User:Sakr.M/sandbox

=Herodotus & Egyptian Mummies=

Swindon: What will history say?

Burgoyne: History, sir, will tell lies as usual.

George Bernard Shaw, The Devil’s Disciple (1901)

Throughout history, many ancient civilizations thought that the body had to be consumed by fire or by natural decay so that the person would be enabled to enter the afterlife. However, the Egyptians had another idea. They believed that after death, if they have lived in accordance with Maat, the Egyptian word for truth, balance and order, they would be brought back to life with their bodies and soul. As without the body, they wouldn’t be able to enter into the afterlife. “Thus, mummification was important because it preserved the body and was the vehicle for the soul.”(Ikram 154) The Egyptians themselves, however, did not leave texts describing the mummification process. “As priests, Egypt’s embalmers were not in the habit of discussing their practices with the uninitiated. As businessmen, they guarded their trade secrets zealously, passing down the knowledge in their family, from father to son”(Pringle 42). That’s why most of the accounts that exists today about mummification were “penned down by foreign travelers, such as Herodotus who were forced to glean their information where they could.” (Pringle 42) Herodotus was a Greek traveler who lived in the 5th century BC, and according to Salima Ikram, a leading expert on animal mummies, Herodotus can be described as the “Bible of Egyptology” until the discovery of the Rosetta stone. (Marozzi 193) The best methods of mummification that exists today are from Herodotus as he “claimed to have witnessed the embalmers secret rituals while on a visit to Egypt in the fifth century B.C.”(Frost, viii) Herodotus’ work “has been acknowledged by Cicero, who gave Herodotus the title “Father of History”(Evans 11-17).

Justin Marozzi has spent four years traveling on the trail of Herodotus in Turkey, Iraq, Egypt and Greece, and in his book, Way of Herodotus: Travels with the Man Who Invented History, Marozzi had much to say about Herodotus. He mentions that many Greeks have been to Egypt in the time of Herodotus and have been to the sites that will so much captivate Herodotus. However, “no traveller has returned from Egypt with so much information about the country’s history, geography, religion, politics, its culture and customs, sacrificial rituals, manners and morals, flora and fauna, architecture, agriculture and diet, sex, burial practices and the mummification process – and then written about it”(Marozzi 140) as Herodotus did. Herodous describes the mummification techniques in his “second book of the histories.”(Frost xiii) First, Herodotus writes what happens when the corpse is brought to the embalmer, they “produce specimen models in wood, painted to resemble nature, and graded in quality(Herodotus). Then, the embalmer shows the people who brought to corpse, three models; the first is the best in quality and is the most expensive technique. “The next best is somewhat inferior and cheaper”(Herodotus). While the third is “is cheapest of all”(Herodotus) and has the lowest quality compared to the other two. The embalmer describes the advantages of the techniques that have the higher prices and how the other techniques are inferior. Herodotus describes these three methods of mummification as, “the most expensive, the medium and the most humble” (Tomorad 12-28). Then after “having agreed upon a price”(Herodotus), the people who brought the corpse would “go away and leave the embalmers to their work” (Herodotus).

Herodotus then describes each method of the three mummification techniques, and shows how each method differs from the other. The most expensive process as Herodotus describes it is as follows:

“As much as possible of the brain is extracted through the nostrils with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach is rinsed out with drugs; next the flank is laid open with a flint knife and the whole contents of the abdomen removed; the cavity is then thoroughly cleansed and washed out; first with palm wine and again with an infusion of pounded spices. After that it is filled with pure bruised myrrh, cassia and every other aromatic substance with the exception of frankincense, and sewn up again, after which the body is placed in natrium, covered over entirely for seventy days–never longer. When this period, which must not be exceeded, is over, the body is washed and then wrapped from head to foot in linen cut into strips and smeared on the underside with gum, which is commonly used by the Egyptians instead of glue. In this condition the body is given back to the family, who have a wooden case made, shaped like the human figure, into which it is put. The case is then sealed up and stored in a sepulchral chamber, upright against the wall.”

When the most expensive method cannot be afforded for the corpse, the second best method is offered. This method differs from the first method in that, “no incision is made and the intestines are not removed, but oil of cedar is injected with a syringe into the body through the anus which is afterwards stopped up to prevent the liquid from escaping.”(Parker 1) “The body is then pickled in natrium for the prescribed number of days, on the last of which the oil is drained off.”(Parker 2) After this treatment is over, the body is then “returned to the family without further fuss”(Parker 2). The third and cheapest method differs from the others in that it “is simply to clear out the intestines with a purge and keep the body seventy days in natron”(Marozzi 153).

Herodotus also mentions something the Egyptian used to do when a beautiful or a well-known woman dies. “When the wife of a distinguished man dies, or any woman who happens to be beautiful or well known, her body is not given to the embalmers immediately, but only after the lapse of three or four days. This is a precautionary measure to prevent the embalmers from violating a corpse, a thing which is said actually to have happened in the case of a woman who had just dies. The culprit was given away by one of his fellow workmen.”

With regards to the mummification techniques that Herodotus wrote, Francoise Dunand, a French historian and a professor at the university of Strasbourg, mentions that, “all recent studies confirm what Herodotus – almost the only and certainly the best, written source until modern times- had to say on the subject.”(Dunand 86). However, another study mentions that, “chemical treatments were an essential element of ancient Egyptian mummification.”(“Target Health” 13) “Although the inorganic salt, Natron is recognized as having a central role as a desiccant, without the application of organic preservations the bodies would have decomposed in the humid environment of the tombs. The nature of organic treatment remains obscure”(“Target Health” 13). The study by the Target Health Inc. also mentions, “archeological evidence shows that by” the time Herodotus visited Egypt, the process of mummification had “declined significantly and the best results had been achieved centuries before.” (“Target Health” 13) Adding to that, Target Health Inc. says that “Herodotus’ account mentions myrrh, cassia, palm wine, cedar oil and gum. However, his is vague with respect to the specific natural products used.” (“Target Health” 13) Jonathan Elias, the director of Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, mentions that Herodotus is certainly correct when he mentions frankincense and myrrh in connection with mummification,” however, “other materials were also used, including bees wax, and bitumen.”(Elias amscresearch.com) So what Herodotus actually mentions about mummification is mostly true according to what the studies say. However, there are some details that Herodotus was unable to know about mummification. As what were the organic treatments used as what is mentioned in the article by Target Health Inc. and usage of materials such as bees wax and bitumen as what Elias’ study mentions. Herodotus himself wrote that he couldn’t enter all the places he wanted to, as the people in charge would sometimes not give him permission. “I went through the rooms in the upper storey, so that what I shall say of them is from my own observation, but the underground ones I can speak of only from report, because the Egyptians in charge refused to let me see them, as they contain the tombs of the kings who built the labyrinth, and also the tombs of the sacred crocodiles.”

Marozzi then said that, “Herodotus had to contend with these sorts of challenges daily. If you think about it, it’s really not that surprising that the Egyptian priests should restrict the movements of a strange foreigner poking about in some of their most sacred sites and asking interminable questions. It is only to be expected. Try it today and many Egyptians think you’re a spy.” (Marozzi 151) There have been many titles given to Herodotus over the years, some people called him the father of lies, “some claim he called for interaction between civilizations, some think he was a symbol of bigotry who was against everything that wasn’t Greek.”(Marozzi 139). However Marozzi consider Herodotus a “great thinker”. When Marozzi was talking to Ikram about Herodotus, Ikram said, “I love Herodotus, I adore him! The poor man’s been much maligned but so often proved right.” (Marozzi 192) “He might be the Father of Lies, but which historian isn’t?”(Marozzi 192) Although there are some details Herodotus was unable to know. He is of no doubt the best ancient source there is till today that describes the mummification process and as Dunand says, Herodotus writings “continue to hold good even at this late date.”(Dunand 120)

=Work Citied=

Dunand, Francoise. Mummies: A Journey Through Eternity. Thames and Hudson, 1994. Print.

Elias, Jonathan. "Egyptian Mummification : Recent Findings Based on CT Scan Data from Egyptian Mummies (Ptolemaic Period)." AMSCResearch. Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, n.d. Web. .

Evans, J. A. S. "Father of History or Father of Lies; The Reputation of Herodotus." Classical Journal. 64.1 (1968): 11-17. Web.

Frost, Brian. The Essential Guide to Mummy Literature. Scarecrow Press, 2007. xiii. Print.

Herodotus, The Histories, trans. A. de Sélincourt, ed. with notes and introduction by John Marincola, Penguin, London, 2003

. "History of Medicine." Target Health. Target Health INC., 2006. Web. .

Pringle, Heather. The Mummy Congress : Science, Obsession, and the Everlasting Dead. Theia, 2007. Print.

Tomorad, Mladen. "Ancient Egyptian funerary practices from the first millennium BC to the Arab conquest of Egypt (c. 1069 BC-642 AD)." Heritage of Egypt. 2.5 (2009): 12-28. Web.