WEBVTT - Selects: How Mummies Work 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:04.000 Hey, everybody. Did you ever want to know how mummies 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:06.960 work and how you mummify a person? Well you can 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.000 learn if you listen to this one from March fifteenth. Hey, 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.600 look at that date, March fifteenth, twenty eleven. How mummies work. 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:27.120 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:28.880 --> 0:00:31.680 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.840 Charles W Chuck Bryant. We're about to do this stuff 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:38.760 you should know. Thang, Yeah, do you like that? I did? 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:39.800 How you doing? Man? 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:44.080 Great? Now that I've switched out my foul smelling microphone cover? 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.360 Yeah, this is actually take two, but it things nasty. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.200 I'm not getting near it, but can you trually imagine Chuck? Yeah, 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:55.280 and something's future facted on the mic cover, the Peak 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:55.920 Clipper cover. 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.880 Yeah, weird. You know, in real studios it changes out 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:00.400 of it now and. 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.720 Then these things have been running for at least a year. 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:08.160 Fifty cents? All right, what's your chuck your sterling intro? 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:10.800 Speaking of fifty cents, do you remember when we were 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:12.800 talking about fossils. 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:13.400 Oh? 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.440 Yeah, and we said that every once in a while, 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:21.319 something happens so that a fossil naturally occurs, and that 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:25.880 it's desiccated, the skin is dried out. Yeah, that's a mummy. 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:30.160 Yeah who knew? I knew? Yeah, me too. Actually, when 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:31.399 we talked about that, I was like, we have to 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:33.319 do how mummies work, and here we are. 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:35.160 I'm kind of surprised, just when it's slipped under the 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:37.000 radar for so long. This yeah right up our alley. 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:39.360 Yeah, I went and looked. I'm like, surely we do 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:40.600 have it and be fast. 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:41.840 It was gruesome. 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:44.520 Yeah, it's it's like stuff you should know died in 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:48.800 the wool. Yeah. Yeah, and you're about to hear why 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.520 dear listeners, because we're about to talk about all the 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:53.800 things that happened to a corpse after death, which we've 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:56.320 done before, but we need to go over again. Mummies 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.400 are cool, though, they are very cool. So, Chuck, let's 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:03.200 say that that you were stabbed in the stomach enough 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.760 time so that you could not move any longer. You 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:08.800 couldn't walk back home. It was out in the woods, 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:11.079 and the one person you're with, the very person who 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.080 stabbed you, left you there to die. You bleed out, 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.760 you're dead. Things start happening to your body, right, yeah, 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.040 pretty quickly, up first is autolysis. 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.200 Yes, that is uh, that's kind of gruesome. That's when 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:30.120 your organs that have digestive enzymes actually say, well, this 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:32.440 is what we do, so we're going to start digesting 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:33.560 the organs. 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.240 Right and not like my stomach is eating itself because 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.919 I'm hungry, Like my stomach is actually eating itself. It's 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:45.720 rupturing and oozing and it's it's being reduced to nothing. Yeah, 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.240 while that's going on, and that actually I think if 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:52.040 I remember correctly, that kind of helps kickstart the process 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:53.440 of putrefaction, right. 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:57.119 Yeah, autolysis starts within a few hours after you're dead. 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:58.680 The body, the body knows. 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.000 And if you want like a really big overview of 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.079 this or an in depth look at what happens to 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:06.960 the body immediately after death, you should listen to our 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.840 Rigor Mortis podcast if you haven't already. Yeah, body farms. 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:12.320 I talked about it in there too. 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.519 So yes, puture faction, you're right, is followed by or 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:20.840 follows autolysis. And that is when bacteria does its little 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:25.640 job and produces everything to a skeleton. And you know, 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:27.359 depending where you are, this gonna happen in a few. 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.440 Months, right, depending on where you are now, We as 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.040 human beings are a subtropical species, right, Chuck, you know that, sure, 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.200 So we are designed, if you believe in that kind 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:42.040 of thing, to decomposed. Decompose most readily in a warm, 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.400 humid climate. That's where the bacteria that breaks down our 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:53.440 tissue lives or thrives moisture warmth. If you have cold, dry, yeah, 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:57.440 things change a little bit. Like a refrigerator exactly. Which 0:03:57.480 --> 0:03:59.000 is a good place to store a body if you 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.240 want to preserve it, or food if you want to 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.560 eat it. That's a good point to your body if 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:05.360 you want to eat it. For an in depth look 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.800 at that, you might want to listen to our cannibalism 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.200 podcast though. That's right, right, But let's say you don't 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:15.600 have a refrigerator. Nature provides it for you on some occasions. 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:17.920 There's ut See the ice man. 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.520 Right, yeah, see the ice man. 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:21.680 Yeah, that's the iceman. 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.680 Yeah, nineteen ninety one and the Italian Alps. This dude 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:27.599 is very well preserved natural mummy. 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:28.680 He's amazing. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.279 Died and basically got buried in ice and kind of 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:31.839 stayed that way. 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.200 Yeah. I think they have the impression that he fell 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:37.000 into a crevasse. Yeah, died, but it was during like 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:40.680 a blizzard maybe, and he was covered with snow and 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:45.039 ice that stuck around for millennia. But he's so well preserved. 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.080 You can see the tattoos on his skin and still. 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.320 Yeah, well and we knew, Hey, they tattooed people fifty 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.280 three hundred years ago exactly. Little window into what life 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:55.120 was like for Iceman. 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.359 Yeah he was. He had I think a nice little 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:04.080 set of air and his bow and copper age European guy. 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.080 That's why he had a wallet sized photo of you 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.320 as well of me. Yeah, it's not possible. He was 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.200 from the future. That's my that's what I think. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:17.400 He just blew my mind. Chuck good. So ice, as 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.360 we talked about in Fossils too, was a is a 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.960 very good preservant. But nothing does it. Oh, Pete Bogs too. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.240 You remember I finally showed you that picture of Tolan Man. 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:28.920 Can't forget about Pete. 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.880 Again if you have not gone and looked up Tolon Man. 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.880 It's awesome, Like his whiskers are still there and he 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.240 lived a couple thousand years ago, right. 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.200 What's his name? Did they name him just Tolan Man? 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.919 Toland Man? I would have named him Pete Terrible. So 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:48.000 those two are pretty good. But the money, the natural 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.160 money preserve it is sand. 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:51.279 Yeah, I had no idea. 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.000 The reason why sand is such a great preservative is 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:57.880 because it actually wicks away and absorbs and just removes 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:03.640 the any type of humidity in the body, which allows 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.800 the body to desiccate, which means that there is no 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:10.960 place for bacteria to live, which means the tissues, the 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.920 tissue remains intact. And that's all about mummy is Yeah, 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.640 it's a it's a corpse with its tissue intact. 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:21.640 Well, and this kind of kickstarted the whole mummification artificial 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:26.920 mummification craze in Egypt because at first they buried bodies. 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.400 They weren't in caskets, they were you know, buried in 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.120 the hot sand. Yeah, and that preserved the body for 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.279 so long. They said, well, hey, if the body's preserved, 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.080 and that means the spirit's preserved. And this all of 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:41.599 a sudden, we have new views on the afterlife and life. 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.840 Right, So what they decided to do and this was 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.200 so what I guess what you've just said though, is 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:51.560 that the mummification, the whole concept of mummies that we 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.000 have that was so ingrained in the Egyptian culture. Happened 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:59.640 by accident, right, Yeah, So they started they figured this out. 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.200 So they start purposefully burying people in the sand with 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:08.839 the intent of them being mummified. Right. But the problem is, 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:12.480 somewhere along the way they begin to have horrible thoughts 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.720 of their dead relatives choked with sand. Right, So they 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:17.480 started to say, maybe we should put some sort of 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:22.400 barrier up in between the corpse and the sand. Yeah, 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:24.120 and that led to caskets, right. 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.040 Yeah, started with just like a wicker covering, and then 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:30.480 that eventually led to wooden boxes. But here's the rub. Yeah, 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:35.440 now the body is not preserved. Now the body rots desicates. Well, 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:35.760 no it. 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.000 Doesn't, it's just a normal corpse. Now, yeah, becomes you've 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.800 put a barrier between the body and the preservant in 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:42.679 the form of a tomb. 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:44.440 So what's an Egyptian to do? 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:44.640 Then? 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.680 Well, the Egyptians, being the very pious culture that they were, 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.320 and the very intuitive and smart culture that they were. 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.160 You should for that, you should go read did the 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:58.600 Greeks get all their ideas from the Africans? Good article? 0:07:58.800 --> 0:07:59.440 Did you read them? 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:01.960 Yeah? We do that. Podcast man let's do that, Okay. 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:07.640 They they decided that they needed to rectify their their 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:15.000 religious beliefs with their problem, their their need to preserve bodies. 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:15.920 And what did they do. 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.400 Well, they said, maybe we can replicate this natural process 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:24.960 that we've discovered through man made artificial means and the 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.440 trial and error. Yeah, it's kind of like it's called embalming, Josh. 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.200 And they actually figured out, Chuck that like, one of 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.360 the one of the problems with the desiccation, the natural 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:39.280 desiccation in the desert was that the skin turned like 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:43.800 this crisp brown right, like you know, over baked chicken. 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:45.320 It's exactly what looks like. 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:50.440 Actually, yeah, And with these embalming techniques that they eventually mastered, 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:53.960 they they could they could preserve a body better than 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.200 it could be preserved naturally, which is man conquering nature. 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.080 It's right, conquering death even well, come on, it's a cluss. 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:07.480 They didn't have huge success at first. They would embalm 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:09.560 the bodies mainly to keep it away from the elements, 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.280 wrap it in linen, soaked in resin, and they would 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.800 create nice little shapely forms that look kind of like people. 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:17.960 But that didn't really do a whole lot because the 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.920 bandages didn't really halt the composition. They basically figured out 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:23.640 that it happens from the inside out. 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:24.000 Right. 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.079 It took it took them a few centuries, if not millennia. 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:29.360 Basically wrapping it up, and it's just disintegrating within the 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:30.440 bandages at first. 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:34.040 Right, But those bandages are important because they stick around 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:36.959 pretty much the whole time. Same with the resin right. Yes, 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.959 so those two very early embalming techniques are mummification techniques 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.680 stuck around, But it was a big leap when they 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.280 figured out, oh wait a minute, this is going on 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.960 inside and so we need to start addressing. 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:51.000 That by removing organs. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.400 Right, And it's about here I think that we hit 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.800 the Middle Kingdom. And like the mummies that we think 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.400 of were produced in the from the eighth keent the 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:02.480 twentieth dynasties of the Middle Kingdom. 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:06.280 Yeah, that was when the like the heyday of mummification, right. 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:10.880 Right, which was between fifteen seventy and ten seventy five BC. Yeah, 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:12.920 the mummies that we think of, the ones that are 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.360 still around like really well preserved today, they were preserved 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.560 during this time, right, right, So what do you do 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.560 when you realize that everything bad is happening to a 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.160 corpse from the inside out. How do you address that? 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.520 Should we just walk through the process one by one, 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.560 the gruesome process? Yeah, okay. First thing you do is 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.000 you take it and it varies, you know, the different processes. 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:44.640 And within the processes, they had things that they would say, 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:46.720 sort like religious rights that they would go through as well. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:48.280 Yeah, very sacred processes. 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:50.920 But they would take the body generally to the Red 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:53.920 Land desert region. It's not near a whole lot of people, 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.199 so people aren't grossed out, but it is near the 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.480 Nile River. They needed the Nile River to well, we'll 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.640 see that in sess second step one, step one. You 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:03.760 need the Nile for step one. They think they did 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:06.360 it an open tents obviously to get some good ventilation going. 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.000 And the first place they took the body was to 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:12.720 the eyebo, the place of purification. 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.640 Yeah, that was basically the Nile or the place where 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.400 they the place near the Nile where they rinsed the 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:21.720 body with you washed the body off. 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:24.760 Yeah, it's like a rebirth symbol of rebirth. 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:28.920 Right, So the the the corpse was hastened or some 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:31.200 of the spirit was hastened in the afterlife, and we 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.480 should probably say here so it doesn't get too confusing. 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:39.120 There were three spirits that the Egyptians believed comprised a person, right, 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.160 the Ka, the Ba, and the ah. 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.959 Ah Yeah akh, Yeah, it's always tricky to pronounce that. 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:51.640 Right, So I think with this purification process, the ka 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.080 or the or the Ba or the ah, we're moved 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.120 along to the to the next world. Yeah, but the 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:02.640 Ka that was the one that was inextricably linked with 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:07.760 the corpse, which became the whole reason for mummification. As 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.840 long as the corpse was preserved, the ca was preserved 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.320 and the afterlife could you know, the person could live 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.720 in the afterlife. But once the corpse died, the kaw 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.640 died and that second death was final, which is why 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.560 they wanted to preserve bodies in the first place. Right, Yeah, 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.200 it's pretty cool. It's like the opposite of ashes to 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:27.880 ashes and dust to death, that's right. 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:31.000 So after they've washed the body and sort of reborne 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:33.199 it in the rivers of the Nile, they carried the 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.520 body to the per Niffer and that is the house 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.040 of mummification. And this is kind of where this is 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:44.319 the basement of the Fisher House. Basically, huh and six 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.800 feet under the fissures. Oh, yeah, this is in the basement. 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:48.679 This is where we go and the gang would get 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.559 to work. Yeah, they would lay it on a wooden table. 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:56.320 The body. They removed the brain by hammering a chisel 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:57.200 through the bone in the nose. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.400 You know, I knew that already before this articles Christian 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.960 Slaters and like he's in like one of the creep 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.200 shows or Amaze Amazing stories or tales from the crypto 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.440 movie pump up the volume. It might have been that, 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:18.200 but I think it was like a smaller vignette, like 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.440 a mini movie within the larger movie. It's called like 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.319 lat number nine or whatever and leaving the cube, think 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.280 it was. Now that's called Brotherhood of the Tiger. Now 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:30.040 I think they change. Yeah. Anyway, they there's a mummy 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.320 who's hell bent on taking other people's brains using these 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:34.280 hooks or whatever. 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.160 Well, and that's exactly what they do. They make a 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:39.839 nose hole basically larger than the nostrils. They insert a 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:42.800 big hook, iron hook, and start scooping it out. Eventually 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.280 they go down to a spoon and eventually they just 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.200 rinse out the remaining bits of brain. And what's funny 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.079 is so hold on. They discard the brain because they thought, 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.560 I don't know why we have this stuff in our heads, 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:55.200 but we probably don't need it in the. 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:58.199 Afterlife, right, which is kind of unusual for the Egyptians 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:02.680 because they they preserved organ yeah, you know, but the brain. 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:05.640 And what's funny though, like I think what we've just 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.840 kind of meander passed that we should kind of meditate 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:10.480 on for a second, Chuck, is that they get to 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.679 a point where they fill the head with water. I imagine, 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.360 close the nose in the mouth and shake the head 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.840 around to slosh all this stuff out, and then lean 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.640 the head over and let all the last bits come out. 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:23.080 Yeah, that's how I would do it. 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:25.680 I wonder if they did shots of that stuff, it 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:27.040 was like part of the ceremony. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.680 I would draw the line there. Well, they probably just thought, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:32.520 I don't know, they didn't even know what the brain was. 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.000 Yeah, that's true. It's just waste. 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.520 So the brain's out, Josh. Then they take a blade 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:43.400 made from obsidian sacred stone, cut a little incision on 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:46.000 the left side and reach in and start pulling out 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.480 the organs that they can get to right, and then 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.160 preserving those, like you said, except for the kidneys because 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:52.480 they didn't think they were important. 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.200 Either, which they were, you know, I mean the kidneys 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:56.240 are important, but it's not like brain important. 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:00.560 Well, I mean you need kidneys to live. I'm sure 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.040 they preserve the appending you need all of Yeah, that 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.200 was probably the most holy right of the organs. 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:07.560 So they actually when they preserve these things, they would 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:14.320 they would wrap them in uh in resin strips of linen, right, 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.960 Basically they would mummify each organ, yeah, and then they 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:21.760 put them in and canopic jars. Basically it was like 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:24.560 here's your body, and then also here are your organs. 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:25.560 I forget you. 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.600 They'd leave the heart though, because they thought the heart 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.560 was you know, linked to the soul and the spirit. 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.840 And they're kind of on the money there, I think. 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.000 So these organs take up space in our chests and 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:44.920 abdominal cavities, so they would actually stuff the body with 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:47.920 like incense and other materials as well. 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.240 Right, yeah, well, first they'd rinse it. Once they I forgot, 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:52.840 they'd take out the lungs to the abdomen. 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:54.200 Yeah, right right there. 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:57.520 You can't get along the little side slit and then 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:00.640 they would rinse the chest cavity with palm wine and 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:06.040 then they would stuff it. They would actually basically yeah, straw, 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:09.160 Well I didn't say what actually you just said other materials. 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.280 I would use straw, maybe frankincense, a little murrhor yeah, 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:26.040 just to complete the trilogy. 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:49.280 Stuff you should know, stuff you should know. 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.600 Yeah, straw, frankinsense and yeah, straw. 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:56.440 That that kept the body from like caving in on itself, 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.320 basically maintaining a little bit of shape. 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:04.000 And then is the key. This is the key to mummification. 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.080 And as a matter of fact, I'm just gonna say 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.119 it now. I found it on the internet. There is 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:11.879 a step by step, very easy to follow recipe on 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.840 I think Wiki how, which I don't normally go on, 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.440 but it's the only place I could find a recipe 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:24.000 for mummifying a chicken using the Egyptian method, and it 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:29.439 calls for natron, right, Yeah, that's the key. Natron is 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:33.439 this basically a compound that the Egyptians figured out they 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.160 could gather and combine from the Nile, which is basically 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:43.560 baking soda, sodium bicarbonate and salt table salt sodium chloride. 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.080 You mix the two together and it becomes this perfect preservant. 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:50.080 So they would put natron powder, which is like this 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:55.000 just accelerated the technique of mummification, like by light years. Sure, 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:58.399 and they would cover the body with this stuff and 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.720 leave it and it would just completely dry the body out. Right. 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:03.960 Yeah, this took about forty days. They had to guard 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:05.919 the body while this was going on, obviously, because they 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:10.080 didn't want vultures digging through the natron for what lies beneath. 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.600 After the forty days, they moved the body then to 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.600 the wabet, which is a house of purification. Yank all 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.159 that incense and the stuffing out, refill it with the 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:26.040 natron resin, soaked linen and other materials again whatever these 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:29.760 mysterious things are. Then they would sew all the incisions up, 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:34.080 cover the skin with resin, and then say, hey, it's 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:35.160 time to wrap this puppy. 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.560 Yeah, and this is where we get the idea for 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.800 the mummy, our modern idea of a mummy always wearing 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:42.440 link bandages. 0:18:41.880 --> 0:18:42.960 That are always coming off. 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:46.960 Yeah. You can just see the eyes maybe like teeth 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.680 or something. Yeah, So this is where we're at. They're 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.119 at the bandaging procedure that thirty five or forty days, 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.000 while the nature and powder was doing its work wicking 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:00.960 away all of the basically acting as the desk KNT. Yeah, 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.520 the family of the deceased was going around town going 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.040 do you have any linens we can have forever? Yeah? 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:10.760 Do you have some linens we can have? 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.560 And could you like your linens to spend eternity in 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:15.080 the eavans above. 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:20.120 With our dad. They collected about four thousand square feet 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.320 just top top of my head, that's about how much 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:26.119 they gathered sure of linen and would bring it to 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.840 the embalmers, and the embalmers would say, hey, we like 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:33.159 this piece. That piece is horrible. Are you really going 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:36.160 to bury your dad in this? And they would take 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.280 the best stuff and they would cut it into or 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.520 they would tear them into strips three to eight inches 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:43.560 wide of bandages and they would start the rapping, which 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.639 would take a little while. Right, Yeah, it takes a week. 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:49.119 Or two, I guess probably depending on how big the 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:53.040 body is. Common sense. Start with the hands and feet. 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.560 You wrap all. This is the initial under wrapping, I guess. 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.680 You wrap everything individually, each little finger each it'll toe 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.359 everything and then once everything's wrapped individually, they do a 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:08.919 whole body wrap, applying new layers, coating the linen with 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.680 again the hot resin to keep everything in place. Uttering spell. 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:17.000 Sometimes they would wrap amulets over different parts of the body. 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:19.520 Wrap it up in there with you, protect you in 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:21.879 the next world, that kind of thing. 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:28.199 Right, and then presto chaninjoh, you are a mummy. And 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.879 before we go further the process we've just described, this 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:37.240 really ornate, wonderful, lengthy process. 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:37.640 Where this is going. 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:39.680 You would think about it like, there's so many There 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:41.639 were a lot of Egyptians running around, and a lot 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.480 of them died on any given day, and there was 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:47.320 a lot of work to be done. So this process 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:49.520 that we just described was for the people who had 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.280 lots of money. For some reason, the wealthy have always 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:56.320 been revered, right, and I've also gotten special treatment right. Right. 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.320 If you were just an ordinary schmo like me or Chuck, 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:05.159 you were going to get the budget package, which is 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:09.320 basically like instead of like carefully removing all of the organs, 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:14.200 preserving each one, they would inject oil like this oil 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:19.200 mixture into your cavities, let it sit for a few days. 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.040 It would stop up all your orifices first, sod leak out. 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.520 Thank you. So I don't know how they did that. 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:28.119 I guess with other materials. 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.200 Right, So they would stop you up full of oil, 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:33.760 let you sit for a few days, and then unstop 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.240 your orifices and let all the oil drain out, and 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.400 it would carry the liquefied organs and tissue out with it. 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:44.199 It's a lot easier, a lot faster. 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:46.639