When you buy through link on our land site , we may earn an affiliate committal . Here ’s how it works .
Ancient Egyptians are perhaps best known for the way they treated the stagnant — from constructing colossal pyramids to filling subterranean tombs with lavish treasure and artifact . The Egyptians also famously mummify many of the recently deceased to maintain their bodies .
But when did people inancient Egyptstart mummifying their beat ?
The 2,500-year-old mummified remains of a merchant were found in this sarcophagus in Giza, Egypt in 2005. This burial dates to the 26th dynasty, but what’s the earliest evidence we have of mummification in Egypt?
" The origins of Egyptian dry gangrene , for which there is clear scientific evidence , is [ circa ] 4,300 B.C.,“Stephen Buckley , a research worker at the University of York in the U.K. who co - wrotetwopaperson the topic , told Live Science in an electronic mail . " We may find it run back in the first place still , " Buckley suppose .
This evidence includes 6,300 class - old mummy wrappings that were found at an ancient Egyptian cemetery at the site of Mostagedda , about 200 mile ( 320 kilometers ) to the south of Cairo . The burials were dig up in the early twentieth one C , and the wrappings were brought to the U.K. and are now in the Bolton Museum as Buckley and fellow noted in the PLOS One study in 2014 .
In the study , the scientiststested the wrappingsand found that they contain resins typically used in mummification . The tests indicate that these resin were made from a kind of ingredients such as works oil , animal fat , wax and plant gum . alike resins were also used in later clip periods by the ancient Egyptians formummification , the scientists note .
To put the 4,300 B.C. date into context , this is about a millennium before the Egyptiansdeveloped hieroglyphsand about 1,500 twelvemonth before they startedbuilding Pyramids of Egypt . It is also about a millennium before Egypt became unified undera single pharaoh .
Natural mummification
While the old evidence for using hokey agency to dry up trunk date back around 4,300 B.C. , Egyptians underwent born mummification in even earliest times .
Natural mummification " is an inadvertent process make by favourable inhumation conditions , " such as being inter in live , dry George Sand , Buckley said . " The Egyptians did n’t start to naturally mummify their dead at any point in clock time in terms of a witting deed , " Buckley said .
Salima Ikram , an Egyptology professor at the American University in Cairo , told Live Science in an email that the earliest examples of of course mummified mamma appointment from 5000 B.C. if not to begin with .
— Ancient Egyptian mummy masks , tombs and ' god of silence ' statue fall upon at Saqqara
— 7 famous mummies and secrets they ’ve revealed about the ancient mankind
— Sphinx may have been built from a natural stone feature film wear away by wind , study claims
Even after artificial mummification was break , many Egyptians were still naturally mummify because they were unable to afford hokey mummification and so were swallow up in the desert . The " majority of ancient Egyptians were simply put in a hole in the ground , with no preparation " and could accidently become naturally mummified , Buckley enjoin .
Ikram that " we do n’t know what was in the minds of the ancient Egyptians . But , whomever was put into a sandy grave , far from piddle , and not enfold with a reed mat / casket or in a pelt , would have been naturally mummified . "
As Christianity pass around in Egypt between the second and fifth century A.D. , the purpose of artificial mummification declined , allot to theRoyal Ontario Museum . While ancient Egyptian religion emphasized the importance of preserve the body for the hereafter , Christianity did not , the museum noted .
