A Day In The Life Of An Egyptian Embalmer (AUDIOBOOK)
4Making mummies in ancient Egypt wasn't for the faint of heart. Mummification was developed thousands of years ago but didn't become standard practice in Egypt until the Old Kingdom (c. 2600-2150 BCE). Embalmers were sacred individuals tasked with making sure the bodies of loved ones were appropriately prepared to make the journey to the afterlife. Ancient Egyptians approached mummification according to a detailed process tied up in myth, preservation techniques, and religious offerings. The body and soul were inextricably linked: For an individual to continue to the afterlife, he or she had to be identifiable in the underworld for final judgment.
How bodies were handled in ancient Egypt wasn't determined strictly by spiritual beliefs, however. Economics, social class, and politics were all critical factors, and the embalming trade depended as much on the client as anything else. Ancient Egyptian embalming involved specific materials, but embalmers didn't uniformly apply them, nor were all embalmers created equal. Here's what it was like to be an Egyptian embalmer.