The Unknown Truth About Mummies

Most people know about the mummies of Hollywood movies, where they act as horrible monsters. At the same time, few people were interested in this story about them. But in vain. Some real facts about the mummies are even stranger than the films invented by the writers.

Mummification - "pleasure" is not for everyone

The burial by the method of mummification of the body was not accessible to all Egyptians. It was a rather complicated and expensive procedure, which included opening, removing all internal organs and filling the abdominal cavity with expensive oils. There were also cheaper ways, however, the families of the deceased tried to do everything on the highest level. It was not without reason: in those days in Egypt believed that a poorly embalmed deceased person could pursue his greedy descendants.

Ungrateful work of mummifiers

The Egyptians became famous for their respect for the human body, even the dead. Because of this, the process of mummification caused a large number of disputes in the then society. On the one hand, according to Egyptian beliefs, a person had to move to the afterlife with an unharmed body, which automatically put the process of embalming outside the law.

Since it was impossible to make a mummy without removing the internal organs, the mummifiers showed sharpness in order to somehow circumvent the limitations. They hired special workers who cut the deceased, and then quickly ran away. They were immediately sent to the chase of the guards, who were supposed to punish the perpetrators for inflicting harm on the deceased. Therefore, the "cutters" should not only have a good knife, but also run fast.

Breathing Mummies

Ancient Egypt was famous for its many strange traditions and rituals. One of these was the mummification of the dead with an open mouth. Thus, the Egyptians, who believed in the afterlife, showed the breath of a man. Also, according to beliefs, a mummy with an open mouth could enjoy drinks and food buried with it.

Public autopsy of mummies

The cult of death and the afterlife played a big role in the life of the ancient Egyptians. But he had absolutely no interest in the British colonizing this country. They completely ignored the beliefs of the local population and gladly put the mummies on public display. Moreover, they publicly opened mummified bodies.

The famous British doctor Thomas Petigrew has become famous for his active role in such events. He quietly unwrapped and opened the mummies in front of a huge audience. This barbarism lasted until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Making mummy paints

After the mummified bodies unfolded, they often became useless. Therefore, they, in fact, for a pittance sold to manufacturers ... paint. The color obtained from the crushed remains of the ancient Egyptians, even received a special name - "brown mummy."

According to sources, this paint was popular among artists of the time, but in the 1960s its production stopped. As it turned out, the companies ended ancient mummified corpses, and the more fresh bodies did not get the paint.

Mummies and medicine

In fact, the use of mummies for the production of paint was by no means the only way to use these corpses. Even in the XVII century, they created a medical product, equivalent to the modern "Tylenol". At that time, he was treated almost all the diseases - from everyday migraines to internal bleeding.

Especially in medicine the skull of the mummy was valued. Sometimes after the burial, moss grew on it, which, it was thought, had enormous healing abilities. Powdered, it was used for nasal bleeding and epilepsy.

But even then the healers could not stop at this. The supposed healing powers of these corpses went beyond the physical state and entered the spiritual realm. In his book The History of the Killers, Clive Gifford pointed out that even in the 12th century, among the rich, there was a special demand for a substance called "mummy powder." They even enjoyed the special zeal even the British King Charles II. He believed that with the help of this powder he could become as majestic as the Egyptian pharaohs.

Another European monarch, French King Francis I, drank a mixture of mummy and dry rhubarb every day. He believed that this potion would make him strong and protect him from enemies.

Mummy willy-nilly

Not all mummified bodies were thoroughly cleaned from internal organs and embalmed. Some became such accidentally as a result of accidents. Such corpses are sometimes called "marsh bodies".

The fact is that in Europe there are a large number of marshes, rich in oxygen and antimicrobial peat moss. If you get into such a medium, the bodies are very well preserved for a long time. Even after several hundred years on such a corpse, one can consider facial features, fingerprints, hair and nails.

"Mummies-Frankenstein"

Mummification of bodies was most often used in ancient Egypt, but it was practiced in other countries. In 2001, several thousand-year old embalmed corpses were found on the territory of Scotland by scientists. But even more researchers were surprised by the fact that they were composed of parts of different bodies, like the elements of a designer.

There are several versions of the explanation of this phenomenon. According to one of them, after discovering the mummified remains, people simply folded them in parts so that whole bodies were formed.

According to the second theory, these "mummies-Frankenstein" were created specially. Each part of the body was supposed to symbolize a specific trait of the family kind. Thus, the mummy was an unusual version of the genealogical tree.

Mummification during life

Many believe that the process of mummification of the body begins only when a person dies. But there are other ways. According to historical data, some Japanese monarchs began mummification of their body during their lifetime. This was done with the goal of entering the state of eternal meditation.

Lifetime mummification began with a rather strange diet. The man retired in the wooded mountains, where he ate only nuts, bark, roots and pine needles. In addition to the spiritual component, such a diet helped to reduce the amount of fat deposits, muscle tissue and moisture in the body. Thus, the body already in life began to turn into a mummy.

The full cycle of the diet lasted 1000 days. Some monarchs resembled him several times to feel the readiness to make the final step - to die. They completely stopped eating, and when they felt the approach of death, they asked their friends to bury them alive in a shallow grave. A pipe was inserted into the pit, thanks to which the person could breathe until he was dying of hunger.

However, the process did not end there. After about a thousand years, the tomb was opened to make sure that the mummification was successful. Only those bodies that did not show signs of decay were considered good and buried again.