One of the many questions people have about the mummies of Ancient Egypt is, why where people mummified? To Ancient Egyptians, death was simply an interruption before reaching the next stage in life. Going from life to the afterlife was tricky. Ancient Egyptians believed that every person was born with a ba and a ka. The ba was the person’s personality. When a person died, their ba and ka separated. Egyptians also believed that all parts of a person must be kept whole, such as the person’s body, spirit, and name. However, there are many different steps that go into mummifying.
Mummies were kept in tombs forever, or at least until Egyptologists discovered them. A mummy’s tomb was a bit hard to prepare. However, early coffins were very plain. Around the end of the Old Kingdom, the inside of the coffin was decorated with words. Coffins were painted with protective symbols such as eyes, wings, or gods. Sometimes, coffins were decorated with gold paints and hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs are stylized …show more content…
Mummification took at least seventy days. The Ancient Egyptians believed that a person’s heart was the key to the afterlife. In death, protective charms were placed over the mummy’s heart. The first step into mummification is, washing the body with oil and wine. Then, workers called bandagers cut a hole in the side of the body, and the internal organs were removed. Then all of the organs were placed inside canopic jars, except the heart. Each canopic jar was guarded by a god. Hapy guarded the lungs, Qebehsenuef guarded the intestines, and Duamulef guarded the