a a (Vth Dey ‘ 65.—Talipes, or ‘‘ Club-foot ” of the Pharaoh Siptah (XIXth Dynasty) 66.—Hands of a Mummy of a Coptic Christian afflicted with a Mi (Sixth Century a.D., Nubia) , 67.—Feet of the same Mummy - thre 68.—Predynastic Skull, showing the reeiuion of the Mastoid Process by Disease . 69.—Broken Fore-arm of a Vth Th nuaty Maries set in Splints . 70.—Mummy of Amenophis III (XVIIIth on eid discovered in the Coffin of Ramesses III ee es abe? 71.—Head of a Female pure showing the deine hair 15 112 120 120 120 120 120 120 128 128 128 128 128 136 136 136 136 144 144, 144 144 152 152 152 152 160 160 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION fication is surely the most curious and distinctive, Although embalming has been practised in other countries, in some cases for many centuries, the word “mummy ”’ will always connote Egypt and an Egyptian invention,! in spite of the fact that in the land where it originated mummification is now unknown, having been finally abandoned more than twelve centuries ago. Con- sidering the great interest that is commonly aroused by this bizarre method for disposal of the dead, there is a curious lack of reference to its origin and development in the literature that has come down to us from ancient times. Most of our knowledge of the inspiration and technique of the embalmer’s art has been derived from the application in recent times of modern scientific methods of examination to mummies found during Egyptian excavations. But a few writers of the ancient world were interested to observe the practice of embalming, and have left to posterity records which, although not always exactly reconcilable, are of great value in providing a large measure of contemporary (): all the customs of the Ancient Egyptians mummi- 1 See G. Elliot Smith’s The Migrations of Early Culture, in which the geographical distribution of mummification is dealt with at length. 17 C EGYPTIAN MUMMIES support for the conclusions to which modern investigators have been led. The most instructive of these writers are Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus.t In his Euterpe Herodotus relates the details of three methods, the first of which could be afforded only by the wealthy, the second being of a more moderate expense, and the third for people of *“* yet meaner circumstances.”’ Written about four centuries later, that is circa 808B.c., the account of Diodorus gives the relative cost of these preparations: ‘‘ In the first, they say, there is spent a talent of silver; in the second twenty mine; but in the last there is very little expense.” ? It also provides additional details, not only of the practice of mummification, but also of other funerary rites of the Egyptians, including those by which the dead man was judged, and taken on a boat across a lake, or the Nile, an act emblematical of his voyage to the other-world.® Diodorus, moreover, emphasises the importance attached by the Egyptians to the need for the disposal of the dead in accordance with the custom of the time. The strength of their feelings on this subject was due to the religious beliefs bound up with the origins of embalming, and was the cause of the devotion with which the practitioners of the art pursued their experiments over a period of more than three thousand years, in the unceasing effort to attain perfection. Before turning to discuss the question of the origin of mummification, we may notice the names of the few other writers of ancient, medizval and early modern times who recorded their impressions of that peculiar process. Both Pettigrew, the author of the first adequate 1 See Chapter IV. 4 See below Chapter IV, where this question is more fully discussed and some other evidence as to cost is adduced. 3 For the burial ceremonies and their significance see below, Chapter II. 18 INTRODUCTION discussion of this subject in England (History of Egyptian Mummies, London, 1834), and Dr. Louis Reutter (L’Embau- mement, Paris, 1912), have been assiduous in collecting such references, but no other accounts that they have found can vie with those of Herodotus and Diodorus for interest and fulness of information. Homer speaks in one place of the use of nectar and ambrosia, which were injected through the nostrils of Patrocles for the purpose of preserving his body, while an account of the encasing in wax of the corpse of Agesilaus, in order that it might be brought to his native land, is given by Emilius Probus, Cornelius Nepos, and Plutarch. According to later writers, also, the body of Alexander the Great was embalmed in honey and conveyed by Ptolemy in a golden coffin to Memphis, where it was exhibited to the wondering gaze of the populace. The Greek physician Dioscorides discusses the virtues of a substance called in the Latin mumia,? a black bituminous matter found oozing from the earth in certain places, and down to comparatively recent times the word ‘‘mummy ” has been used to denote such material. This “ mummy ” was regarded by the Persians as a panacea for physical ailments, and one of their writers of the tenth century A.D. has left a description of the complicated arrangements made for the safeguarding of the mountain from which this precious exudation was derived, and of the ceremony attaching to its annual collection on behalf of the Shah. A similar description of mummy was made by Abd’ al-Latif, an Arab writer of the twelfth century, who was, however, also well acquainted with mummy in the modern sense of that word.? 1 In addition to the authorities collected by Pettigrew and others, reference may be made to a curious little treatise entitled Tractatus de Balsamatione Cadaverum, by Joseph Lanzoni, published at Geneva in 1696. 2 De Materia Medica, Book I, chap. 100. 3 Abd’ al-Latif, ed. de Sacy, p. 200. 19 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES This extended use of the term, which was customary until well on in the nineteenth century, was due to the probability that from late Ptolemaic times onwards bituminous materials were largely used in the process of embalming, and the belief became widely prevalent that the wonderful cures originally attributed to the exudation of which we have spoken could also be obtained by the use of fragments of human bodies which had been subjected to this treatment. Most of the references to mummy in early modern times are devoted, therefore, to a discussion of its healing virtues. The earliest use of mummy as a drug is supposed to have been made by a Jewish physician of Alexandria about A.D. 1200. It soon became widespread. Pettigrew gives a number of quotations concerning the merits of mummy for medicinal purposes from writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which show that it was well known all over Western Europe. Lord Bacon and Boyle acknow- ledge its merits, which were also enshrined in various pharmacopceias of the time, but other writers, of whom perhaps the most famous is Ambroise Paré (Workes, London, 1634), condemned the use of this “ wicked kind of drugge”’ as being completely inefficacious. According to Guyon, the disappearance of this medica- ment was due not to these criticisms, but to the fears enter- tained by the Jewish merchants of the commodity when it was discovered that they were accustomed to sell any bodies of which they could get possession, after treating them in such a way as to simulate the real Egyptian mummy.1 Whatever the real cause, its use ceased, and with it the medical writings that had accompanied its spread. The 1 For a valuable contribution to the study of mummy in medicine see the paper Mumie als Heilmitiel, by Wiedemann, in the Zeitschrift . . . fiir rhinische und westfdlische Volkskunde, 1906, pp. 1-38. 20 INTRODUCTION next reappearance of the mummy in literature occurs with the beginnings of modern Egyptology, and especially with the publication of Pettigrew’s remarkable work. It is a matter for much regret that the work of excavat- ing and restoring the old Egyptian sites should have been conducted for the most part along narrowly specialised lines. The absence of adequate co-operation between students of particular subjects has led to the loss of much material that would have been invaluable as definite evidence of the ideas and customs of the Ancient Egyptians. Numer- ous examples could be cited in these pages of such loss of material, already far too scanty for our needs in recon- structing the history of Egyptian civilisation, but the extremely important discovery at the Temple of Deir-el- Bahari of an embalmer’s workshop, which was found during the clearing of the great temple, buried for centuries beneath the sands, is perhaps the most regrettable instance. The primary interest of the excavators was Egyptian architec- ture, and all the information vouchsafed by them respecting the equipment of the workshop is contained in the following passage of their report :— When the Northern Colonnade was cleared, we found that brick walls had often been built between the columns, forming small cells or chambers. From the remains found in them, consisting of broken beads, fragments of papyri, and pots containing nitre, we gathered that these chambers were occupied by embalmers who dwelt also on the slope outside the temple. There we found, in the second year of our excavations, very clear indications of the presence of such craftsmen. Just above the wall of the Colonnade were several large jars, some of which were filled with chopped straw used for stuffing the mummies, while others contained numbers of little bags of nitre or some salt used in mummification. Among the jars was a very fine coffin, well painted, with the face dark brown. The inscriptions showed that it had been made for a priest of Mentu of the XXIInd Dynasty called Namenkhetamon, who was of high birth, his great-grandfather being King Osorkon I of the XXIInd Dynasty. When the coffin was opened it was found that there was no body inside, 21 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES but several hundred of little bags full of nitre. It is to be presumed that the coffin was not paid for, or that the purchasers, having changed their minds, had left it, and the embalmers used it for storing their chemicals.+ The inadequacy of such treatment is too obvious to need emphasis. But the correlation of the results of research in different fields, rendered unnecessarily laborious by such indifference, has succeeded in throwing a flood of light on features of Egyptian culture that are of profound importance to the proper understanding of the history of ideas. Among all these features the Egyptian mummy stands as a central object round which gather the contributions of the ancients to the development of religion, art, and science. It thus becomes a matter of first importance to account for the origins of an institution which has played so great a part in moulding the civilisations succeeding that in which it flourished. Egyptian literature is singularly reticent upon the subject of embalming. What little information it affords is set forth in Chapter III; but it is interesting to pay particular attention at the outset to the earliest specific reference to mummification, written perhaps forty cen- turies ago. After the VIth Dynasty the power of Egypt began to crumble and the rule of the Pharaoh was disputed by various local chieftains, who also struggled among them- selves for the supremacy which they denied to their nominal ruler. The state of chaos that resulted from this anarchy has been graphically depicted in one of the most remarkable documents that have come down from antiquity. This has been interpreted, under the title Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage,* by Dr. Alan H. Gardiner. Among the afflictions that 1 Naville: Deir el Bahari, pt. ii, p. 6. 2 Leipzig, 1909. 22 INTRODUCTION had befallen his country the scribe calls attention to the baneful effects of the interference with foreign intercourse, and specially mentions the inability to obtain from the Lebanons (through its seaport at Byblos) the materials for embalming as one of the direst afflictions produced by the political disturbance. The scanty references to embalming in the later periods of Egyptian history will be fully discussed in Chapter IV. There are reasons for the belief that the earliest attempts to prevent the corruption of the body by artificial devices were suggested by the remarkable phenomenon of the natural preservation of the corpses of the dead. In pre- dynastic times in Egypt (i.e. before the commencement of the Ist Dynasty, circa 3400-3100 B.c.) it was the custom to bury the dead, loosely wrapped in linen and skins or matting, in shallow graves; and the hot dry sand, which, in spite of these coverings, came into direct contact with the skin, often desiccated the body and so arrested the process of decomposition that under less exceptional con- ditions is its usual fate in the grave. The discovery of the fact that these bodies “‘ did not suffer corruption but had put on incorruption”’ was probably made known to the early Egyptians as the result of the depredations of jackals in their cemeteries, and especially such human jackals as the grave robber, who plied his nefarious trade even in the earliest known period of man’s history in the Nile Valley.? The realisation of the fact of this natural preservation undoubtedly strengthened men’s belief in the survival of the dead; and evidence in substantiation of this intenser faith is afforded by the ampler provision of food and equip- ment which the Egyptians began to make for the use of the 1 The passage is translated below, p- 55. 2 George A. Reisner, Archeological Report (Egypt Exploration Fund), 1900-1901, pp. 23-25. 23 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES dead. The time soon arrived when the grave itself had to be made more spacious to accommodate these more abundant supplies of sustenance for the occupant of the grave. But the burial of the dead in these roomier graves, in which the corpse was no longer in direct contact with the dry sand of the desert but in a chamber filled with air, defeated the very object that had prompted the more lavish equipment. For the natural preservation of the body occurred much less often than in earlier times when it was closely surrounded by the sand. But by this time the desirability of preventing the corruption of the body had become firmly fixed as a cardinal article of the faith that preservation of the body was the essential factor in securing a continuance of existence. Hence the Egyptians began to experiment with the object of discovering some means of achieving by art what unaided nature rarely effected in the larger tombs. If this hypothesis represents a true picture of the trend of Egyptian thoughts and aspirations—and the available evidence points so definitely to these conclusions that there is little room for doubt as to the accuracy of this inference— such attempts at mummification were in all probability made when the Egyptians first realised the results of burial in larger tombs. On these grounds it may confidently be assumed that the first experiments were made approxim- ately at the commencement of the Ist Dynasty. As we have concrete evidence of such attempts at the time of the IInd Dynasty (Fig. 1), the inference as to the date of origin of the practice of mummification is virtually confirmed. Long before the attempt was made to embalm human bodies the Egyptians were familiar with the more obvious properties of the materials which they subsequently used as preservatives. For many centuries resins had been used as one of the ingredients for making cosmetics (Fig. 2) ; 24 INTRODUCTION and in some of the earliest mummies that have been spared for us to study (Fig. 3) this substance was liberally used. In the deserts fringing the habitable land in the valley, both in Upper and Lower Egypt, salt and soda are found in vast quantities, and as both of these substances were used by the embalmer even in the earliest times, we have positive evidence that their properties must have been familiar to the inventors of the art of embalming. From the time of their first attempts the embalmers kept before them two objects, from which their attention never swerved until Egypt’s might crumbled before the power of Islam thousands of years later. The first of these, as has been indicated, was to prevent decomposition of the tissues of the body, and the second was the preservation of the living form and personal identity of the individual.1. The constant striving after this second object is the explanation, not only of the exceptional trouble taken by the embalmers in treating the head, but also of many of the inscriptions found on the walls of the tombs, all of which were intended to ensure the identification of the departed with Osiris. Just as the discovery of the natural preservation of the body had crystallised the vague aspirations of the earliest Egyptian into a faith in personal immortality, so did the practice of mummification transform this belief, so that it acquired the definition and intensity of a vital creed. Embalming thus became the essential feature of the religious and philo- sophical edifice that grew up around it and that has persisted through the ages, under varying forms, since first it seemed to offer men the possibility of attaining immunity from extinction. How vast an influence the practice of mummi- fication exerted upon the shaping of the nascent religious beliefs in the times of the earliest civilisations has recently * See Journal of Egyptian Archeology, vol. i, pp. 189 ff. 25 D EGYPTIAN MUMMIES been demonstrated in a novel way by Mr. W. J. Perry in his book on The Origin of Magic and Religion (p. 68). Contrasting the earliest beliefs of Egypt, Sumer, and Crete, he finds that in the two latter (where embalm- ing was not practised in early times) there is no trace of the conception of immortality such as was being shaped in Egypt in close correlation with the ideas sug- gested by the practices for rendering the body imperishable and everlasting. In the earliest phase of the embalmers’ experiments the bodies were wrapped in a series of linen bandages, and such attempts as were made to render the individual recognisable were carried out on the swathed mummy, with the object of making it also a portrait statue of the deceased. The difficulty of securing life-like results by these means soon became apparent to the Egyptians, who therefore resorted to other methods of preserving the likeness of the departed, and thereby, as was believed, of securing the continuance of his existence. Their first device was the making, out of limestone or Nile mud, of a model of the dead man’s head, which was placed with his mummy in the burial chamber. This development took place during the Pyramid Age (IVth Dynasty), and at about the same time death masks were also introduced.t1_ While the latter custom never attained any great importance, the making of a portrait model of the head was developed until eventually a statue of the whole body was modelled. This statue was supposed to become the habitation of the “‘ Ka’’—one of the twin souls of the dead—while the other (“ Bai’’) passed to the 1 See Junker, Journ. Eg. Arch., vol. i, p. 252 and Pl. XL, and Reisner, Bull. Boston Mus. of Fine Arts, vol. xiii, No. 76, April 1915, where pictures and descriptions of the “‘ substitute heads ” will be found. For Egyptian death masks see Quibell, Excavations at Saqqara 1907-8, p. 118, and Petrie, Tell el Amarna, Pl. I. See also Elliot Smith, Evolution of the Dragon, pp. 16 ff. 26 INTRODUCTION other world to become deified in identification with Osiris. The significant place in the Egyptian system occupied by the portrait statue is revealed by the names used for the sculptor—‘ he who causes to live’’—and for the act of making such a statue, which is the same as the Egyptian word meaning “to give birth,’’1 the idea being that the modelling of a life-like portrait was in fact the creation of a living image, a perpetuation of the life of the deceased, in other words a rebirth or renewal of life. But it is worthy of note that this development never deterred the embalmers from their efforts to preserve in the mummy itself the actual lineaments of the dead. Many centuries later they satisfied themselves of their ability to achieve this aim, but during the intervening period the statue contributed much to the consolidation of their ritual and beliefs. Some of its outstanding influences should be noticed, because of their reverberations throughout the history of religion. With the invention of the statue proper arose the custom of housing it in a chamber on the surface of the earth as an efficient animate representative of the body it duplicated, which lay at rest, safely hidden away in a sub- terranean vault. To the statue in its own apartment were made the periodical offerings of food, incense and libations, and the animating ceremonies that were thought to be necessary for the continuance of the existence of the dead man. The offerings of incense and libations were of par- ticular importance, inasmuch as they were intended to restore to the corpse those vital odours and moisture the absence of which was the most conspicuous difference between the mummy and the living person.2 Ignorant as they were of the physiological aspects of life and death, it 1 See Capart, Egyptian Art, London, 1923, p. 173. 2 See below, Chapter II, where this subject is fully discussed (pp. 85-37). 27 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES seemed to them the obvious course to pursue, to give back to the body of the dead such attributes of life as were not present in the corpse. The absence of bodily odour and of moisture they sought to overcome by the use of incense and the pouring out of libations before the mummy or the statue. Similarly, the mouth was opened to restore to it the breath of life, and the reanimation of the dead was attempted by the performance of dramatic action in the tomb. When these ceremonies had been executed it was supposed that the dead monarch continued his existence, and that as, during his reign, he had been the guardian of the realm, so would his reincarnation continue to protect and guide his successors in the task of government. As already suggested, these rites were periodically repeated in the case of every individual king. At first the reigning king would be responsible for the maintenance in due season of the celebrations on which depended the immortality of his ancestors. In course of time the combined demands of religion and of government inevitably became so onerous as to necessitate separation, and when this was realised the way was clear for the emergence, for the first time, of a professional priesthood. This differentiation of function produced further reaction upon the religious structure. The offering of food, incense, and libations was originally made in the precincts of the tomb itself for the purpose of providing “‘ life’’ to the departed. But with the growing elaboration of the tombs and the growth of a priestly caste, over a long period of time, this original intention was over- shadowed by a new conception of the rites as an act of worship of the deified dead. When this new idea had taken root in the minds of men the previously essential identity of the place of worship with the tomb was forgotten. Hence the practice arose of conducting religious ceremonies in a temple that might be far removed from the spot in 28 INTRODUCTION which the bodies that prompted such ritual acts lay en- shrined. Such was the origin of places of worship, not merely of ancient but also of modern times. To the same course of development may also be ascribed the beginning of the practice of setting up “ graven images ”’ as deities. The Kings of Egypt, for whose sole benefit mummification was originally devised, were regarded (after the IVth Dynasty) as beings of divine descent—Sons of the Sun. The portrait statues set up to each of them as the habitation of the ‘“‘Ka’’ was thus itself an embodiment of godhead, and the separation of temple and tomb made it easy for the laymen at least to overlook its representative char- acter, and to come to consider it as a divinity which was in itself a fit object of worship. All these are indications of the way in which the long process of the consolidation of Egyptian culture affected the subsequent development of civilisation. Similar influ- ences were brought to bear on the more material elements of culture. Two of the arts which derived their first in- spiration from the. practice of mummification have already been indicated. Elaboration of the tombs was the main- spring of architectural progress under the Pharaohs, which was characterised by the use of stone and the development of the technique of masonry, while the making of portrait statues as a means of securing immortality provided the first powerful incentive to the life-like reproduction of the human form in statuary. Similarly the art of fine woodwork was developed from the making of coffins, the use of which was evolved during the series of changes and custom which ultimately brought about the substitution of entombment for inhumation. In his recent address to the British Associ- ation at Liverpool, Professor Percy E. Newberry criticised the claim that the Egyptians invented the crafts of the carpenter and the shipbuilder on the ground that suitable 29 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES timber was lacking in Egypt. But the evidence in demon- stration of the fact that they did really devise these practices is clear and definite. Professor Reisner’s excavations at Naga ed Dér in Upper Egypt reveal every stage in the gradual development in the use of local wood; and it is patent that it was the empirical knowledge so acquired that prompted the Egyptians to search for and import better timber from abroad. This they did by means of ships built in imitation (not merely in shape, but also in method of construction) of the papyrus floats devised for use on the Nile. Similarly the fundamental importance of their burial customs to the Egyptians led to the conscious improvement and elaboration, in the interests of the dead, of metal work, jewellery, and ceramics, superb examples of which have been found in the royal tombs, and especially in that of Tutankhamen, which is unique in having been found almost intact. Such reflections as these make for a readier acknowledg- ment than is usually accorded of the great part played in history by Egypt, and of the significance of the mummy as the synthesising factor in our understanding of that réle. But there is a further consideration to be borne in mind, the importance of which lies in the evidence it affords that this ancient influence has not been confined to the world known to the Pharaohs, but has been extended and expanded until there is hardly a spot in the world as we now know it that does not bear in its own culture some trace of the earliest of civilisations. The reasons for the origin of mum- mification in Egypt we have seen. The close relationship subsisting between this practice and the use of stone, both for constructing tombs and temples, and for the erection of statues, is also easily apparent. But when we think of the general characteristics of Egyptian arts and beliefs, all closely moulded by the peculiar conditions of the valley of 30 INTRODUCTION the Nile, we find scores of other unrelated elements welded by the most fortuitous circumstances into a unique whole that could have been evolved in no other part of the world. The worship of the sun and the serpent, the use of the symbols of the winged disk, the complicated myths of the creation of the world and of man’s destruction by a universal deluge, such curious practices as tattooing, artificial deforma- tion of the head and * couvade,”’ these are but a few of the many elements that entered into the cultural complex of Ancient Egypt. When, therefore, in examining the civilisations of other races and other periods, we find all over the world the same concatenation of these and many other elements that are distinctively Egyptian in character, we are constrained to recognise the fact of the widespread diffusion of that ancient culture. And to relate this con- clusion more closely to the mummy which so largely con- ditioned its shape, it may be pointed out that the practice of mummification itself has had a distribution extending from Asia Minor southwards into the African interior, westwards into Europe, and eastwards, by way of India, Burma and Indo-China to New Guinea and the islands of the Pacific, whence it spread to Peru and permeated Central America,!_ while Egyptian literature examined by Dr. Blackman makes it certain that the use of incense and libations originated out of the practice of embalming, so that in every part of the world where these customs are observed we have indirect evidence of the influence of Egyptian ideas. Thus we see that the cultural structures of races in every continent of the globe have owed parts either of their formative inspiration, or of the elements entering into them, ? Elliot Smith : The Migrations of Early Culture. 31 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES to the genius of the remote past in Egypt. It is in the light of this realisation that we must seek understanding of the full significance of that genius in world affairs, and the importance of the study of the mummy as its most vital expression. 32 FIG. I.—THE EARLIEST BODY, AS YET KNOWN, EXHIBITING AN ATTEMPT AT MUMMIFICATION, lind DYNASTY (From Mr. Quibell’s photograph of the boby in situ in the broken coffin) FIG, 2.—PREDYNASTIC BODIES WITH A LARGE CAKE OF RESIN JN SITU IN THE GRAVE FIG. 3.—HEAD OF A MUMMY, PROBABLY OF THE vth DYNASTY (Now in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, London) ALSVNAG Y}ITIAX ‘€dVHNGUVH AO AWOL NVGSHL YHL WOU ! NOISSHOOUd IVYANNA NVILdADA—'b “DIT CE densdoadey wader alaleta wisdechareiebeb: aledeat coy La Lee Ee aa Eek ad [RAR RRR CHAPTER II THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF AN EGYPTIAN S the mummy was the central figure in the complex and elaborate ceremonies enacted at the funeral of an Egyptian and was the host and occupant of the tomb, a brief account must be given of the rites which were performed after the embalmers’ work was finished and the wrapped and coffined mummy ready for the tomb. It must be remembered that the whole funerary cult of the Egyptians was originally intended only for the King, and it was the result of a gradual democratisation of religious ideas + that it was borrowed during the old kingdom for nobles and for the highest officials, extending more and more as time went on, and percolating to other and lower ranks of the population, but its kingly origin was never forgotten and traces of it reappear again and again, as we shall presently see. By his death and embalming, and by virtue of the magical and religious ceremonies enacted in connexion therewith, the dead man became identified with Osiris, the dead King par excellence, and he went through, in theory at least, all the phases that befel the god after his fatal conflict with Seth. For the purposes of this description, we will take the burial of an Egyptian noble of the New Kingdom, a period 1 This democratisation is admirably worked out by Breasted in his Develop- ment of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt. 33 E EGYPTIAN MUMMIES when the funerary cult had reached its greatest elaboration. The account is therefore mainly based upon the Theban Tomb of Amenemhét, not only because it is a good repre- sentative of its class, but because it is the subject of an admirable memoir to which reference is continually made throughout this book, to which we cannot adequately express our indebtedness, and which is far and away the best exposition published on Egyptian funerary ceremonies. We know very little of what immediately followed the physical death of an Egyptian. The death-bed is a scene never represented as far as we are aware, but an Old Kingdom tomb portrays very vividly the sudden death of a noble who collapses on the ground in the. midst of his family whose grief is unmistakably depicted, whilst his wife, over- come by emotion, swoons into the arms of two attendants.? Inthe Royal Tomb at Tell-el-Amarna the death and mourning of a princess is depicted. From the day of death to the completion of the burial rites the usual period of time was seventy days, during which the corpse was handed over 1 The Theban Tombs Series, vol. i. The Tomb of Amenemhét (No. 82), copied in line and colour by Nina de Garis Davies, with explanatory text by Alan H. Gardiner, D.Litt. London, 1915. Amongst the other Theban Tombs utilised in this chapter the following may be mentioned as the principal sources :— The Tomb of Rekhmiré (No. 100). Virey: Mém. Miss. Arch., t. v, fase. 1. The Tomb of Haremhab (No. 78). Bouriant: idem., fasc. 2, pp. 418-484. The Tomb of Neferhotpe (No. 50). Benedite: idem. fasc. 2, pp. 489-540. The Tomb of Antefoker (No. 60) (Middle Kingdom). Davies: The Tomb of Antefoker and his Wife Senet. London, 1920. The five tombs (Nos. 20, 21, 103, 165, 154) published by Davies in his Five Theban Tombs, London 1918, have also been used. : The Tomb of Paheri at El Kab (early XVIIIth Dynasty) is also often quoted. See Griffith-Tylor: The Tomb of Paheri (Egypt Expl. Fund, XIth Memoir), 1894. (The numbers of the tombs refer to those in Gardiner and Weigall, Topo- graphical Catalogue of the Private Tombs of Thebes, London 1913.) 2 Bissing: Denkmdler Aeg. Sculptur, Pl. 188, quoted by Gardiner, op. cit. p. 45, note 1. Reproduced also in Capart: Rue de Tombeauz, Pl. LXXI. 34 BURIAL OF AN EGYPTIAN to the embalmers, whose finished product was the bandaged mummy ready to receive the last rites from earthly minis- trants before its consignment to the depths of the tomb.!_ The embalmers’ workshop was called the House of Purification of the Good House, and in it a long and complicated series of rites was enacted during the wrapping of the mummy and the placing of its amulets in their places.2. The details of the actual process of mummification will be fully described in the later chapters which describe mummies of various periods ; ® for the present it will suffice to say that the body was first eviscerated, soaked in a salt-bath, and finally anointed and wrapped in its complex clothing of bandages.* Throughout all these ceremonies, and also those which followed, libations were poured out and incense burnt. The significance of incense and libations, to which reference was made in Chapter I, has been subjected to a careful study by Blackman, who in a series of illuminating memoirs has traced the origin and purpose of this aspect of the funerary ritual. Blackman has shown that these ceremonies imparted to the body the moisture and warmth which it had lost during the process of mummification, and also was the means by which the sun-god was reborn daily and by which the inert corpse of Osiris was revivified. It is in this latter aspect that its significance in the funerary cere- monies is most important. The Osirian lustrations were 1 For the period see Chapter III and where the Ritual of Embalming is also discussed. 2 For the amulets and the texts relating thereto see pp. 147-153. 3 See Chapters V—VIII. 4 Pictures of the wrapping and decoration of mummies are rare, but a good instance may be seen in Maspero, Struggle of the Nations, 2nd. ed., pp. 510 and 511, reproduced from Rossellini. 5 Zeitschrift fur Agyptische Sprache, t. 50, pp. 69 ff. Journal of Egyptian Archeology, t. v, pp. 118-124 and 148-165. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, t. xl, pp. 57-66 and 86-91. Recueil de Travaux, t. 39, pp. 44-78. See also Elliot-Smith : Evolution of the Dragon, chap. i. 35 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES performed with water obtained from the mythical source of the Nile (the Island of Bigeh), where a dismembered leg of the god was deposited, and the water was regarded as its sacred emanation. The body of Osiris had been dis- membered at his death and his limbs scattered throughout the cities of Egypt. They were afterwards collected and his body was made whole and embalmed and became revivified by the magical power of Isis and other divinities.1 Conse- quently the formule recited during the lustration of the Osirian dead often speak of the corpse as though it were dismembered like that of Osiris. Thus the lector-priest, during the washing of the dead body of Dhut-hotpe in his tomb at El Bersheh, recites the words: ‘‘ Unite to thee thy bones: what appertains to thee is complete.” 2 In his article in the Recueil de Travauex already cited, which is the authority for the above statements, the author has collected all the known instances of the dead undergoing lustration in the embalmers’ workshop.? The dead man, who is visualised as living,* and represented as fully clothed, stands upon a large pan or squats over a large jar whilst two or more lustrators pour water over him. Blackman suggests with great probability that the jar or vessel beneath the body is to catch the moisture which drains therefrom after its removal from the salt-bath, which would thus have contained a quantity of matter exuded from the body (op. cit. p. 55). Whilst the life-giving lustration water mingled with it as it flowed into the jar the dead man * For a useful collection of data on the myth of Osiris we have frequently consulted Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, 2 vols., London, 1911, although we cannot always accept his conclusions. * Blackman : Journ. Eg. Arch., t. v, p. 119. Newberry : El Bersheh, t.i, Pl. X. * Recueil de Travaux, t. 39, pp. 53-55 and Pl. III. To these must be added the corresponding scene in the Tomb of Amenhotpe-si-se, published in vol. iii of the Theban Tombs Series, Pl. XV (1924). * See Dawson: ‘A Rare Vignette from the Book of the Dead,” in Journ. Eg. Arch., vol. x, pt.i. p. 40. 36 BURIAL OF AN EGYPTIAN would be revivified with these potent emanations, which by his identification with Osiris became the emanations from the god of the potency of which the religious texts of all periods from the Pyramid Age to Roman times speak again and again. This interpretation is of special importance in view of the discoveries made from time to time in the Theban necropolis of piles of pots filled with rags and salt which are, as Mr. H. E. Winlock states, ‘‘ the refuse of embalmers’ shops.” His report of the finding of such deposits is of such interest that we make no apology for quoting the following extracts from it:} This year alone we ran across three such caches of the later periods, and two years ago we found the same sort of things left over from the embalming of the body of Mehenkwetre. A little chamber had been provided for them near the tomb because they had been in contact with the dead man’s body and therefore contained some of the essence of his being, but outside of the courtyard because all that appertained to em- balming was essentially impure. That chamber had been entered before our day, but this year we found the similar chamber of the tomb of Ipy just as it had been sealed up after his funeral, and some of the things in it were, so far as we know, unique. . . . The great noble had provided for the embalming of his body most liberally. Cloths, salts, aromatic oils, sawdust and countless pottery vessels, far beyond ordinary require- ments, were laid aside against the day of his death. In addition a wooden platform 7 ft. 1 in. long and 4 ft. 2} in. wide was prepared with four wooden blocks of ghastly similarity to those on the dissecting tables of modern medical schools. ... Then, after the embalming was com- pleted and Ipy’s mummy duly wrapped in its bandages, all that had touched it was gathered up religiously for the possession of so much as a hair of his head by an enemy would provide the means of bewitching him. Soiled rags, broken pots, left-over salts . . . were packed in sixty- seven large jars, which were sealed and carried up to the little chamber by the tomb.? 1 “ The Egyptian Expedition MCMXXI-MCMXXII,” part ii of the Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, December 1922, p. 34. 2 We cannot agree with this interpretation, as all the facts as well as the Egyptian texts, seem to prove just the reverse. The emanations of the corpse, being assimilated to Osiris, were the essence of the god himself, which were therefore doubly sacred and abundantly treated as such in innumerable religious texts. 3 Op. cit. p. 34. 37 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES Some of these jars still lie in the rope sling-nets in which they were carried. Two similar sets of jars in sling-nets and hung upon poles for carrying were found in the tomb of, and lying beside, a XVIIth Dynasty mummy at Qurneh _by Petrie,t which had doubtless served a similar purpose, and other instances might be quoted. Although the lustration of the body and the vessels used in connexion herewith is of the greatest importance and contains many of the foundation-stones of Egyptian funerary ideas, it cannot be further elaborated now. Enough, however, has been said to show that these rites, like all the others connected with burial customs, were a dramatic re-enaction of the embalming and burial of Osiris, in which the dead man played the part of the god and his priestly ministrants played the parts of the gods who assisted at the obsequies of Osiris. We will now turn our attention to the funeral procession which set out from the dead man’s house and accompanied him to the tomb. (Fig. 4.) A frequently depicted episode is the journey to Abydos (Fig. 4, lowest register). Like many of the other episodes, the scene is easy to describe but difficult to explain. The dead man and his wife sit under a canopy in a state barge towed by a boat with two rows of oarsmen. The barge is accompanied by others on which the priests perform sacrifices and rites as the journey proceeds. Whatever its original purpose may have been, all the evidence seems to point to the fact which Gardiner has brought out so well,2— that the journey at least in the New Kingdom, if not earlier, had no objective reality, but was replaced by a mere pictorial * Petrie: Qurneh, pp. 6 ff. and Pl. XXIV. * Gardiner : op. cit. p. 48. * Davies: Tomb of Antefoker, p. 19. 38 BURIAL OF AN EGYPTIAN representation on the tomb walls. The procession had to cross the Nile, or at least some of its rites were performed on the water, and in many tombs these aquatic incidents and the journey to Abydos are all placed together. The shrine, the coffin and the mourners are shown in light papyrus skiffs on the water. A curious survival of the times when the burial rites were exclusive to kings is the frequent representation of statues, usually two in number, wearing the Red Crown of the Pharaoh. These are generally carried at the head of the procession of servants bearing tomb furniture. They are also shown on the boats, usually with a sacrificial joint laid before them by an officiating priest.” The simplest representations of the funeral procession and ceremonies are those which illustrate the funerary papyri (Book of the Dead) of the XVIIIth, XTXth and XXth Dynasties. These show the hearse, the mourners, the servants bearing furniture, and the final rites before the mummy at the door of the tomb. The pictures in the tombs go into much greater detail, and display a great amount of variation. The order of the procession is not always the same but the stamp of a common tradition pervades all the pictures. Sepulchral stele sometimes give summarised versions of the funeral ceremonies. The stela C 15 isa very remarkable 1 Rekhmiré, Pls. XTX and XXII; Antefoker, Pl. XXI. In the Tomb of Haremhab, these two figures are represented by busts, like that found in the Tomb of Tutankhamen, but wearing the wig head-dress instead of crowns. Royal crowns are frequently included amongst the burial equipment of non- royal persons on coffins of the Middle Kingdom, and amongst,groups of such objects in the tombs of the New Kingdom. For the former see Lacau: Sarco- phages anterieurs au Nouvel Empire, t. ii, Pl. LIV; and for the latter, Bouriant : Tombeau de Harmhabi, Pl. V. 2 Rekhmiré, Pls. XIX and XX. Antefoker, Pl. XVIII. 3 E.g. the Papyri of Any, Henufer, etc., or in a still briefer form, Naville, Papyrus of Iouiya, Pl. Il. 39 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES example. (See Fig. 5, reproduced by permission of the authorities of the Louvre Museum.) The whole procession moves westward towards a figure of the goddess of the West, who wears her characteristic emblems upon her head. The mummy lies in a shrine or canopy upon a lion-headed bier, the whole being placed upon a sledge drawn by oxen and by men.! In some cases the outer sarcophagus is placed in the shrine with the mummy on its bier above it, and in other cases the sarcophagus is carried separately.2, Two women, impersonating Isis and Nephthys, precede the mummy, either on the sledge or on foot. The two goddesses are called the “ great kite” and the “‘ little kite,” and are sometimes replaced by figures of birds. Behind the hearse another sledge drawn by men follows. This bears, usually on a couch and in a canopy, a coffer, doubtless the chest containing the four canopic jars in which the separately embalmed viscera are deposited. In some cases the canopic box is omitted, and the four jars are placed under the bier in the hearse. Parties of mourning women with bare breasts and dishevelled hair follow the coffin, giving vent to their grief. Next in order comes a procession of servants bearing chests full of clothing,’ ornaments and other property for the tomb. The objects 1 The shrine is sometimes closed and conceals the mummy (Haremhab, Rekhmiré), but is more often open (Amenemhét, Antefoker). The shrine also often stands upon a boat, which in its turn is carried on the sledge (Haremhab, Rekhmiré). In some cases there is neither bier nor boat, and in some scenes the sledge itself is lion-headed (Mentuherkhepeshef, etc.). 2 See Griffith-Tylor : Tombof Paheri, P1.V. The coffin is carried separately over the river (Paheri, Antefoker), or on the shoulders of the bearers on land (Antefoker). 3 On the sledge more often. On foot in Paheri. 4 The Canopic Box was often fitted with runners and combined the box and sledge in one unit, e.g. Quibell : Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu, Pls. XIV and XV. 5’ E.g. Papyrus of Henufer. 6 Papyrus of Ani, Pls. V and VI. 7 In the Tomb of Haremhab the servants precede the hearse, 40 aN MEE ? SE FIG. 5 =——1THE STELA NO. CC. 15 OF THE LOUVRE (Photo by Professor J. Capart, reproduced by permission of the authorities of the Louvre Museum) PIG. 6.—AN xXIth DYNASTY MUMMY FROM DEIR-EL-BAHARI—THE PRINCESS HENHENIT 3 > ~ s s a y ef v AN Wr WN ee: y SS ==) (xvuith DyNasTy) PHARAOH AAHMOSIS I. HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF THI FIG. 7. ) NASTY (EARLY xXvilIth Dy RAY THE LADY HEAD OF 8. FIG, BURIAL OF AN EGYPTIAN contained in these chests are usually depicted above them, and are of the same nature as those depicted upon the coffins of the Middle Kingdom.? A frequent but very obscure feature of the funeral pro- cession is the figure of a man wrapped in an ox-hide and huddled up or crouching upon a sledge drawn by four men. This is called the tekenu, but what its origin or function may be is entirely obscure.? The figure is usually completely covered in the hide, and appears as a pear-shaped object upon the sledge® (Fig. 4, first register). In some cases the head is uncovered,‘ and in one tomb, that of Mentuher- khepeshef, the tekenu plays a more obtrusive part, and is quite exceptional both in pose and function.° The long and complex series of pictures which in the tombs we have so frequently referred to, as well as in many others, deal with an entirely obscure series of rites, the meaning and purpose of which we can do little more than guess at. As so often in these pages, we can only refer to the admirable account of them in the T'omb of Amenemhét.® The procession has now arrived at the entrance of the tomb, and the mummy is taken from the hearse and placed upright upon a mound of sand facing the mourners. The rites now to be performed are magical in character and have for their object the transformation of the mummy from an inert corpse to a living being capable of performing all its 1 See Lacau: Sarcophages anterieurs au Nouvel Empire, Pls. XXX-LIV. 2 See Davies: Tomb of Antefoker, Pl]. XXIIa and p. 22 with footnote I. Gardiner: op. cit., pp. 50,51. Moret: Mystéres Egyptiens, pp. 42 ff. 3 Haremhab, Paheri, Amenemhét, Neferrenpit (Brussels). 4 Antefoker, Rekhmiré. 5 Davies: Five Theban Tombs, pp. 9, 10, 14. 6 Pp. 52-57, and especially 55. For the corresponding scenes in other tombs we may mention :— Paheri, Pl. V; Rekhmiré, Pls. XIX-XXVIII; Five Theban Tombs, Pls. II, VI-X and XXI. 41 F EGYPTIAN MUMMIES bodily functions in the life of the next world. These cere- monies were very long and complex, and are known as The Opening of the Mouth. In the Royal Tombs they are depicted at great length and comprise a long series of episodes. In the private tombs, however, only an abstract is usually given, although even this abstract may comprise a con- siderable number of episodes. In ancient times it appears that the ceremonies of Opening the Mouth were performed upon a statue of the dead man, but in the New Kingdom the mummy itself takes the place of the statue, except in the case of kings, when the statue is retained. Wooden statues of several of the kings of the XVIIIth and XIXth Dynasties have been found, the finest specimens of which are the two dis- covered in the Tomb of Tutankhamen, which retained their gold ornaments and insignia.t In the Tomb of Rekhmiré all the ceremonies are performed upon a statue of the dead man clad in a long white kilt and holding a staff, instead of upon his mummy. The reason for this may possibly be that the mummy itself was inaccessible, for this tomb contains no burial chamber, the body having been laid to rest elsewhere. Whether represented by his mummy or by a statue, the deceased stands upon a mound of sand prescribed by ritual, and several different priests carry out the ceremonies. These comprise censing and lustration, the sacrifice of an ox, and the touching of the mouth, jaws and eyes with magical instruments which restored to them their functions. A * Coloured pictures of the statues of Tutankhamen have been published in Wonders of the Past, Part I, pp. 19 and 20. ‘The statue of Sety I, which is depicted on the walls of his tomb undergoing the ceremonies of Opening the Mouth, is in the British Museum (Guide to the Egyptian Galleries [Sculpture] p- 158, No. 567, 1909), A similar statue of Amenophis II was found in the tomb of that king. 42 BURIAL OF AN EGYPTIAN frequently depicted but very obscure episode is the awaken- ing of the sem-priest, who lies huddled up upon a couch under an ox-skin in an attitude recalling that of the tekenu, to which we have already alluded, and with which it may possibly have some connexion. One of the priests imper- sonates Horus and is called the “* Beloved Son,” yet another instance of the fact that the whole of the ritual is reminiscent of the passion of Osiris. Other priests proceed to anoint and clothe the dead man and the rite terminates with a banquet, the prescribed menu for which is set out at length on the walls of the tomb. The whole ceremony is of very ancient origin; it is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts of the Vth and VIth Dynasties and appears in tombs of even earlier date. After the completion of these ceremonies the mourners are entertained at a sumptuous feast, and whilst they eat and drink they are entertained by musicians and dancers, who sing to the accompaniment of harps and other instru- ments the praises of the dead man, or songs treating of life and death. Of these songs the two most famous are those in the Tomb of Neferhotpe and of one of the Antef Kings, a copy of which is preserved in a papyrus in the British Museum.? Meanwhile the mummy has been lowered into the burial chamber together with all its equipment, and a priest wearing a mask and impersonating Anubis gives the finishing touches to the arrangements. Another priest, impersonating Thoth, is the last to leave the chamber, and he drags along the ground a kind of broom made of the 1 For a full description see the great work of Schiaparelli: Jl Libro det Funerali, 3 vols., Turin 1882-1890. Budge: The Book of Opening the Mouth. 2 vols., 1909. Maspero : Etudes de Mythologie, etc., vol. i, pp. 283-824, Gardiner: op. cit. pp. 57 ff. ; and for the scenes, see the Theban tombs already quoted and Lefebure : Le Tombeau de Seti I, pt. iii, Pls. II—XII, and numerous papyri of the New Kingdom, such as those of Any, Henufer, etc. 2 Egyptian Hieratic Papyri, Second Series, Pls. XLV and XLVI (1923). 43 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES hdn-plant. This act is perhaps to banish all evil spirits from the chamber, and to delete from the sand with which the floor is sprinkled all footprints, and thus ensure its integrity.! Such, in briefest outline, are the principal events at an Kgyptian funeral. The material is almost unlimited, and almost every tomb presents variations in detail. Some of them introduce innovations, others are archaic and show the ceremonies in earlier stages of development, but all bear the stamp of a common tradition. For full information the reader is referred to the various works cited in the foot- notes. These references by no means supply a complete bibliography, but aim at nothing more than a reference to the most accessible and reliable publications in which fuller details and bibliographical notes abound. 1 This rite is called “ Bringing the Foot”? and may possibly mean ‘“ Re- moving the Footprint.” See the discussion of the rite by Gardiner, op. cit. pp. 93, 94, where numerous instances of its occurrence are quoted. For the arrangement of the burial chamber and the objects therein, see Gardiner, op. cit. pp. 110-118. 44, CHAPTER III EGYPTIAN TEXTS RELATING TO EMBALMING in number. It is strange that a nation which has bequeathed to posterity such a large mass of docu- ments on every variety of subject should have so little in- formation to impart on the most characteristic and special- ised feature of its elaborate funerary cult. It is true that the Pyramid Teats, the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead are full of allusions to Osirian myth and to such rites as incense-burning and lustration, which became inextricably interwoven therewith, and similar allusions occur in many mythological and magical texts. The following are all that are known to us as having any direct dealings with any part of the ceremonies of embalming. 1. The Ritual of Embalming.—This text has come down to us in two papyri: one in the Cairo Museum? (Pap. Boulag, No. 8), the other in the Louvre? (No. 5158). Both are of late period (Roman) and are contemporary; they are copied, if not by the same scribe, at least from the same original. They are written in the characteristic hieratic script of the period, but from the mythological and other Ts Egyptian texts relating to embalming are few 1 Mariette: Les Papyrus égyptiens du Musée du Boulaq, Paris 1871, t. i. 2 Deveria: Catalogue des Manuscrits égyptiens du Louvre, Paris 1881, pp. 168, 169. Maspero: Mémoire sur quelques Papyrus du Louvre, Paris 1878, pp. 14-104 and 2 plates. 3 For evidence as to this see Maspero: op. cit. p. 16. 45 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES data they contain it would seem that they are a late redaction of an older book, or at least embody older ideas. The text contained in these two manuscripts is, unfor- tunately, far from complete. The Cairo text consists of the last ten pages of a work whose first part is entirely lost, but we have no means of estimating how many pages are missing. Of these ten pages, the first is so badly damaged as to be useless, the second has lost the beginning of most of the lines, but the remaining eight are in good preservation. The Paris text duplicates the last two pages. The ritual may be divided into two headings: (i) a series of directions to the officiant as to acts to be performed by him upon the mummy; (ii) prayers and incantations to be recited after each of such acts. The book is essentially a religious one, and not a handbook on embalming for the use of Egyptian priests. It contains no directions relating to, nor indeed any mention of, the technical details of em- balming. It prescribes the use and application of various unguents, amulets and bandages to be applied to the body after it has been eviscerated and taken out of the salt-bath. Perhaps when entire it contained directions as to the anoint- ing and wrapping of the whole body, but what remains of it relates to the head (§§i, ii, vii, viii, ix and x), the back (§§ ii, iv and v), the hands (§§ vi and xi), and the arms, legs and feet (§ xii). We are now concerned only with the directions them- selves and will entirely disregard the incantations, although the latter constitute the greater part of the work. As far as we are aware, there is no complete translation extant other than the admirable pioneer study by Maspero,! which embodies a full translation and an elaborate commentary. * Mémoire sur quelques Papyrus du Louvre, Paris 1878. 46 EGYPTIAN TEXTS This translation must necessarily be the basis of all others, but a modern treatment of the text is badly needed. The text has been transcribed afresh and retranslated by one of us, and Professor Griffith was good enough to read through the pertinent passages of it with the translator, but owing to the difficulties both textual and otherwise with which it abounds, no consecutive translation would be intelligible without a bulky commentary which would be quite out of place in this book. We therefore decided merely to summarise the passages which directly concern us. The text abounds in mythological allusions which often render it extremely obscure. It must be confessed that there is little to be learned concerning mummification from the Ritual of Embalming, but it is of too great importance to be ignored. §i. Direction to the operator to anoint the mummy’s head with frankincense. (Pap. Boulaq, 2, 1.) §ii. Direction to take an unguent vase filled with specified ointments such as are used for the Opening of the Mouth. An officiant called the ‘* Treasurer of the God ” is to anoint the whole body from the head to the soles of the feet, but omitting the head itself. (Pap. Boulag, 2, 5-6.) The “ Treasurer of the God” appears to correspond to the raptxevrns of the Greek texts.1 § ii. The next direction is very obscure, and appears to refer to another anointing, and mentions the ** children of Horus,’’ which seem to refer to the 1 The title, according to Blackman, is a legacy from the time when the burial ceremonies were performed for kings only. (See his article ‘‘ Priest, Priesthood (Egyptian),” § XIVd, in Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.) 47 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES separately embalmed viscera. (Pap. Boulag, 2, 16-17.) §iv. Directions for the ‘children of Horus ” and for anointing the back with “fat” (mrh-t). (Pap. Boulag, 2, 18-20.) §v. Further directions for anointing and wrapping the back. Some reference is apparently made to filling the skull with medicaments. (Pap. Boulaq, 3, 13.) § vi. Directions for gilding the nails and winding the fingers in “ linen of Sais.”"1_ (Pap. Boulag, 3, 15.) § vii. Ceremonies performed by “ Anubis, the chief of Mysteries,” and ‘“‘ the Treasurer of the God.” (Pap. Boulagq, 4, 7-8.) Anubis was the embalmer, par excellence, and a priest impersonated him. This god is seen in innumerable tomb- pictures and papyri in attendance upon the mummy. § viii. A long section giving directions for the anointing and bandaging of the head, with a detailed specification of the bandages to be used for each part of the head, giving the magical names of each. Thus the descriptions and names of a long series of bandages are given for applica- tion to the ears, nostrils, cheeks, brow, occiput, mouth, chin, and neck. The application of these bandages is finished off by affixing a linen band of two fingers’ width and anointing the whole 1 The nails of mummies were often gilded in late times. (See Pettigrew : Egyptian Mummies, pp. 63-4.) ‘Linen of Sais ” is frequently mentioned in the texts, e.g. Stele of Amen- hotpe, 1. 12 (Miss. Arch., vol. i, pp. 26 and 52), Loret : Rec. de Travaux, vol. iv, p. 22; Tomb of Khaemhét (No. 57 = Miss. Arch., vol. i, p. 180), ete. 48 NS y] CoM, a4 BD. g.—HEAD OF THE LADY RAY (PR FIG. (ALSVNAG U}IIIAX) (ALSVNAC U}IIIAX) ‘Ill SIHAONAINV ‘NVW NMONANQN NV AO AWNOAW FHL JO GVAaH—'II ‘Ola HOVYVHI AHL AO AWWAW AHL AO GVAH—OL ‘OIa we ne. --) eee wah ¢ - Yj Gf Ky YH LY y * y j Wy Ey Ine i ) ‘ | iy 4 L } ) Wi ¥ ) iy) MUMMY OF THE ELDER WOMAN FOUND IN THE TOMB OF AMENOPHIS Il. (xviuth DYNASTY) HiGs. LZ. 4 4 4 Pg *g. 4 14 ey NY Wo BIG. I3.—MUMMY OF THE ELDER WOMAN FOUND IN THE TOMB OF AMENOPHIS II (PROFILE). (xvilIth DYNASTY) ' (= ae . a >. , ve end pis A 7 ae Pa s | ae ee) Sans 2 — 2a mtg ene eects wae mpaeen EGYPTIAN TEXTS with “ thick oil”? (doubtless the resinous paste which is so often found upon actual mummies). (Pap. Boulaq, 4, 9-16.) §ix. Directions for further anointing of the head with frankincense and fat, and for enwrapping certain spices. (Pap. Boulag, 7, 1-2.) § x. Long directions for anointing and wrapping of the hands. An ointment consisting of ‘‘ Amu- flowers 1 part, Resin of Coptos 1, Natron 1.”’ The bandages are all identified with gods and god- desses, and the vignette at the top of the papyrus shows several deities bringing bandages to the mummy lying on acouch. (Pap. Boulaq, 7, 7-16.) § xi. A similar passage describing bandages, with figures of gods, etc., traced upon them, used for the hands. (Pap. Boulag, 8, 16-22.) § xii. Directions for the anointing and bandaging of the arms, feet and legs. (Pap. Boulaq, 9, 13-18 ; Pap. Louvre, 2, 1-7.) These twelve directions, alternating with long incanta- tions and prayers, are, as already mentioned, very elaborate but extremely obscure. It is difficult to believe that they were ever strictly carried out, but there is so little known as to the wrappings of actual mummies that it is unsafe to say whether inscribed bandages and other details of the ritual are verifiable or not. We know of no detailed account of the bandaging of late mummies, such as have been made in a few instances for earlier ones.!_ Possibly the burial with the mummy of a copy of the ritual was a sufficient substitute ? For the bandaging of two Middle-Kingdom mummies see M. A. Murray : The Tomb of Two Brothers, pp. 54-64; XVIIth Dynasty, Petrie: Qurneh, pp. 8,9; XXIst Dynasty, Mace and Elliot Smith: Annales du Service, 1906, pp. 166-180 and Pls. IV-VI. 49 G EGYPTIAN MUMMIES for the actual performance of the details; but until an opportunity arises of examining the wrappings of a series of late mummies, judgment must be reserved. Various other points arising out of this text will be discussed after the next has been dealt with. This latter text is likewise found in two late funerary papyri—the Bilingual Rhind Papyri at Edinburgh. 2. The Rhind Papyri.—These two papyri were found by A. H. Rhind in an XVIIIth Dynasty tomb at Thebes, which was occupied by an intrusive burial of several mummies of the Ptolemaic Period. An account of the discovery of the tomb was given shortly after by Rhind in his book on the Theban Tombs?! and a coloured facsimile by Netherclift, with a translation and notes by Dr. Birch, followed shortly after.2. The text, which is written both in hieratic and demotic characters, was exhaustively studied by Brugsch, who devoted a special memoir to it. With the great development of demotic scholarship in recent years a new edition of the text was needed, and this was undertaken by the late Dr. Méller, who published an admirable edition of the papyri, with transcriptions, translations and an elaborate and valuable commentary.‘ The composition ® of the papyri is akin to the various late funerary works, such as the Book of Breathings, May my Name Flourish, etc. A certain section, however, affects embalming, and the rendering given below is based upon that of Moller. This section immediately follows the reception of the deceased by Anubis. 1 Thebes, its Tombs and their Tenants, pp. 77 ff. (1862). 2 Facsimiles of Two Papyri found in a Tomb at Thebes, 1863. 8 A. H. Rhind’s Zwei Bilingue Papyri, Leipzig 1865. 4 Die Beiden Totenpapyrus Rhind, Leipzig, 1913. 5 Miller: op. cit. 8 iv, pp. 8 and 10, where the contents of the text are given in tabular form. 50 EGYPTIAN TEXTS Thou camest joyfully out of the operating-chamber. To thee were eight processions (ceremonies) made, divided into thirty-six days. Thou camest forth, I made for thee the ceremony of the Great Lake of Khons, rest (?) in the tomb-chamber of the necropolis of thy town. (There were made ?) nine ceremonies until the seventieth day, because of the seventeen members of the god as follows :— The seven openings of the head, The four sons of Horus, The two legs, The two arms, The breast, The back, Total 17, divided into seventy days in the embalming-room. The Great Isis, the mother of the god, commands to make the beautiful burial of N.* Two hundred and six hin of fat were boiled as is done for a sacred animal. Thou wast rubbed with balsam by Horus, the lord of the laboratory. Shesmu wound with his fingers the divine bandage in order to enwrap thy body with the wrappings of the gods and goddesses. Anubis as embalmer filled thy skull with resin, corn of the gods, . . . cedar oil, mild ox-fat, cinnamon oil; and myrrh is to all thy members. Thy body was invested with holy bandages. Come forth to see the winter sun on the 26th day of Pharmuthi.? The other papyrus has a somewhat similar passage :— Isis went to the burial of N. Fat was boiled for her as is done for the mother of a sacred animal. For her balsam was rubbed in by Horus, lord of the laboratory. Shesmu wound with his fingers the divine bandage, in order to wrap up thy body with the bandages of the gods and goddesses. Anubis the embalmer furnishes thy body with ointment and bandages. Thou comest forth because thou art provided with thine adornment in the likeness of Hathor, mistress of the western land, and seest the winter sun in his sacred boat on the 26th day of Choiakh.? Combining the material of these two texts the passage may be paraphrased as follows :— 1 Here follow the name, titles and filiation of the deceased. 2 Pap. Rhind No. 1, p. 3, 1 ff. (hieratic text). The corresponding demotic text is substantially the same. Miller: op. cit. pp. 18 ff. 3 Pap. Rhind, No. 2, p. 4, 1. 1 ff. (hieratic text). Moller: op. cit. p. 58. 51 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES The deceased (in the first text a man, in the second a woman) is taken triumphantly from the operating-room,1 and eight ceremonies are then performed over a period of thirty-six days. The corpse is then laid in a chamber of the necropolis, where nine further ceremonies are enacted until the 70th day, in honour of the seventeen members of the god (Osiris). These are detailed and may be summarised thus :— (1) The seven openings of the head (ii) The four children of Horus (111) The two legs (iv) The two arms (v) The breast (vi) The back eer) | et be DD ED Total This total of seventeen equals the eight ceremonies up to the 36th day and nine up to the 70th day mentioned above. Isis then orders the burial. Two hundred and six measures (hin) of fat are boiled for the embalming, as is done for the embalming of the sacred animals,? and a mor- tuary priest, impersonating Horus, rubs the body over with balsam. Another priest (Shesmu) winds the bandages to complete investiture of the deceased in the bandages of the gods and goddesses. The embalmer, impersonating Anubis, fills the skull with medicaments and a further wrapping in bandages ensues. The corpse is then ready for his intro- duction to the next world, which is here expressed as meeting the winter sun. 1 Where the flank incision was made and the viscera and brain excised. * See the study of the Apis bull’s embalming in Spiegelberg, Aegyptische Zeitschrift, t. 56, pp. 1 ff. (1920). 52 EGYPTIAN TEXTS In the ceremonies i—vi above, there is no evidence what- ever on which to suppose, as Brugsch! and Revillout ? have done, that “‘ openings’’ are to be understood in the case of Nos. ii-vi. The text specifies seventeen ceremonies to be performed upon seventeen named parts of the body, the first seven of which are the natural openings of the head, viz. the eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth. The Egyptian word here used is ro, which means literally a mouth. In the other cases a different word is used, which, although connected with the verbal root ‘“‘ open,’’ means a procession or ceremony, and the attempt to reconcile the artificial openings made in the body for the purpose of “* packing ”’ it with the statement in the text, is therefore based on faulty premises.® We can perhaps trace a relationship between this text and the Ritual of Embalming. The four children of Horus (i.e. the viscera) are dealt with in § iii and § iv of the Ritual; 4 the legs and arms in § xii, and the back in $iv. Directions are given in § viii for various parts of the head, including the ears, nostrils and mouth, and the filling of the skull, rendered empty by the removal of the brain, has its echo in §v of the Ritual. The “bandages of the gods and goddesses ”’ are likewise detailed in §§ viii, x and xi. The next texts to mention, like the last, state the period occupied by the embalming and subsequent ceremonies. 3. The Stele of Dhout.—The inscription relating to the funeral ceremonies has been published by Gardiner,® and the part which now concerns us he renders as follows :— A goodly burial arrives in peace, thy seventy days having been fulfilled in thy place of embalming. 1 Op. cit. supra. 2 Aegyptische Zeitschrift, t. 18, p. 102. 8 Eliiot Smith : Mémoires de Inst. Eg., t. v, pp. 48 ff. (1906). 4 See above, pp. 47-8. 5 The Tomb of Amenemhét, p. 56 53 ee EGYPTIAN MUMMIES This stele is in Theban Tomb No. 110, and dates from the reign of Queen Hatshepsowet. The same text occurs in the Theban Tomb of Antef (No. 164), which is of the reign of Tuthmosis ITI. 4. British Museum Stele No. 878.1—This stele, which belongs to a priest of Ptolemaic date, states that he had “a goodly burial after the seventy days of his embalming had been fulfilled.” 5. Story of Satne Khamuas.—In this demotic story a passage occurs in which the period of embalming is men- tioned.? It is rendered by Griffith as follows :— And Pharaoh caused to be given to him entry into the Good House? of (?) sixteen days, wrapping up of (?) thirty-five days, coffining in seventy days and he was laid to rest in his sarcophagus in his house of rest. 6. Inscription of Anemher.—A text which is published in Brugsch: Thesaurus, p. 898, is translated by Griffith, which gives particulars as to time, and in this case a period of seventy days is again stated, the burial taking place on the seventy-first day. The following is Griffith’s rendering: — They made for him a burying from the 28th Pharmuti, which was his 4th day (he died on the 24th) according to that that comes in writing, unto the 9th Epiphi, his 71st day making for him every necessary and suitable thing that is customary therein according to that that comes in writing. The 20th Payni to the 29th (?) they cooked unguents, they bound on him the bandages and clothes of byssus and the amulets that are proper for the nobles of Egypt. They made for him every purification, every cleansing (?); they made for him a great and fine coffin according to that that comes in writing from the sixth Epiphi to the end of the mourning, he having entered his house of rest in which his father lay. 1 Sharpe: Egyptian Inscriptions, vol. i, Pl. XLVIII. Budge: Guide to Egyptian Galleries (Sculpture), Brit. Mus., p. 266 (1909). Griffith : Stories of the High Priests of Memphis, p. 29. * “The Good House” or ‘* Beautiful House” is a frequent appellation for the embalmers’ workshop. See Gardiner: Tomb of Amenemhdt, p. 72. 4 Op. cit. pp. 29, 80. 54 EGYPTIAN TEXTS From this it follows that the embalming was carried on up to the 52nd day, the wrapping up to the 67th day, the coffining from the 68th to the 70th day, and the burial o the 71st. “3 The frequent repetition of the period of 70 days, the fixed order of procedure, and the reference to “ that that comes in writing,” makes it evident that the rites of embalm- ing were carried out in conformity with a definite canon, which, however, has not survived. 7. Bologna Stele No. 1042.—A hand copy of this stele is given by Piehl in his Inscriptions hiéroglyphiques, t. i, Pl. XXXVI (text, part i, p. 48). It reads as follows :— Year 22. Payni 24th day. On this day was buried the Osiris N,? after 80 days of embalming. He was happily buried by his eldest son, the prophet Her-ab. This mention of eighty days is quite exceptional, although, if Piehl’s copy is to be trusted, there is no doubt about the reading. 8. Florence Ostracon No. 2616.2 This ostracon contains a fragment of a literary work in which is an allusion to the four canopic jars. The speaker states that the King gave me my four jars for my mummy and my sarcophagus of alabaster. The following references are given for the sake of com- pleteness, and refer to the materials used in mummification. 9. Papyrus Leiden No.344.—This papyrus, which contains a long series of admonitions of an Egyptian sage upon the disastrous condition into which Egypt had sunk during his time, refers to the importance of cedar oil for mummification.4 1 In the same note Griffith cites three other references to Brugsch (Thesaurus) which concern priests. * Here follows the name of the deceased with a long list of priestly titles. ® Golenischeff: Rec. de Trav., vol. iii, 8 ff. * Gardiner: The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage, p. 82. 55 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES Men do not sail northwards to [Byblos] to-day. What shall we do for cedars for our mummies with the produce of which priests are buried, and with the oil of which [chiefs] are embalmed... . 10. Theban Tombs of Senufer and Amenemhab.—There is a scene in each of these tombs in which the deceased is seen inspecting the burial outfit given to him by the King and in the relative inscription this phrase occurs :— Fat for embalming the mummy.! Before passing on to the Greek texts (Chapter IV), reference may be made to an interesting demotic letter in the British Museum. This papyrus (No. 10,077), which is dated in the 16th year of Ptolemy Philadelphus, is an under- taking by an embalmer to mummify the body of his client’s son. The client provides the natron, bandages and other necessaries, and the embalmer engages to prepare the body in the prescribed manner in seventy-two days and to hand it over duly treated. In default he promises to pay a fine. A photograph of the papyrus, together with a translation and commentary of the text, has been published by Spiegel- berg.” It will be noticed that the period is here stated to be seventy-two days, but perhaps the actual embalming occu- pied seventy days, the other two days being for transit to and from the embalmers’ premises. 1 Sethe: Urkunden, iv, pp. 538 and 913. 2 Zeitschrift fiir dg. Sprache, vol. 54 (1918), pp. 111-114 and Pl. IV. ~s 56 FIG. I14.—MUMMY OF THE YOUNGER WOMAN FOUND IN THE TOMB OF AMENOPHIS II Showing the damage done by plunderers to the face and chest. (XVIIIth Dynasty) FIG, I5.—THE YOUNGER WOMAN FROM THE TCMB OF AMENOPHIS It (PROFILE). (XvVIIIth DYNASTY) ah. Aly wy i, y btm | D ¥ FIG. 16.—MUMMY OF THE YOUNG PRINCE FOUND IN THE TOMB OF AMENOPHIS II SHOWING THE ‘‘ HORUS-LOCK.”’ 5) The large hole in the chest is the work of ancient plunderers. (XVIIIth Dynasty) NASTY) XVIlIth Dy ( MUMMY OF THE PHARAOH TUTHMOSIS Iv HEAD OF THE FIG. 17. prcrainnatenie eon et : Py Ry tL) + 4708 { ok - i ype nenas (toga) p 2a 32 8 Ata, Nap ~ ho vik aya Stet Bate ct ' 5 + ae FIG. 21 —HEAD OF THE PHARAOH SETY I, (x1xth DyNASTy) HERODOTUS AND LATER AUTHORS In this important and interesting document, which dates from the second or third century 4.D., it will be observed that many of the substances named by Herodotus and Diodorus occur. The large quantity of linen used is shown by the high cost of that item. The mask was also costly. A few of the items are obscure, but the “* dog”? may possibly be a figure of Anubis, who is often called the dog in Greek texts. Another papyrus of the same nature, and dating from the end of the first century Aa.D., has been published by Grenfell and Hunt in the Amherst Papyri, p. 150, No. 125.7 Account for the expenses of a mummy. My expenses: Cedar oil, 4 drachme; 2 cotylex of olive-oil, 20 obols; an earthenware pot, 1 ob; for a mask and... ., 24 dr.; to the mummifier, 11 dr.; for a necklace (?) of 4 minze weight, 810 ob. Expenses of Thermouthis (?) and Harpa- gathos: Linen cloth and Harpagathos’ tunic, . . . [dr.]; another tunic for Thermouthis’ son... [dr.]; oil ... [dr.]; to the mummifier... {The rest is lost.] We may quote one more document in this connexion of the third century A.D., which is less detailed and is more fragmentary in condition :-— Account for expenses for the corpse: The expenses were for the burial . . . at 48 drachmx; wages of the bearers .. ., 16 dr. 20 ob. ; wreaths, 12 ob.; a... of wine... ., 4 dr. 20 ob.? Diodorus states that the embalmers’ office is hereditary, a statement which is confirmed by a group of demotic papyri published by Revillout.® The text is published in Wesseley : Studien fiir Paldographie und Papyrologie, vol. xxii, No. 56. Cf. Wilcken : Archiv. fiir Pap., t. vii, p. 107 (1923). 1 We again acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. H. I. Bell for referring us to Wilcken’s Grundziige und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, where we found references to the above and some of the other Greek papyri quoted in this chapter. 2 Grenfell and Hunt : Fayiéim Towns and their Papyri, p. 250, No. 103. 8 “ Une Famille de Paraschistes ou Taricheutes thébains,”’ in the Aegyptische Zeitschrift, t. xvii (1879), pp. 83-92. 65 I EGYPTIAN MUMMIES An interesting detail which is lacking in Herodotus’ account, is supplied by Diodorus, who states that a scribe (doubtless the lector of Pharaonic times) traces a line for the flank incision, and that the cutter, having performed his task, flies from the curses and missiles of those who witnessed it. Up to the present the statement is uncon- firmed, and it is idle to comment upon it. Both writers agree that the incision is made with an Ethiopian stone, but no reason for the use of this implement is given at a time when metal tools had been in common use for many centuries. Both agree in the statement that the viscera were removed, but Diodorus significantly adds ** except the kidneys and the heart.” The importance of this will be discussed in a later chapter when the special treatment of the viscera is dealt with (see below, p.145). In this connexion, although neither Herodotus nor Diodorus informs us what happened to the organs after they had been removed and cleansed, two other classical writers refer to them, namely Porphyry and Plutarch. The passage from Porphyry is as follows :— 1 “There is one point which must not be passed over, namely, that when they embalm the dead of the wealthy class, among other observances paid to the corpse, they privately remove the intestines and place them in a chest, which they make fast and present before the Sun, while one of those occupied in embalming the body recites a prayer. And this prayer, which Ekphantos translated from his native language, is to the following effect: ‘O Lord Sun and all you gods who give life to men, receive me favourably and commit me to abide with the everlasting gods. For as long as I continued in that life, I have steadfastly reverenced + De Abstinentia, iv, 10. For this and the following translations from Plutarch, we are indebted to Mr. E. E. Trotman. 66 HERODOTUS AND LATER AUTHORS the gods whom my parents instructed me to worship, and I have ever honoured those who brought my body into the world; while, as concerns my fellow-men, I have done no murder, nor betrayed a trust, nor committed any other deadly sin. But if, during my life, I have sinned in eating or drinking what was unlawful, the fault was not mine, but of this ’ (showing the chest in which was the stomach).” It is interesting to note that, according to this author, the internal parts are regarded as the seat of evil emotions, just as the heart and kidneys (as we shall presently see), which were not excised from the body, were looked upon as the seat of the mind and of good emotions. The prayer which is recited during the exposure of the chest to the Sun is in many ways reminiscent of the texts on countless Egyptian stele, wherein the deceased parades his good actions, and the latter part recalls the so-called “‘ Negative Confession ’’ in § 125 of the Book of the Dead. Plutarch has two references to the viscera, which are of similar purport :— Who, cutting open the corpse, displayed it to the Sun, and then cast those parts (the intestines) into the river, and turned their attention to the rest of the body, which had now become purified.t and again :— In the case of the well-to-do, they imitate the Egyptians, who open their dead and extract the intestines, which they cast out before the Sun as chargeable with all the sins the man has committed.? The destruction of any part of the body was dreaded by the Pharaonic Egyptians, and the Book of the Dead and other texts are full of prayers that the body shall be complete and that no part of it shall be taken away, although it is a curious 1 Plutarch VII, Sap. Conv., XVI. Ed. Didot, p. 188. 2 De Carnium Esu, Oratio Posterior. Ed. Didot, p. 1219. 67 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES fact that we have no record, either Egyptian or Greek, of the fate of the brain after it had been removed, nor has any mummy yet been found in which the brain or any part of it, once removed, has been preserved along with the viscera. Diodorus makes no reference at all to the salt-bath, but he states that the washing and anointing takes more than thirty days to perform, a period which is in accordance with the Egyptian texts already cited (supra, pp. 53-56). He not only ignores the bandaging, but by his statements as to the recognition of the features of the dead, even ancestors who had long been dead, it is implied that no bandaging was applied, a fact which is quite contrary to the evidence of contemporary mummies. Possibly, however, the allusion is to the painted portrait panels used in late times. Mummies of the Greco-Roman period are often found with labels bearing their names attached to them.! These labels were tied to the neck and were for identification when mummies were buried in pits or caves and piled one on another. They were also used when a body was sent for embalming or burial by carrier, as the following Greek papyrus shows :—? Senpamonthes to Pamonthes her brother, greeting. I am sending you the body of my mother, Senuris, having a label® on its neck, by Tales, father of Hierax, in a boat suitable (for this purpose), the cost having been completely defrayed by me. This is a description of the body. It has on the outside a rose-coloured shroud and the name is written upon the region of the belly. I pray for your lasting health. One of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri refers to the transport of a mummy, which was not ready for despatch when the messengers arrived for it.4 1 E.g. Petrie: Dendereh, p. 32. On the subject of mummy labels see the important article by Krebs: Aeg. Zeit., 82 (1894), pp. 86-51. * The text of this papyrus (second or third century a.p.) and an account of its contents, not a full translation, is given by Wilcken, op. cit., t. ii, No. 499. Text No. 498 is similar. 3 tapAa. * A.S. Hunt: Oxyrhynchus Papyri, pt. vii, No. 1068, pp. 228, 224. 68 HERODOTUS AND LATER AUTHORS Yet another text, the label attached to a case containing three bodies, relating to the transport and burial of mummies in Greek times, must be quoted, as it gives directions for the burial of the bodies in the Theban necropolis.! For the Tomb of Seneponyx. My daughter, Ptahmonthé, daughter of Papsenis, and his own daughter are packed herein. I have completely defrayed the cost of transport and all other charges. Will you place it (sc. the case) within the tombs which are in the Memnonia ? A Greek papyrus in the Louvre? is a letter to the governor of the district, notifying the violation of a tomb. After the customary salutations it proceeds :-- In the year xiv, while Lochus my parent had gone to Diospolis, certain persons entered one of the tombs which belong to me in the Thebaid, and having opened it, despoiled some of the mummies buried there and at the same time carried off all the gear which I had deposited there, amounting to the value of 10 talents of copper. In consequence, as the door was left wide open, the well-preserved bodies had suffered from wolves, which had partly devoured them. The termination of the letter is a request that the guilty parties should be found and brought to justice. Mummification persisted in Egypt long after its purpose was not only nullified but reversed by the introduction of Christianity. Very many mummies of the Coptic period are known which are debased but undoubted examples of the embalmer’s art. Coptic literature is silent on the subject of embalming,? but we have contemporary and medieval 1 Revillout : Aegyptische Zeitschrift, t. xviii (1880), p. 107. A very large number of Greek mummy labels will be found translated by Krebs in the article previously cited. 2 Papyrus No. 6, published in Notices et Eviraits des Manuscrits, t. xviii, pt. ii, pp. 160 ff. (1858). 3 We owe this information to Mr. W. E. Crum, to whom we are also indebted for many valuable references to Coptic burial customs, among which the most important is to the article of Carl Schmidt in the Aegyptische Zeitschrift, t. xxxii (1894), pp. 52 ff. 69 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES references to it in Greek and Latin texts, where the fathers of the Church inveigh against it as a pagan custom and inconsistent with Christian beliefs. The early Christians often embalmed the bodies of martyrs and holy men out of reverence and respect for them. The embalming of the martyrs in Egypt is referred to in the following passage of the Syriac text of the Paradise of the Fathers. After their martyrdom, the holy Apollo and his companions were visited by their followers :—- And we ourselves saw the martyrium wherein he and those who had testified with him were laid, and we prayed and worshipped God, and also touched their dead bodies, for they were not as yet buried because of the inundation of the Nile, but lay embalmed upon their biers in Thebais, and for this reason we made ready to insert here the history of the man. In the Syriac version of the life of St. Anthony, by Athanasius, the saint addresses his faithful brethren as he feels his end approaching,— And if your minds are set upon me, and ye remember me as a father, permit no man to take my body and carry it into Egypt, lest, according to the custom which they have, they embalm me and lay me up in their houses, for it was |to avoid] this that I came into this desert. And ye know that I have continually made exhortation concerning this thing and begged that it should not be done, and ye well know how much I have blamed those who observed this custom. Dig a grave then, and bury me therein, and hide my body under the earth, and let these my words be observed carefully by you, and tell ye no man where ye lay me; [and there I shall be] until the Resurrection of the dead, when I shall receive [again] this body without corruption.? The corresponding passage in the Greek version is very similarly worded. Finally, Augustine in one of his sermons refers to Egyptian embalming in the following passage :— ? Budge: The Paradise of the Fathers, t. i, p. 882. * Budge: op. cit., t. i, p. 78. 8 Migne, t. x, col. 2, p. 967. 70 HERODOTUS AND LATER AUTHORS Now I beg of you not to bring against me the usual argument: ‘ The bodies of those buried do not remain uncorrupted ; if they did, I could believe in their rising again.” I suppose, then, that the only people who believe in the Resurrection are the Egyptians, who carefully preserve the bodies of their dead! For they have a custom of drying them up, which makes them as durable as bronze. Are we to believe, then, according to those who know nothing of the hidden repositories in the universe, where all things are laid up for Him who placed them there, even when they have passed out of the ken of the mortal senses, that the Egyptians alone have true grounds for belief in the Resurrection of the Dead, and that the faith of all other Christians rests on a doubtful basis ? 4 1 Augustine : Sermo 361, De Resurrectione Mortuorum (= De Diversis, 120). 71 CHAPTER V MUMMIFICATION IN THE OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES E are sadly hampered in our enquiries into the WV dawn of the art of mummifying through lack of material, but we may at once dispose of the notion that the predynastic Egyptians embalmed their dead. Many thousands of predynastic skeletons and naturally desiccated bodies have been examined from many sites in Egypt and Nubia by competent authorities. In none of these has the slightest trace of any preservative material whatever been found, nor has Dr. Schmidt, who has devoted the closest attention to the subject,! been able to detect any by means of chemical tests. The muscular tissues of these desiccated bodies often simulate resin, but the resemblance is utterly delusive. The skulls often contain particles which more than one writer has mistaken for resin or bitumen, but it has been proved that this material is really desiccated brain.2. Nevertheless, there is the somewhat paradoxical fact that the body of an ancient Egyptian is hardly ever presented to us in a more excellent state of preservation than in some of the predynastic graves (such as those dis- covered by Dr. Reisner at Naga-ed-Dér)—but preservation is the result, not of art, but of the operation of natural 1“ Chemische und biologische Untersuchungen von dgyptischen Mumien- material,”’ in the Zeit. fiir allgemeine Physiologie, Band VII, 1907, pp. 369-392. 2 Journ. Anatomy and Physiology, vol 36, 1902, pp. 875-380. 72 aay, iat 4 [a ref Se, I a SMR, AI Le Vj “Ae FIG. 22.—HEAD OF THE PHARAOH RAMESSES I] (xIxth DYNASTY) FIG: 23.—MUMMY OF THE PHARAOH MENEPTAH, (xIxth DYNASTY) FIG. 24..-HEAD OF THE PHARAOH MENEPTAH (PROFILE) “ jp ay Pe -* = i . > —— he a Sout - oft = aa 4 age = f sa Gan Or)? oe ) hed Sear Fy _ ; i ' - s ee to y + j 4 7 athe dy f “ tn ~ J 4 t i an * ? * 4 x ) d ‘ J a o° Ais 7) ty at's : te FIG. 25.—HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF SETY II ENCRUSTED WITH THE RESINOUS PASTE USED BY THE EMBALMERS. (XIXth DYNASTY) OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES agencies. The corpses of these archaic people were placed directly in the dry sand and completely covered up, So as to shut out all access of air: as the result in many cases they became desiccated and perfectly preserved. Important as are the predynastic burials from the point of view of archeology and anthropology, they do not come within the Scope of this book, as they are not true mummies, i.e. bodies embalmed and preserved by artificial means.1 The earliest embalmers had not acquired sufficient skill to render the bodies enduring, and as a result the mummies are so extremely fragile and perishable that none of such specimens is to be found in museums. As we have shown in Chapter I, there is strong presumptive evidence that mummification was attempted in the Ist Dynasty. The tombs of this age discovered at Nagada by De Morgan,? at Abydos by Petrie,’ and at Naga-ed-Dér by Reisner,‘ denote considerable elaboration of the funerary cult. The discovery in one of these tombs of the bones of a human arm, torn from a body, which was adorned with bracelets and wrapped in linen, has been claimed to support the view that mummifi- cation was attempted.> The predynastic custom of burying bodies in a flexed position persisted throughout the first three dynasties, the adoption of the extended position does not appear before the commencement of the Pyramid Age (1Vth to VIth Dynasties). During his excavations in the necropolis of Saqqara, in 1 For large and valuable collections of material the reader is referred to the numerous publications which deal specially with predynastic burials, especially the works of Petrie, Reisner and the Reports of the Archeological Survey of Nubia. * Recherches sur les Origines de l Egypte. * Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties (2 vols., Eg. Expl. Fund). * Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Dér, 2 vols., 1908-9. ° For this arm and its jewellery see Petrie: Royal Tombs, pt. ii, 1901, frontispiece. 73 K EGYPTIAN MUMMIES a cemetery of the IInd Dynasty, Quibell discovered some human remains which seem to show that definite attempts at mummification had been made. One of these bodies, that of a woman of about thirty-five years of age (Fig. 1), was lying in a wooden coffin and was completely enwrapped in a complex series of bandages—more than sixteen layers still intact, and probably at least as many more destroyed : ten layers of fine bandage, then six layers of somewhat coarser cloth, and next to the body a series of much corroded, very irregularly woven cloth, much coarser than the outer layers. Each leg was wrapped separately. The body was flexed, as was usual at that period. In the wide interval between the bandages and the bones, there was a large mass of extremely corroded linen, whereas the intermediate and superficial layers were quite well preserved and free from corrosion, except along a line where the cloth was corroded to represent the rima pudendi—a fact of great interest when it is recalled that in the Vth, and probably I[Vth, Dynasties, it was the custom to fashion, in the case of male mummies, an artificial phallus. The corrosion is strong, presumptive evidence that some material (probably crude natron) was applied to the surface of the body in order to preserve it.1 Professor Garstang found similarly treated bodies, which he places between the IIIrd and IVth Dynasties, at Beni Hasan, but he did not recognise that any attempt at mummi- fication had been attempted.? Whilst excavating at Meidiim in 1891 Petrie discovered a very remarkable mummy, which he presented to the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London (Fig. 8), where we have recently re-examined it. The body is wrapped in large quantities of linen bandages of various textures. 1 Report, British Association, Dundee 1912, p. 612. 2 Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt, pp. 29-80 and fig. 18. 74 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES The outermost wrappings were saturated with resin, and the embalmers then moulded the mass carefully into shape, bestowing the minutest care to every detail of the form of the body. The details of the face, which is now somewhat distorted owing to the wrinkling of the linen and to the breakage of the nose in ancient times, are emphasised by paint, the eyes, eyebrows, and moustache being carefully traced. The resin-soaked linen set to form a carapace of stony hardness completely investing the whole head and body, and bulking it out to rather more than life-size. The generative organs are modelled with minute precision, and are so absolutely faithful to nature that it is hard to realise that they are merely represented by a linen and resin model. This mummy affords evidence that circumcision was prac- tised. The body is lying in the fully extended position, which henceforth replaced the crouching attitude of earlier bodies, with the arms fully extended. The body-cavity is closely packed with resin-soaked linen.1 The head (which has been broken from the trunk) rattles when shaken. Some free matter is therefore within the skull, but it is not possible to say whether this is desiccated brain or some artificial filling, though it is almost certainly the former. The exact age of this mummy is uncertain. On arche- ological evidence it may be as early as the IIIrd Dynasty, but the extended position and the great advance in technique which it displays would seem to indicate a somewhat later date, probably Vth Dynasty. In any case it belongs to the Old Kingdom and is a wonderful testimony to the embalmers’ skill in the Pyramid Age, and shows that they aimed at making a model or statue of the deceased out of, and whilst preserving, the actual tissues of his body. 1 It is known that the viscera were removed at least as early as the IVth Dynasty, as canopic jars of that period are known. 75 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES Professor Reisner’s excavations in the Pyramid-field at Gizeh in 1913 brought to light a mummy of great interest. It was lying in a fully extended position in a rectangular, granite sarcophagus. Although plundered in ancient times, masses of linen bandaging remained. The embalming- incision is clearly visible in the customary position and was plugged with a large cake of resin, and the whole body, considering its great antiquity and the rough handling which it suffered at the hands of the plunderers, is in a wonderful state of preservation. Unfortunately no detailed description of this mummy has yet been published, but a photograph of it appeared in the excavators’ report.1_ The whole treatment evidently resembles that of the Meidim mummy. In course of digging near the same site in the Old King- dom cemetery near the Great Pyramids, Professor Junker found a curious variation of the same method of procedure as that adopted in the Meidim mummy, which he describes as follows: ‘“‘In two graves we found the body covered with a layer of stucco-plaster, a method of treatment which is entirely peculiar. First of all the corpse was covered with a fine linen cloth, with the special purpose of preventing the mass of plaster from getting into the mouth, ears, nose, and so on. Then the plaster was put on and modelled according to the form of the body, the head being in one case so accurately followed that one can clearly see the fallen-in nose and twisted mouth. . . . In two further cases it was not the whole body that was covered with this layer of stucco, but only the head; apparently because the head was regarded as the most important part, as the organs to taste, sight, smell and hearing were contained in it.” 2 1 Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, Boston, U.S.A., vol xi, No. 66, November 1913, p. 58. * Journal of Egyptian Archeology, vol. i, p. 252. 76 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES Junker’s interpretation takes no account of what was probably the strongest motive for this curious procedure, namely, the perpetuation of the dead man’s identity by accurate preservation of his features. He connects the plastered masks with the “substitute heads’’ found in the tombs, to which we have already referred. In the Cairo Museum is a mummy stated to be that of King Merenré of the VIth Dynasty, found in his pyramid at Saqqara.! Although it was long ago shown that on the evidence of its technique the body cannot be older than the XVIIIth Dynasty,” the statement is still repeated.2 This mummy is evidently an intrusive later burial. Exactly the same state of affairs is seen in the mummy, which is now in the British Museum, wrongly claimed to be that of Mykerinus of the [Vth Dynasty, and found by Vyse in the third pyramid of Gizeh in 1837. The archeological evidence of the coffin and the technical evidence of the bones, again prove that we are dealing with a later intrusive burial. The Cairo Museum, however, contains a body which is certainly of the Vth Dynasty. It was discovered in the winter of 1897-8 by Petrie at Desasheh, and thus described by him in his report : 4 ** Within lay the body on its back, head north, the head turned to the N.W. corner, and the feet far from the base. This seems as if the coffin had been lowered with the body in it, a tilt to one end having driven the body into that position. A stout, well-formed, but plainly made head-rest was set on end upon the breast. The sexual parts were modelled in cloth and placed in position. The whole body was fully wrapped up in linen, the skin and ligaments were firm and strong; there was no sign of mummification in 1 Maspero: Guide du Visiteur, ed. iv, 1915, p. 309. 2 Cairo Scientific Journal, vol. ii, 1908, p. 205. 3 Breasted : History of Egypt, 2nd ed., 1919, fig. 77. 4 Deshasheh, p. 15. 77 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES this or other bodies in the cemetery, but only plain drying.” The opinion that the body had been desiccated rather than embalmed is shared by Maspero,! but the treatment of the organs of reproduction and the preservation of the skin and ligaments would seem to indicate that the body had been prepared in the same way as (though less success- fully than) the Meidim and Gizeh mummies described above. With the advent of the Middle Kingdom our material is somewhat more abundant. Many mummies of the XI- XIIIth Dynasties have been found from time to time, but with few exceptions they have either perished or been scattered to various museums in Europe and America without the publication of any adequate description. Whilst excavating the XIth Dynasty temple at Deir-el- Bahari in the winter of 1906~7, Professor Naville discovered beneath the temple a series of tombs belonging to princesses of the period. Although they had all been plundered in antiquity, some interesting evidences of mummification were found. Unfortunately these have been distributed to several museums without any technical description of them having been published. One of them, which was broken to pieces, is now in the British Museum and is thus referred to in the report :? “The mummy, which was that of a woman, was in fragments. The skull (lower jaw missing), two feet and an arm, are now in the British Museum (Nos. 40924—7), The skull has pathological alterations; a swelling of the bone on either side of the head, probably indicating a condi- tion of inflammation before death. The feet and hands are very delicate, and the nails of the latter are carefully tinted 1 Guide du Visiteur, ed. iv, 1915, p. 806, No. 8100. * The Eleventh Dynasty Temple of Deir-el-Bahari, pt. i, p. 44. The arm and the feet are photographed on Pl. X of that work. 78 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES with henna.” In another tomb, that of Princess Kemsit, a second mummy was found, “ which had been stripped and roughly tied up again, was that of a woman and un- doubtedly Kemsit herself. The head was twisted towards the left, as is usual in the XIth Dynasty . .. and, as we should expect from the paintings in the tomb, the skull is negroid in type.” 1 Yet another of the princesses, Henhenit by name, was found in her tomb. “ Her hands and feet are small and delicately formed, her hair short and straight. This is a very interesting mummy. It and the sarcophagus have been assigned to the Metropolitan Museum of New York.” 2 A very small photograph of this mummy is given (in op. cit. Pl. X, Fig. 8), but unfortunately it shows the right side of the body, so that we are unable to say whether it had an embalming incision or not (Fig. 6). The body is fully extended with the hands on the thighs. The anterior abdominal wall is broken, the body-cavity being now apparently empty. The American expedition, working upon the same site about ten years later, discovered several other mummies of princesses of this period. This series of royal mummies of the XIth Dynasty from Deir-el-Bahari is of exceptional interest and importance to the student of the history of embalming. Unfortunately no exact data are yet available as to the technique adopted; but we under- stand that, in some cases at least, no embalming-wound was found in either flank or in fact elsewhere. The preservation of the body seems to have been effected by a process men- tioned by Herodotus. Resinous material was injected into the alimentary canal per anum. These mummies are in- teresting for another reason. Some of them are tattooed and represent not only the sole examples of tattooing yet 1 Op. cit. pp. 49-50. 2 These three brief reports are all we have by way of description. 79 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES found in ancient Egyptian bodies, but the earliest evidence of the practice anywhere. Working near the Pyramids of Saqqara in the winter of 1906-7, Quibell discovered two interesting mummies of the early Middle Kingdom. Their fragile state made removal an impossibility, but opportunities were fortunately given for an examination, the report of which was published in the memoir recording the excavations. The body (of Karenen) lay on its left side with its head to the north resting on a wooden pillow. Over the head was a cartonnage mask, with the wig painted green, the face yellow, and the mous- tache and beard green. The body was invested in great quantities of linen and an elaborate series of bandages. The arms, which were separately wrapped, were crossed on the breast, a posture which became customary in the late XVIlIth Dynasty, but is quite exceptional in early times. The hands were clenched. The whole body-cavity was filled with bundles of linen, on some of which incrustations of resin were clearly discernible. In the upper part of the thorax the remains of a viscus, probably the heart, were found. The embalming-wound was a fusiform gaping orifice in the usual position on the left flank. The penis was cir- cumcised. Each leg was wrapped separately, the outermost wrappings being thickly encrusted with red resin. The inner wrappings, both on the limbs and body, were very much blackened and burnt, and were covered with salt crystals. The face was thickly smeared with resin, plugs of which were also placed in the nostrils. The eye-sockets were filled with plugs of linen, pushed in between the sunken eyes and the eyelids. + A tattooed Nubian body of the same date has been recorded. * Elliot-Smith in Quibell: Excavations at Saqqara 1906-7, Cairo 1908, pp. 13-14. 80 MUMMY OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (XIxth DYNASTY), FIG. 26, TAUSRET PROBABLY QUEEN FIG, 27..~MUMMY OF THE PHARAOH RAMESSES III. (xxth DYNASTY) / iV f 4 ke PF ed, P3 77 + A ith i SO ERE ete ¢ tye. SEA A 2 7, SS ee FIG. 28.—-HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF RAMESSES V Showing the eruption of the skin (probably small-pox) FIG. 29.—HEAD OF THE MUMMY RAMESSES VI BROKEN TO PIECES BY THE ANCIENT PLUNDERERS of é ’ a ae F ‘ . - 5 : Wa s “A , ey seer ick ' 7 | * A 7 x Wi ; “ B- i 4 be F ! ; : pig bee Le > eo8 . = | 4 Fi OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES The face bore a short, reddish moustache and beard of about two weeks’ growth, and the short hair on the head was of the same colour. The other body, that of a woman, was not in such a good state of preservation. It apparently had been treated in the same way as the man’s, but the fingers were extended and not clenched. It was possible to ascertain in both cases that the ethmoid bone was intact —another proof, if any were needed, that the custom of removing the brain through the nostrils is a product of a much later date. An early XIIth Dynasty tomb discovered at Lisht by the American Expedition in the winter of 1906-7 contained a rich array of objects, amongst which were the much disintegrated remains of a mummy.! Enough remained, however, to show that the viscera had been removed through the usual embalming-wound, which was afterwards plugged with linen soaked in resin. The viscera were found in the four canopic jars. The body-cavity appears to have been packed with sawdust mixed with resin and with balls of linen, and the heart left in situ in the thorax. No attempt had been made to remove the brain or to pack the mouth or nose. A little resin was placed on the eyes, and the lids pulled down so as partly to conceal them. The viscera had been wrapped in linen parcels and embedded in some molten resinous matter poured into each of the canopic jars. Amongst the smaller pit-tombs at Beni Hasan some very fruitful excavations were carried out by Professor Garstang in 1902-4, and a number of bodies was found. Curiously enough, Piofessor Garstang failed to recognise that mummi- 1 The tomb and its contents are fully described in The Tomb of Senebtisi by Mace and Winlock, New York, 1916. The mummy is dealt with in the appendix by Elliot Smith. 81 L EGYPTIAN MUMMIES fication had been practised—indeed he definitely states the contrary opinion. He evidently looked for such evidence as we find in mummies of the New Kingdom and later, and does not allow for the fact that a very different technique was employed in the Middle Kingdom. The photograph of the head of Apa (op. cit. Fig. 177, p. 172) bears unmistakable evidence of artificial treatment. The photographs of the coffin and mummy of Userhét show a method of burial exactly analogous to that of Senebtisi, and the inference is that the body was treated in the same manner. The two mummies of the XIIth Dynasty discovered in a small tomb at Rifeh by Petrie, and now in the Manchester Museum, have been fully examined and described, and they afford valuable information as to the technical processes of mummification during the Middle Kingdom.2 The use of the preserving-bath at this period is further demonstrated by the fact that the finger and toe-nails were tied on to the digits with thread to prevent them from coming away with the macerated epidermis during immersion. This procedure was followed throughout the New Kingdom (see p. 88). The bodies had been eviscerated, but owing to their fragile condition the body-wall had fallen in and no details of the embalming-incision could be observed, but the chest and abdomen had been packed with matting or coarse linen. The brain had not been extracted, and in one of the skulls a mass of desiccated brain was found. In the report on these two mummies a careful record of the bandaging is made and exhaustive anatomical and chemical reports are appended. For the period intervening between the Middle and New + Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt, p. 171. * M. A. Murray and others: The Tomb of Two Brothers, Manchester 1910, pp. 31 ff. 82 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES Kingdoms, we have records of only two mummies.! This period, the length of which is so much in dispute between historians, corresponds to the time in which rishi-coffins (see below, p. 136) were in use. In the necropolis of Qurneh, near Thebes, Petrie found an undisturbed burial of this period, which he assigns to the XVIIth Dynasty, and of which he has given a full account.2, The wrappings have been carefully recorded; this is one of the few reliable accounts we have of the exact methods of swathing, which varied considerably from time to time. The body had almost entirely decayed, and very little could be learned from it. “‘ Inside all [the bandages] the legs were wrapped separately, the arms, hands and fingers each wrapped separately diagonally. Pads of small cloths were used, but the whole was so much rotted by insects and decay, and loosened by the decay of all the flesh and shifting of bones, that the exact position could not be seen. Inside the stomach and pelvis was a thick mass of cloth squeezed in tightly, taking a mould of the whole hollow, 10 inches long, 74 wide, 24 thick. A large quantity of dark brown dust lay around the bones. The whole skeleton was perfectly preserved, the bones hard and greasy.’’8 The other mummy belonging to this period is that of Seknenré, one of the last kings of the XVIIth Dynasty. This mummy is of very great interest, although it is not a normal one, for Seknenré met his death either in battle or at the hands of assassins, the evidence for which we shall presently see from his skull. All that now remains of the king is a badly damaged, disarticulated skeleton, enclosed 1 Three royal mummies of this period, those of two of the Antef Kings and of Queen Aahotpe, have been discovered in recent times (mid-nineteenth century) but all of them were destroyed. 2 Petrie: Qurneh, pp. 6-10. 3 Op. cit, p. 8. 83 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES in an imperfect sheet of soft, moist, flexible, dark-brown skin, which has a highly aromatic, spicy odour. The skin resembles that of mummies of the Coptic period after they have been exposed to the air and the preservative salts have deliquesced and softened the tissues. But by chemical tests Dr. W. A. Schmidt was unable to find in Seknenré’s skin any greater quantity of chloride of sodium than occurs in untreated human tissues. The spicy odour of the skin is due to the fact that it has been sprinkled with powdered aromatic wood or sawdust. No attempt was made to put the body into the customary mummy-position; the head had not been straightened on the trunk, the legs were not fully extended, and the arms and hands were left in the agonised attitudes into which they had been thrown in the death-spasms following the murderous attack, the evidence of which is so clearly impressed on the battered face and skull. Instead of being put into an attitude of repose, as was the usual custom in embalming, the face was left as it was found at the time of death, the lips widely retracted from the teeth, so that the mouth forms a distorted oval, the upper lip being pulled up towards the right, and the lower lip downward to the left. The whole attitude of the body is such as we might expect to find in the body of one who had suffered a violent death. Maspero reconstructed the death scene with great skill! and has also interpreted the state of the body, to which reference has just been made, as being clear evidence that it was hurriedly mummified, far away from the laboratories of the embalmers, probably on or near the field of battle. Dr. Fouquet 2 considered that the king had been killed on the field of battle, and that his mummy had been sent to Thebes for embalming, 1 Les Momies Royales, p. 528. * Op. cit. Appendix IV, p. 776. 84 OLD AND MIDDLE EMPIRES and as the journey would have occupied some days, the body must have arrived in an advanced state of decomposition. The evidence is all against this view and favours Maspero’s interpretation. The condition of the mummy is clearly not due to delay in being submitted to the embalmers, but to the manner of preserving the body—the method which remained in vogue in the XVIIIth Dynasty—and in this case it was performed in a rough and hasty manner. If the embalming had been done in a leisurely manner in Thebes, or in any other place where proper facilities existed, the mummy would certainly have received the usual careful preparation for wrapping, and the head and limbs would have been arranged in the customary way, and the face would have received its elaborate toilet after the manner of other mummies. In the process of embalming a vertical incision was made in the left flank. This opening is now elliptical, and through it the greater part of the abdominal viscera had been removed. An opening large enough for the hand to pass through was likewise made in the diaphragm in order to remove the thoracic viscera. The abdomen, but not the thorax, was packed with linen, which had set into a solid mould with well-marked impressions of the embalming- wound and the hole in the diaphragm. Some portions of the viscera which had not been cleared out also adhered to this linen mass. No attempt had been made to remove the brain, nor were the extensive wounds in the skull used as a means of introducing any preservative or other matter into the cranium. From an examination of the wounds on his skull, it is clear that Seknenré met his death in an attack by at least two, and probably more, persons armed with weapons, one of which seems to have been an axe and the other a spear. The absence of any injuries to the arms or other parts of 85 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES the body shows that no resistance could have been offered to the attack, and it is probable that the wounds were inflicted whilst Seknenré was lying, perhaps asleep, on his right side. The anatomical details of the wounds and their positions and effects, by which the death-scene of this king can be fairly accurately reconstructed, have been worked out in detail elsewhere, and it would be tedious to repeat them. This long-forgotten tragedy has left its mark for ever in a large gash in the frontal bone, in the hair matted with clotted blood, in another scalp wound which penetrated the frontal bone, in the broken bones of the nose, in the broken malar bone and orbit, in a spear-thrust immediately below the ear which smashed off the mastoid process, and was only prevented from doing further damage by the spear-point striking the atlas vertebra: in all these gruesome details, and in the expression of the face and the contortions of the body, is the vision of agony, which, once seen, is not easily forgotten. 1 The Royal Mummies, pp. 4-6. 86 CHAPTER VI MUMMIFICATION IN THE XVIIItrs TO XXtu DYNASTIES our material for the study of the technique of mummi- fication becomes more abundant and chronologically continuous. The two great finds of royal mummies in 1881 and 1898 respectively have provided us with the bodies of most of the sovereigns of the New Empire, the most brilliant period in Egypt’s eventful history. Wrecked and despoiled as they all are, we can nevertheless follow the embalmers’ manipulations and study the progress of his craft, and by our observations on the technique of the mummies of the Pharaohs whose chronological position is known, we can date any other mummies which are anonymous or unin- scribed and assign them to their proper places. From the ill-preserved and fragile bodies of earlier periods which we considered in the previous chapter, we come to a series of mummies which show that the embalmers had devised a means of preserving their subjects in a fashion which was far more efficacious than that employed by their predecessors. From the time of Aahmosis I, the founder of the XVIIIth Dynasty, onwards, it became the invariable rule to remove the brain, a practice described by Herodotus, but of which there is no positive evidence prior to the XVIIIth Dynasty. Resinous paste was employed, which, on drying, imparted to the body a firmer consistency, rendering it much more enduring and preserving the integrity 87 F:::: the commencement of the XVIIIth Dynasty EGYPTIAN MUMMIES of the skin. The saline bath was in use for immersion of the body. In the steeping process the epidermis peeled off and carried with it all the body-hair. The nails were retained only because special precautions were taken to prevent them from being dislodged. The head was appar- ently not immersed, for the epidermis and hair of the face and scalp are usually intact. To prevent the loss of the nails, the embalmers either tied them on to the fingers and toes, or placed a metal thimble over the tip of the finger or toe for the same purpose. Many of the mummies which have been examined still have this thread, or well-marked im- pressions of it, and on some others thimbles have been found. It may be mentioned that in widely-distant parts of Africa embalmers paid particular attention to the preservation of the nails. The mummy of the Pharaoh Aahmosis I (Fig. 7) has a hard carapace of resinous paste, the paste being smeared so lavishly that the hair of the head is thickly matted, and the embalming-wound in the left flank, through which the viscera were removed, is not exposed for examination. This mummy is of especial interest for the unusual manner in which the brain was removed. Herodotus tells us that the operation was performed through the nose with an iron probe, and many mummies have been found in which this method was evidently used. Greenhill, in his History of Embalming, 1705, p. 249, speaks of such a method as a thing ‘impracticable and amusing.”’ Although tempted to agree with Greenhill, Pettigrew! came to the conclusion after examining a number of specimens, that such an operation had been performed. A large series of mummies examined in the Cairo School of Medicine in 1904 affords clear evidence 1 History of Egyptian Mummies, 1834, pp. 44-6 and 53. 88 Yo .) Wn -< ‘ ' ( 4 , \ ~ ise FIG. 30.—QUEEN NOZME. (XxXISt DYNASTY) . A 3 ‘ | -" taf 4 IP cs a a ,! i « ' ' i x 5 . 1 % i. { ‘ ‘ ' é ' ’ : Wy y , ri # i ‘ta Poe 4 « } ‘ ) i i res : w ' j \ ; 7 - - i. i >» x é i “a. > Thre. 7% : , 7 i a) a 7 as 7 ? | : ; ei one Sakae ~ yee ’ Lea | cat Witte siglo All) ; re 4, t FIG, 31.—"DIAGRAMS SHOWING THE PROCESS Of ‘' PACKING”’ IN VOGUE IN THE XXIst DYNASTY Y A — % ee —— Z 7 beige eee? Y Dp ae a (4HaAOWAN NADA SVH NIMS YALNO AHI) “IVINALVA DONIMOVd AHL ONIMOHS ‘ALSVNAC JSIXX HHL AO AWWOAW V AO WAUV—ZE ‘DIA we yi A , : , x p ey a a5 i , ae ; - = f , : : 7 ‘ = =a a - 7 ¢ ¢ td 7 ; . ; ’ +8 * = . } } ; - 7 } 7 ~ y ‘ Ay 4. - oe Nie bi ; ‘ a Ee i a ~ 4 4 i — a7 - ’ 4 i ; i : a Ue 3 * 4 Los j opt s', } ’ - _ ° i p } ‘ Pi y ae ri ba Ny ~* ny : i } ’ er | 4 D ' eo P ee ta ' * ' i * “a4 5 _— ' i] ‘ i ‘4 a ah ‘ 1 ‘ i] 1 ‘ 4 ‘ , ee ‘ae de > hh aay,” ’ ‘ ‘ ‘i ive mm - ; ¥ why iy ' Fe A cA a ‘ F ' - t ‘ o ae) i . AG : io hee d y* --o = se a f ; Lys or ff - * é ‘ fi ‘ , j i ‘ t a 4 + : ‘ ft ne , a i . ji. > ' a ” 2 Lewy 4s i = ° or © = ¢ . i] i a7 , 5 = : af a 8 I ‘ e ” ‘ : a i a 7 i .) * ' : 7 x > ’ > 2 _ >. q As , are : 4 L a 7 al ’ e ’ Pi { qv : : —_—- 4 > -< 7 J é . : 5 #” i é ’ a] ae 4 : a 7 j ; ' ' ? 7 any iv ¢ ‘ I Menrd Lae | a ra Ze BYis r ‘a Gane ‘ ~ ye I wee PNObE: tg FIG. 33.—-HEAD OF THE MUMMY OF QUEEN HENTTAUI (XXIst DYNASTY) Showing the wig and artificial ‘‘ packing” of the face ra a Pr Al bs a | 9 is a : : of es “Se ae hy tae pot XVIlItH TO XXtH DYNASTIES of the way in which the feat was performed.1. An instrument was forced up the nostril and driven right through the ethmoid bone. Through this forced entrance into the cranial cavity the brain was removed piecemeal, probably by some small ladle-like instrument. In most cases the whole of the brain was removed, but in some mummies fragments of the brain or its membranes remained in the skull. The empty cavity was then packed with strips of linen soaked in resin. Such was the usual method, but in the mummy of Aahmosis, a different procedure had been resorted to. There is no distortion of the nose such as usually results from this operation, nor is the nasal septum damaged or in any way deflected. As the cranial cavity was tightly packed with linen right down to the foramen magnum, it seems incredible that this could have been accomplished through the nasal fossee without damage to the septum. Moreover, there is the curious and significant fact that the atlas vertebra is missing, and the upper surface of the axis and the neighbouring part of the occipital bone are thickly coated with resin, which must have been applied directly to the surface of the bones. This raises the possi- bility that through an incision on the left side of the neck the atlas vertebra was excised and the brain extracted through the foramen magnum, the cavity being packed through the same opening with resin-smeared linen, which has in its passage coated the axis and occipital bone. Such an operation would be one of great difficulty, and in spite of its apparent improbability, we are forced to accept it on the evidence adduced. In no other known instance in Egypt has this method of procedure been followed, and it 1 A technical description will be found in Mém. Inst. Egyptien, t. v, pp. 15 ff. (1906). In the mummy of the boy found in the Tomb of Amenophis II (see below, p. 93) the perforation is made not in the ethmoid, but in the sphenoid bone. 89 M EGYPTIAN MUMMIES would seem to indicate that it was an experimental begin- ning to what afterwards became general—the removal of the brain and the substitution of resinous material for it in the brain-case. The arms are fully extended with the hands turned inwards at the sides of the thighs. To about the same period belong several of the female mummies found at Deir-el-Bahari. The best preserved and most interesting is that of the lady Ray, who was nurse of Queen Nefretari, the consort of Aahmosis I. This mummy is one of the least unlovely of the series, and the lady in life must have been a graceful and delicate woman, with fine features and well-proportioned limbs. She still has abundant hair, arranged in small plaits, which are divided into two thick masses arranged on either side of the face, a form of hairdressing well known from the statues of the period (Figs. 8 and 9). The whole body is sprinkled with a mixture of powdered resin and sand, and has the arms extended with the palms resting on the thighs. The hands are small and delicate and almost childlike in appearance. The embalming-wound is stuffed with a plug of linen and extends from the costal margin to the anterior superior spine of the ilium. The mummy of Queen Nefretari shows that she was old at the time of her death, and her own very scanty locks are supplemented by twisting amongst them wisps of human hair in order to conceal a bald patch at the top of the head. The mummy of Sitkamosis, daughter or sister of Aah- mosis I, exhibits a more primitive form of treatment. One is therefore inclined to believe that she died some time before the king and was his elder sister and not his daughter. The brain has not been removed, but the position of the hands in front of the pubes was quite exceptional at the time of 90 XVIlItH TO XXtH DYNASTIES Aahmosis, although it may have been customary before his mummy was prepared. Amongst the mummies discovered at Deir-el-Bahari was one, which on account of its having been found in a coffin bearing the name of Pinozem I of the XXIst Dynasty, was formerly supposed to be the mummy of that king. Maspero, however, formed the opinion that it was the mummy of Tuthmosis I on account of the facial resemblance which it bore to the Pharaohs Tuthmosis II and III.!_ The technique of mummification displayed in this specimen, as well as the position in which the arms are placed, indicates that the body was embalmed at a period earlier than that of Tuth- mosis II, and later than that of Aahmosis I. The mummy of Amenophis I is in the Cairo Museum, and has not been unrolled (see Fig. 45), so that the only vacant place amongst the kings to be filled is that of Tuthmosis I. The body is well preserved, although the thick plastering of resinous paste which was used at the beginning of the dynasty is not employed and the hands are placed in front of the pubes, both of which are signs of later rather than earlier date.? With the mummy of Tuthmosis II some new features of treatment are revealed. The arms are crossed upon the breast, a custom which remained in vogue until the extended attitude was revived in the XXIst Dynasty. The orifices of the ears are plugged with round balls of resin, which are in situ. Although missing from the mummy of Tuthmosis I, there is evidence that these plugs had been employed in the case of his mummy also. Between this mummy and that of Tuthmosis III must 1 Struggle of the Nations, p. 242. Les Momies Royales, pp. 545, 581, 582. * The chronological position of this mummy in the series is fully discussed, and a considerable amount of detail considered, in The Royal Mummies, pp. 25-27. 91 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES be placed the well-preserved body of an unknown man (Fig. 11). The body was formerly supposed to be that of the scribe Nebseni, because it was found in a coffin bearing that name. As the coffin is of XXth Dynasty date, and the mummy is unquestionably of early XVIIIth Dynasty date, the identity cannot be maintained. The mummy of the Pharaoh Tuthmosis III had been greatly maltreated by the robbers, and in restoring it the priests of the XXIst Dynasty had strengthened the body by four large splints, which were wooden oars belonging to the burial equipment. The treatment of the mummy is consistent with the period, but the hands, which were crossed on the breast, were clenched in the attitude of grasping some object, doubtless a ceremonial whip and a sceptre which the robbers had stolen. In this mummy a difference in the site of the embalming-wound is revealed, and the new fashion remained in vogue until the end of the XXth Dynasty. Instead of the vertical incision from the lower margin of the ribs to the anterior spine of the hip- bone, an oblique cut was made from near the latter point towards the pubes. The skull of this Pharaoh is very remarkable for its large capacity, and it is of pentagonoid form. The face is small, narrow and elliptical. If one restores the facial features of this damaged mummy, a contour strikingly like the Deir-el-Bahari portrait and the beautiful statue in the Cairo Museum ! will be obtained.? The mummy of Amenophis II lies in his own tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The arms were crossed upon the 1 Legrain : Statues et Statuettes (Cairo Mus. Catalogue), Pl. XXX, No. 42053, Cairo 1906. * See the diagram in The Royal Mummies, p. 35. * A photograph of the mummy lying in its sarcophagus will be found in Wonders of the Past, vol. i, p. 894. 92 XVIUItH TO XXtH DYNASTIES breast, but the forearms are nearly parallel and placed lower down than was usual, and the fingers were not tightly clenched. When this king was found in his tomb in 1898, he was accompanied by a number of other royal mummies which had been deposited in his tomb in ancient times for safety. All had been maltreated by the robbers, and some of them belong to a considerably later period. The mummies of two women and a boy, however, are probably contemporary. The elder woman (Figs. 12 and 13) is middle-aged, but with long, brown, wavy, lustrous hair parted in the centre and falling down on both sides of the head on to the shoulders. The right arm is extended with the hand resting on the thigh, but the left hand is tightly clenched, the forearm being bent at the elbow so that the hand is placed just over the top of the breast-bone. As was customary in mummies of this period of both sexes, the perineum is covered with a thick cake of resinous paste. The mummy of the boy is of great interest. The hair has been shaved from the greater part of the scalp, but on the right side of the head it is left uncut, and forms a long, wavy, lustrous tress, and from its waviness we may infer that it was originally plaited (Fig. 16). This is the well-known ‘“ Horus-lock,” worn by young princes in honour of the god, and which is often represented in statues and bas-reliefs. It may also be noted that this boy, who is about eleven years of age, is not cir- cumcised, although circumcision was regularly practised in Egypt? and all the male mummies from the earliest times afford evidence of the custom. The hands are placed in front of the pubes, the right hand with extended fingers, the left hand being clenched. This position of the arms, like that of the next mummy to be mentioned, is a reversion 1 See Capart: Une Rue de Tombeauz, Pl. LXVI, where the ceremony is being performed. 93 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES to the custom which prevailed before the time of Tuthmosis II. The large aperture in the chest is the work of the tomb-robbers. The younger woman from the same tomb (Figs. 14 and 15) was formerly believed to be that of a man, because the head was closely shaven, but the anatomical evidence of sex is quite certain. It was possible to ascertain from this mummy that the diaphragm had not been removed, but had been perforated to allow the lungs to be extracted, the heart being left intact.1 The mummy of Tuthmosis IV is that of a young, ex- tremely emaciated man, with a long, oval, effeminate face (Fig. 17). The body is well preserved and has the arms crossed on the breast. The condition of the mummy raises many interesting anatomical problems bearing on the evidence of ossification in the determination of age.? The mummy of Amenophis III was smashed to pieces by the plunderers, a fact which is particularly regrettable because there are evidences of quite a special procedure in embalming. In spite of its shattered condition, it is still possible to observe that the embalmers had taken great pains to restore to the shrunken body something of the form and plumpness it possessed during life. This was accomplished by stuffing under the skin of the legs, arms and neck a mass of resinous material, which was moulded into form, so that, when dry, the skin set firmly upon a stony-hard mould. This procedure foreshadows a method which became customary and developed as a fine art in the XXIst Dynasty (see Chapter VII), but is the only known instance of it before that time. It may be noted that, from 1 The significance of the heart will be referred to later. (See pp. 145.) * Fully dealt with in The Royal Mummies, pp. 44-45. This mummy is the only one so far that has been examined with X-rays. 94 XVIlItH TO XXtH DYNASTIES the condition of the teeth, it is evident that the king must have suffered acutely from toothache, as there were extensive alveolar abscesses. Amenophis IV, afterwards called Akhenaten, the great religious reformer, and the founder of the City of Akhetaten (the modern Tell-el-Amarna), was the most interesting king that ever occupied the throne of Egypt. The peculiar shape of his head and body as represented by contemporary artists would have made his mummy one of particular interest and importance for examination. The irony of events has denied us the possibility of making such an examination, for after his death at his new city of Akhetaten, his body was moved to Thebes and placed in a tomb which was thought to be that of his mother, Queen Tiyi.} Owing to a defect of the rock in which the tomb had been hewn, water had penetrated, and caused the coffin to rot and col- lapse upon the body within it, doing irreparable damage. It may be mentioned in passing that this coffin, when complete, must have been one of the finest ever made in Egypt; it is incrusted with enamel and coloured stones, and was a work of rare beauty. Its shattered fragments have been removed to the Cairo Museum and an attempt has been made to restore it. The mummy had not been plundered, but was found in its original wrappings, encircled by bands of gold.? As in the case of the mummy of Tuthmosis IV, the anatomical evidence of age is of the greatest importance, and the tech- nical evidence on this point has been fully dealt with else- where. If Akhenaten had been a normal individual the condition * An account of the discovery and of the objects found in the tomb will be found in The Tomb of Queen Tiyi (Theodore M. Davis’ excavations, London 1910). * See Journal of Eg. Arch., vol. 8, pp. 198 ff. 8 The Royal Mummies, pp. 52-3. 95 EGYPTIAN MUMMIES of his skeleton would have forced us to the conclusion that his age at the time of death was probably about twenty-five or twenty-six years, with just a possibility that he might have been as old as thirty years. It is difficult to bring such an estimate into strict conformity with the known historical facts,! although perhaps not altogether impossible. The peculiar configuration of Akhenaten’s body, as depicted in his statues and bas-reliefs, suggests the possibility that he may have suffered from a rare affection, one of the effects of which is to delay the consolidation of the bones; so that the condition of the skeleton found in the normal individual at twenty-five years might be retained as much as ten years longer. The slight degree of hydrocephalus revealed in the actual skull lends some support to this suggestion. In addition it helps to explain the peculiar traits of face and head in the contemporary portraits of Akhenaten. The true solution of the problem, however, is fraught with difficulties, some of which could be eliminated by a thorough examination of his bones, which circumstances made it impossible to carry out when one of us was preparing his report upon them in 1907. While there is no doubt that the peculiar form of Akhenaten’s skull was due in the main to pathological causes, the configuration of the heads of his daughters (as revealed in their portrait statues) is sus- ceptible of another explanation.? Either they were not true to nature (in which case they may have been grossly exag- gerated expressions of the form in which Akhenaten’s infirmities were conventionally portrayed), or the children’s heads had been subjected during their infancy to the kind 1 Kurt Sethe: Beitrdge zur Geschichte Amenophis IV, Nachrichten d. K. Gesellsch d. Wissensch zu Géttingen, Phil. Hist. K]l., 1921. 2 G. Elliot Smith : Tutankhamen, 1923, p. 83. 3 See especially the fine coloured drawing of these princesses in the Journal of Egyptian Archeology, vol. vii, Pl. I. 96