Mummy

A mummy is a corpse whose skin, and flesh, have been preserved by deliberate or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold or dryness, or airlessness.

The best-known mummies are those that have been deliberately embalmed with the specific purpose of preservation, particularly those in ancient Egypt. Egyptians believed the body was home to a person's Ka which was essential in one's afterlife. In Egypt, the bodies are left out in the sun to dehydrate quickly, to not give the body a chance to decompose.

In China, preserved corpses have been recovered from submerged cypress coffins packed with medicinal herbs.

Mummies formed as a result of naturally occurring environmental conditions, such as extreme cold (Ötzi the Iceman), acid (Tollund Man) or desiccating dryness have been found all over the world. Some of the best-preserved mummies formed under natural conditions date from the Inca period in Peru.

Links about Mummy

NOVA Online | Ice Mummies of the Inc
NOVA presents an online expedition to Peru to search for Incan mummies at the top of Mt. Sara Sara.

Mummies of Ancient Egypt
While the Egyptian ones are the most famous, mummies have been found in many places throughout the world, from Greenland to China to the Andes Mountains of South America.

Despite their rap, mummies are really very chummy
We don't understand mummies. We make no allowances for their little quirks....

The Mummies of Condor Lake
Mummies can upset the best-laid plans. Last June in Leimebamba, a small town, in Peru's Department of Amazonas, the word was out: a major archaeological find at nearby Laguna de los Cóndores.

Howard Carter and the "Curse of the Mummy"
The rumor of an ancient curse didn't stop this archaeologist from opening the tomb of King Tut.

Making Mummies
The Egyptians practiced mummification because they believed that after death a person's spirit survived. This spirit they called theKa.

Neferchichi's Tomb : Mummy
The people of ancient Egypt believed that upon death, a person's soul split into several parts, and continued to live on in an afterlife. Three of the more well-known forms of the spirit were the ba, the akh, and the ka...

Mummies of Ancient Egypt: How are Mummies Made?
The art of Egyptian mummification consisted of many steps. First, the body was washed and ritually purified. The next step was to remove the deceased person's inner organs.

Who was who among the royal mummies
The University of Chicago had an early association with the royal mummies, albeit an indirect one. On the Midway in the area in front of where Rockefeller Chapel now stands there was an exhibit of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition...

Mummy Tombs
Information about Mummies from Egypt and Around the World.

2000 Year Old Mummies Found in China Still Wearing Silk Clothing
A pair of mummies estimated to be nearly 2,000 years old have been discovered in the desolate desert sands of northwest China.

NOVA Online | Mysterious Mummies of China
Perfectly preserved 3000-year-old mummies began appearing in a remote Chinese desert. They had long reddish-blond hair, European features and didn't appear to be the ancestors of modern-day Chinese people.

Resources:

Egyptian Mummies - The methods of embalming, or treating the dead body, that the ancient Egyptians used is called mummification. Using special processes, the Egyptians removed all moisture from the body, leaving only a dried form that would not easily decay.

Mummy: the inside story - For the first time, the unopened 3000-year-old mummy of Nesperennub, priest of Karnak, reveals its secrets.

Mystery of the mummies by Ellen O'Brien - Now their remains are being reclaimed from the sands, and the people of that extinct nation are challenging scientists and scholars to fathom who they may have been...

Discovery Channel: Mummy Mania - What did mummies look like before they were mummies? Thanks to new forensic techniques, we now know more than ever before.

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