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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. We're going

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Speaker 1: a little more bid today, literally quite uh. So everyone

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Speaker 1: knows what a mummy looks like. You've seen him, probably

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Speaker 1: in a museum. They're featured in movies, they have been

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Speaker 1: popular Halloween costumes for decades, and most people know a

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Speaker 1: little bit about how mummification was performed. I think most

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Speaker 1: people will remember hearing about organs being removed, brains being

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Speaker 1: extracted through the nose. That's usually the first thing someone

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Speaker 1: will spit out if you mentioned mummification. That was the

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Speaker 1: first thing I spit out when you mentioned mummifications. So

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Speaker 1: my husband, that was the first thing he said, Oh,

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Speaker 1: they pulled the brains out through the nose. But there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of other details to the process, and

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Speaker 1: that full picture of what all goes on is almost

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Speaker 1: ever really taught in school, and it's certainly not talked

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Speaker 1: about a lot because it gets into a lot of minutia. So, uh,

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Speaker 1: that got me thinking about how did ancient Egyptians actually involved.

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Speaker 1: They're dead and thanks in large part to Herodotus and

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Speaker 1: Diodora siculous. We actually have some really good descriptions of

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Speaker 1: what happened to the deceased um. But in this episode,

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Speaker 1: just to set up expectations, we're not focusing on the

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Speaker 1: tumbes and the pyramids and like how pharaohs necessarily related

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Speaker 1: to rest. We're talking about just embalming and mummification of

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Speaker 1: you know, the general populace of Egypt, although there there

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Speaker 1: are social strata levels and financial levels to it. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And we also want to throw out a quick warning,

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Speaker 1: so some of this, as you might guess, gets a

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Speaker 1: little bit graphic. So if you are sensitive to semi

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Speaker 1: gory anatomy talk, or you're listening with a younger history

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Speaker 1: buff who might not, you know, necessarily be ready for

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Speaker 1: this topic, you might want to either skip it or

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Speaker 1: give it a quick pre screen, uh for any younger ones,

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Speaker 1: just to make you're you're cool with them hearing what

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Speaker 1: we have to say. I guess that's some of It's

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Speaker 1: a little little graphic. We lucky if you're sensitive to it.

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Speaker 1: The account written by Herodotus describes the whole pre mummification

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Speaker 1: process while the household is grieving over the recently deceased person,

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Speaker 1: and upon the death of a distinguished man, according to

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Speaker 1: Herodotus writings, all of the women of the household would

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Speaker 1: mud themselves. They would cover themselves with mud, and they

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Speaker 1: would walk through town beating their bare breasts as part

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Speaker 1: of the show of morning. And men would also do

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Speaker 1: the same thing, also beating themselves on the chest. And

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Speaker 1: there was also a girdle wearing involved. Uh. And then

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Speaker 1: when this processional was over, that's when they would take

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Speaker 1: the body to be mummified. If a woman had died,

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Speaker 1: if she was the wife of an honorable man, or

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Speaker 1: was especially beautiful or well known, her body would be

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Speaker 1: held by the family for several days prior to being embalmed.

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Speaker 1: And according to Herodotus, this was to protect the body

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Speaker 1: from being vile related by the embombers, which was either

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Speaker 1: apparently a problem or a suspected problem. Yeah, they were

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Speaker 1: either very afraid of necrophilia going on or it sounds

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Speaker 1: like in that writing that there is one instance of

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Speaker 1: it happening, but it's still not clear whether it was

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Speaker 1: a rumor or actually took place, but it was a

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Speaker 1: very real fear. Uh. And then in the case of

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Speaker 1: people who were found either killed by a nile, crocodile,

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Speaker 1: or drowned in the river. They got a whole sort

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Speaker 1: of different approach, which is that their bodies were handled

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Speaker 1: in the absolutely most elaborate mantal manner. They can only

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Speaker 1: be touched by priests of the nile, like not even

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Speaker 1: their relatives were allowed to touch the deceased. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: these corpses were handled as though they were quote more

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Speaker 1: sacred than the body of a man, because they, you know,

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Speaker 1: esteemed the nile so much. If the nile is how

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Speaker 1: you died, you sort of got automatically a higher level. Now,

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Speaker 1: when I was relaying this piece of information to my

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Speaker 1: husband on the to work today, he immediately began to postulate, well,

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Speaker 1: what would happen, Like, maybe somebody in your family died

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Speaker 1: in a really nefarious way. Could you throw up in

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Speaker 1: the nile and fake it and give them an honor

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Speaker 1: of super honorable um burial as a consequence. I do

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Speaker 1: not know, But in case any of our listeners had

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Speaker 1: a similar question, I just wanted to mention that I

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Speaker 1: have no idea that we don't know. So once the

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Speaker 1: family had finished their initial grieving ritual, they would turn

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Speaker 1: the body over to the embalmer, and the process of

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Speaker 1: preserving the body was extremely important because Ka, which is

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Speaker 1: the person's spiritual entity, would not be able to come

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Speaker 1: back to a body that was decayed. Right, So, as

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Speaker 1: we know, without getting too deep into the religious aspect

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Speaker 1: of it, because we're focusing really on how bodies were handled. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You know, in Egypt, they believed that your your soul,

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Speaker 1: some form of your soul, would come back to you

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Speaker 1: in the afterlife. That's why they wanted to prepare everyone.

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Speaker 1: And so if you if your body was handled poorly,

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Speaker 1: it would be a much more difficult or unlikely process

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Speaker 1: for you to have a good afterlife. It's a sort

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Speaker 1: of common idea and a lot of religions that that

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Speaker 1: if the body has been desecrated or destroyed in some way,

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Speaker 1: that it's going to affect the afterlife of the person

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Speaker 1: who died. Uh. And then once the family would take

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Speaker 1: the body to um, the embalmer's much the same way

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Speaker 1: that a modern mortician would go over options for various

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Speaker 1: aspects of burial ceremonies with clients. The involmer would actually

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Speaker 1: show the deceased family normally three specimens of their work,

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Speaker 1: and they would each be at a different quality and

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Speaker 1: price level, and these were described by Herodotus as the

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Speaker 1: quote three classes of burial, the most expensive, the medium,

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Speaker 1: and the most humble. And once the class of embalming

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Speaker 1: was decided upon and all the details were worked out,

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Speaker 1: then the ebolmer would set to work, so sort of

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Speaker 1: like planning funeral today. Yeah. The body's first stop was

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Speaker 1: the place of purification, and there the corpse would be

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Speaker 1: watched with natron, which is a hydrous native sodium carbonate.

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Speaker 1: And next the washed body would be taken to the

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Speaker 1: quote house of beauty for actual mummification. And they're the

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Speaker 1: man that was deemed the overseer of Mysteries, who is

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Speaker 1: usually a follower of a Nubis, was assisted by a

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Speaker 1: priest of Osiris in the actual mummification process. The Overseer

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Speaker 1: of Mysteries would do this work according to the pricing

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Speaker 1: structure that had been agreed upon when the family first

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Speaker 1: brought the deceased in. Right. So first we're going to

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Speaker 1: run down the most involved process, which was called the

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Speaker 1: most perfect process. And this involves steps that are probably

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Speaker 1: familiar to people to some degree, because this is really

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Speaker 1: what most people talk about or they hear about snippets

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Speaker 1: of in history class brains through the nose, so starting

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Speaker 1: with the extraction of the brain matter through the nostrils

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Speaker 1: using according to her Rodotus, was an iron hook uh,

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Speaker 1: and there was iron being used in Egypt at the time,

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Speaker 1: but there have also been some questions about that. Uh.

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Speaker 1: The residue that the hook was unable to clear away

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Speaker 1: would be rinsed out with what is referred to in

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Speaker 1: several in the sources as drugs, and presumably that was

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Speaker 1: something with a cleaning agent in it. That there's still

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Speaker 1: some question marks about what the drugs were, something that

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Speaker 1: would help remove brain matter early on in this process.

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Speaker 1: There were also two men involved. You had kind of

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Speaker 1: odd jobs. Yeah. I when I was doing research on this,

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Speaker 1: I I am Tracy and said, I just found the

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Speaker 1: two worst jobs in ancient Egypt's history. Yeah, first was

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Speaker 1: not quite as bad. That was the scribe, and the

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Speaker 1: scribe would mark the left side of the deceased body

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Speaker 1: where the incision would be made, and then a second man,

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Speaker 1: who was called the slitter, would make the cut to

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Speaker 1: open the abdominal cavity. And according to the first century

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Speaker 1: d cee Greek historian Diodora Siculous, who we mentioned earlier.

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Speaker 1: The slitter would then be he would have to take

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Speaker 1: off running because he would be set upon by everyone

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Speaker 1: present and they would curse him and throw rocks at him.

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Speaker 1: And this was actually a ritualized thing. Uh. This was

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Speaker 1: all part of the natural Egyptian belief that anyone who

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Speaker 1: would perform violence on a human body was horrible and

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Speaker 1: should be hated. Uh. But somebody had to do it.

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Speaker 1: So this was the slitter's job, sort of to be

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Speaker 1: professionally hated, and not exactly the best job there was

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Speaker 1: because it was like, hey, great job, now we're going

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Speaker 1: to beat you. Um. We don't know for sure how

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Speaker 1: much the scribe got of this treatment. We do know

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Speaker 1: that the person who actually performed the cut really kind

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Speaker 1: of got uh, had a rough day at the office.

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Speaker 1: At this point, the embombers could start their task free

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Speaker 1: of the stigma of having been the ones to wound

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Speaker 1: the boy. The rest of their work was considered reparative

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Speaker 1: and sacred, So the abdomen would then be emptied and

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Speaker 1: thoroughly cleaned and washed, and the removed viscero would also

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Speaker 1: be washed. And this washing was done via first rinsing

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Speaker 1: the area or the viscera with palm wine and then

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Speaker 1: rinsing it again with an infusion of pounded spices. The

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Speaker 1: cavity was filled with natron, then it was sown shut

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Speaker 1: and at this point the body was also placed in

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Speaker 1: natron for seventy days. There's actually some scholarly debate about

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Speaker 1: whether it was a shorter period, and that could stem

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Speaker 1: in from a change in the type of natron that

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Speaker 1: was used in earlier embalming. The natron was used in

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Speaker 1: a liquid state from the Middle Kingdom on, though it

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Speaker 1: seems like a solid natron salt was used and this

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Speaker 1: would result in a faster desiccation of the body. Yes,

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Speaker 1: so the the there The other number that you'll sometimes

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Speaker 1: here is forty days, so we know it's somewhere in

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Speaker 1: there um. And there are also a few factors that

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Speaker 1: would change the results of the natron treatment and how

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Speaker 1: long it would take, and that include the quality of

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Speaker 1: the mix, uh of the natron, the condition of the

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Speaker 1: body prior to embolving, as you can well imagine whether

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Speaker 1: the natron had been used before, because it would sometimes

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Speaker 1: be reused and it would get less and less effective

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Speaker 1: with each use. You have to also consider the ratio

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Speaker 1: of natron to body volume. And the climatic conditions of

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Speaker 1: the area. Obviously, if it's a more human space, it's

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Speaker 1: going to take longer for the body to dry out.

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Speaker 1: This is basically drying the body out, getting all the

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Speaker 1: water out, and that's gonna prevent bacteria and things from

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Speaker 1: breaking down the tissue or at least slow it down dramatically.

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Speaker 1: After this two months soak, the temporary stuffing materials would

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Speaker 1: be removed and the body would be washed again, and

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Speaker 1: once the abdomen was thoroughly cleaned, it was refilled with

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Speaker 1: aromatic substances. Then this could include Cassia, juniper, and mirror

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Speaker 1: as well as other things, and they these substances all

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Speaker 1: smelled nice, but they also preserved the body and they

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Speaker 1: prevented the abdominal wall from collapsing. And additional materials that

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Speaker 1: could be used to fill the abdominal cavity could be resin,

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Speaker 1: which also works as a disinfectant. They would use oils,

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Speaker 1: hung winds and perfumes kind of fill it out and

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Speaker 1: keep it as clean as possible in the afterlife and

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Speaker 1: also keep it from smelling horrible. Yeah. A side note

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Speaker 1: in case you've always wondered but didn't know, mirr is

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Speaker 1: a gum resin that comes from a tree and it

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Speaker 1: smells really sweet. Cassia is a course cinnamon bark, which

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Speaker 1: of course also has a very sweet smell. And then

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Speaker 1: uh they would also pour hot resin onto the body

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Speaker 1: in a thin layer and that would serve as a disinfectant.

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Speaker 1: So several different steps steps were being taken to prevent

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Speaker 1: any sort of bacteria, any sort of moisture that could

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Speaker 1: lead to um additional breakdown of the tissue preservation. From

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Speaker 1: this point, the corpse could have any kind of cosmetic

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Speaker 1: dressing that was going to be done, and this could

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Speaker 1: include dying and styling the hair, including adding heron's extensions

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Speaker 1: and applying colored pigments to the face. And then it

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Speaker 1: was at this point that the corpse would be wrapped

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Speaker 1: in the linen strips that we have the visual association

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Speaker 1: with of what a mummy looks like, and you adhere

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Speaker 1: these strips to the body. The underside was treated with

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Speaker 1: gum and then specialists, basically people whose only job was

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Speaker 1: working as a bandager, would perform this rapping. The digits

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Speaker 1: of the hands and the feet would be wrapped individually,

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Speaker 1: and then the rest of the body would be wrapped

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Speaker 1: and a red linen shroud would cover the body after

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Speaker 1: their wrapping was finished, and throughout each stage of this

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Speaker 1: process there would be a lector priest that would read

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Speaker 1: magical texts over the body, and protective amulets would be

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Speaker 1: placed at various locations around the neck and limbs, sometimes

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Speaker 1: around the waist and as well as tucked into the

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Speaker 1: layers of wrapping as they got to the final stages.

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Speaker 1: Once the corpse was fully prepared in this manner, it

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Speaker 1: would go back to the family and sometime during the

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Speaker 1: two plus months that the body had been with the embalmers,

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Speaker 1: the family would have acquired a wooden human shaped shell

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Speaker 1: that the body would go back into, and it would

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Speaker 1: be put in this box and then normally UH and again,

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Speaker 1: since this is the highest level UH, that box would

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Speaker 1: be stored upright in like a family sepulchral chamber. So

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Speaker 1: that is the most perfect process, yes, where everything is

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Speaker 1: done with great care, and there are many many steps

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Speaker 1: before we move on to the somewhat perhaps less perfect process.

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Speaker 1: You like to take a moment and talk about our sponsor.

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Speaker 1: That sounds grand, So let's get back to what the

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Speaker 1: maybe families of a little more modest means might have done. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the most modest means, but slightly more modin Yes, this

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Speaker 1: is this is like the mid grade quality offication exactly. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And this mid range treatment of Egypt's dead was, as

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Speaker 1: you might suspect, a bit less involved. They did not

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Speaker 1: take as much time perform as many steps. So rather

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Speaker 1: than taking the body's organs out, as was the practice

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Speaker 1: and the most expensive option, instead what would happen is

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Speaker 1: that embalmers would inject oil of cedar into the body

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Speaker 1: through the anal opening, which would then be sealed, and

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Speaker 1: this body that was now full of oil would be

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Speaker 1: soaked in netron for seventy or forty days depending or

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Speaker 1: somewhere in between. And after this soak was complete, they

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Speaker 1: would drain the oil from the body. They would um

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Speaker 1: unseal the anial opening, and then the cedar oil will

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Speaker 1: have liquefied the internal organs and so everything would sort

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Speaker 1: of flesh out at once. At this point, the body

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Speaker 1: was really depleted down to nothing but the skin and

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Speaker 1: the skeleton, and that's how it would be returned to

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Speaker 1: the deceased family without any kind of additional treatment. So uh,

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Speaker 1: not so much with the wrapping in the actual mummification

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Speaker 1: just an embalming process that was thorough but not as involved.

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Speaker 1: And then for the poor, we have an extremely basic

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Speaker 1: level of it of embalming. Yeah. So they would cut

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Speaker 1: open the body and remove the intestines, but it was

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Speaker 1: pretty quick. It wasn't careful, it wasn't all the intestines

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Speaker 1: were not washed. They still stoning the person, whomandicut I

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Speaker 1: would presume because the body was still considered sacred, although

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Speaker 1: I didn't find anything that separated Uh, those two instances

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Speaker 1: like that specified only in the highest and most perfect

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Speaker 1: level versus this. But they would flush the abdominal cavity

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Speaker 1: with alcohol and they would then soak the body in

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Speaker 1: natron for seventy days or less. Uh, But then that

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Speaker 1: was it. So after the neatron soak and it came out,

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Speaker 1: they gave it a quick rince and then it went

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Speaker 1: back to the family or sometimes in the case of

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Speaker 1: a popper that had no family, the embalmers would bury it.

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Speaker 1: Not so much with the tomb and the beautiful everything.

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Speaker 1: But what we have not talked about, and I'm sure

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Speaker 1: people are going hey. In fact, I was like hey,

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Speaker 1: in a moment that we cut out of this podcast

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Speaker 1: earlier why didn't you mention why didn't we talk about

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Speaker 1: the organs that came out of the bodies and the

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Speaker 1: jars that they went into, which are another thing that

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Speaker 1: probably if you've been to any kind of mummy display

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Speaker 1: in a museum, you've seen a lot of uh So,

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Speaker 1: the first thing that I found interesting in my research

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Speaker 1: is that brains were not particularly sacred to the ancient Egyptians.

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Speaker 1: Uh So, in this process, the brain was often cut

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Speaker 1: into smaller pieces to facilitate the removal and pulling it

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Speaker 1: out through the nasal cavity most of the time, uh

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Speaker 1: and brain matter was usually discarded. It was not treated

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Speaker 1: with the care of other parts of the body well.

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Speaker 1: And according to the beliefs in this culture, all of

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Speaker 1: your important stuff was in your heart and not your brain.

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Speaker 1: That kind of makes sense. Um. In nineteen sixty nine,

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Speaker 1: the Egyptian skulls that are part of the macalister collection

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Speaker 1: at Cambridge University were studied to figure out how the

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Speaker 1: brain was handled in each sample, and the findings support

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Speaker 1: this idea of the brain just not being regarded as important,

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Speaker 1: and there had often been holes drilled into the skulls

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Speaker 1: to help remove brain tissue and brain tissue often remained

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Speaker 1: inside the skull, suggesting that embombers were not incredibly thorough

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Speaker 1: and painstaking, at least not as much as they were

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Speaker 1: with other organs. Right, And there uh isn't actually any

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Speaker 1: information on how the viscera was handled after being removed

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Speaker 1: from the body in the writings of Herodotus and Diodorus,

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Speaker 1: who we've talked about a lot, but thankfully archaeology has

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Speaker 1: kind of filled in the blanks. And this is an

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Speaker 1: aspect of the process which actually evolved and changed over time.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't always done the same way. So if you

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Speaker 1: were waiting for the canopic jar talk, here we go.

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Speaker 1: In the late period, which was from the six sixties

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Speaker 1: until the three thirties, the viscera would be placed into

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Speaker 1: four canopic jars. And the earlier examples of these jars

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Speaker 1: are kind of plain, but later on they are very

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Speaker 1: ornamental jars and they represent the sons of Horace. So

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Speaker 1: jars with the human headed Mseti usually held the liver.

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Speaker 1: Then there was Happy who had a bamboon head and

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Speaker 1: that held the lungs. Do Amutef had the head of

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Speaker 1: a jackal and held the stomach, and then the intestines

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Speaker 1: were held by k base enough which had the head

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Speaker 1: of a falcon, and these were normally placed in the

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Speaker 1: tomb along with the body. And in the Hellenistic period

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Speaker 1: roughly from the three twenties to the thirties b c e.

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Speaker 1: The practice of handling the viscera shifted a little bit,

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Speaker 1: and then organs were normally placed into wooden chests or

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Speaker 1: sometimes set between the body's legs prior to the bandaging process,

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Speaker 1: and in some mommies from this time the organs have

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Speaker 1: actually been found, treated and washed and preserved and then

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Speaker 1: returned to the deceased abdominal cavity. When e Ship became

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Speaker 1: part of the Roman Empire and thirty one BC, mummification

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Speaker 1: practices shifted again and it became common for bodies to

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Speaker 1: be coated with resin to prevent decay instead of using

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Speaker 1: this longer and more involved process. But during late Antiquity

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Speaker 1: some bodies were simply treated with natron and then they

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Speaker 1: would be dressed in their regular clothes again rather than

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Speaker 1: wrapped in bandages, so they really sort of had cutbacks,

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Speaker 1: kind of got a little less intricate and ceremonial as

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Speaker 1: they went. It's time progressed, so not everything went into jars,

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Speaker 1: obviously because you have more than four organs. Despite the

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Speaker 1: clearing out of the abdomen and the trunk that we

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Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, the heart would be left in the body

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Speaker 1: and it was believed that it would be weighed in

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Speaker 1: the afterlife as part of the judgment of the dead,

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Speaker 1: and the kidneys were also often left, although we are

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Speaker 1: a little less clear on why that is the case. Uh.

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Speaker 1: In a paper on surgical procedures performed during mummifications that

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Speaker 1: was written by Bob or In ronaldust Wade Uh, the

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Speaker 1: pair point out that there's no real Middle Egyptian word

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Speaker 1: for kidney. There are some that kind of hints at it,

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Speaker 1: but no specific word, and they suggest that maybe ancient

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Speaker 1: Egyptians were entirely clear on this aspect of human anatomy.

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Speaker 1: It's also worth noting that when canopic jars are being

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Speaker 1: used in the late period, there were, as we said,

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Speaker 1: only four way more than four internal organs are in

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Speaker 1: the human body, so it appears that dissection was never

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Speaker 1: done in Egypt until the late Ptolemaic times, so it

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Speaker 1: makes sense that they may not have had a full

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Speaker 1: picture of the inner workings of a man. So even

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Speaker 1: though they were going in and removing organs, they had

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Speaker 1: not done sort of an exploratory correct surgical uh look

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Speaker 1: at the whole human body, which makes sense since cutting

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Speaker 1: into the body was a taboo, right. Uh. And it's

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Speaker 1: also worth noting that the incision that they were using

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Speaker 1: for removing these organs was only about two and a

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Speaker 1: half inches long, really just enough for one of these

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Speaker 1: embalming experts to get their hand in to remove things,

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Speaker 1: so they were really feeling around in the dark. Yeah. Well,

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Speaker 1: and if if you've watched an actual autopsy video or

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Speaker 1: any kind of like human anatomy study video involving an

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Speaker 1: actual body, or you know, if you've actually been in

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Speaker 1: on one of those, it's it's not as neat and

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Speaker 1: tidy in there as it is depicted when something has

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Speaker 1: been like prepared for classroom use or on television or whatever.

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Speaker 1: It's kind of like a big mass of blade goop

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Speaker 1: in there. Yeah. I mean, I think it's uh not

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Speaker 1: to make light of it being a human, but it

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Speaker 1: reminds me of the Halloween trick where people take you

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Speaker 1: in the dark room and have you feel things in

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Speaker 1: a bowl that are wet and slimy, and if you

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Speaker 1: think about a lot of those kinds of things in

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Speaker 1: one big bowl and you have to get around and go,

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Speaker 1: that's a I think that's intestine. I mean, it would

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Speaker 1: be very hard to just identify by touch, even if

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Speaker 1: you were very experienced, because there's it's all moving and squishy.

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00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:07,399
Speaker 1: It's not for the most part, you're not going to find,

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00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:14,960
Speaker 1: like you know, clear edges. This is definitely Some scholars

390
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,960
Speaker 1: do argue that the Egyptians had so much experience with

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Speaker 1: the practice of removing organs that there must have been

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Speaker 1: some more meaningful aspect to the kidney issue, but we

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Speaker 1: don't really know what that is yet. Yeah, there are

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Speaker 1: several theories. Some are very simple and it's like, well,

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Speaker 1: there's usually too much fatty tissue and it would have

396
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,280
Speaker 1: been hard to remove other shade they didn't even know

397
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Speaker 1: they were there. But we haven't found any cultural evidence

398
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Speaker 1: of any import to the kidney. So we, like them,

399
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Speaker 1: are feeling around in the dark trying to figure out

400
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Speaker 1: what the scoop was. Suddenly I'm like cadaver study. That's

401
00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:47,880
Speaker 1: the word that I was starting to find. An earlier

402
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,520
Speaker 1: a mummification appears to have ended for the most part

403
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Speaker 1: around the time of the Arab conquest of Egypt in

404
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Speaker 1: the seventh century, and by that time it's estimated that

405
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Speaker 1: around seven thirty million people had been embalmed in ancient Egypt. Yeah,

406
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:08,119
Speaker 1: they're considered the first embalmers. Uh, and they really you know,

407
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:12,080
Speaker 1: it's a fascinating practice. The great depths, especially if you're

408
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:15,280
Speaker 1: looking at the most perfect practice that they used. Uh,

409
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:19,440
Speaker 1: it's a lot of really intricate steps and with such

410
00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:23,120
Speaker 1: reverence for the body. Yeah, it's quite um, it's quite

411
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:25,720
Speaker 1: something to think about. Well, and like I know when

412
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,280
Speaker 1: I learned about this in elementary school or whatever, the

413
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,159
Speaker 1: focus was kind of whoo freaky, ran to the news,

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Speaker 1: But really it's got a lot in common with normal

415
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Speaker 1: funeral rituals in the West today. Like it's still about

416
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Speaker 1: preserving the body for as long as possible and having

417
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Speaker 1: a respectful uh form to return to the family in

418
00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: some way, like for a service before it's buried, that

419
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Speaker 1: kind of thing. So there's they paved the way. There's

420
00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 1: more in common than woe freaky. Yeah, burial cultures in

421
00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,600
Speaker 1: a lot of places. To me, that's sort of like

422
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 1: the I understand that the woe freaky part is what

423
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 1: often gets kids interested in things like this. Yeah, I'm

424
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Speaker 1: super excited about it, especially when it's kind of an

425
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:15,320
Speaker 1: icky topic, and you know, teachers may need for their

426
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:17,920
Speaker 1: their own sort of sanity to build that bridge of like,

427
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:20,240
Speaker 1: look at this freaky thing, and it makes it less

428
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,160
Speaker 1: scary because we uh, I know, certainly in the West

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Speaker 1: and of many other cultures there's still a lot of

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Speaker 1: taboo about death and talking about the dead and dead

431
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:31,840
Speaker 1: bodies specifically. Uh that that's sort of I think helps

432
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,320
Speaker 1: if we focus on the freaky part, particularly in a

433
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,680
Speaker 1: learning situation, kind of makes it a little easier for everybody.

434
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,320
Speaker 1: And kids love gross things of course as as a trend,

435
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:43,440
Speaker 1: but it does it misses out on all of that

436
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 1: beautiful nuance and subtlety. And I, prior to researching this,

437
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,920
Speaker 1: did not know about the practice of not turning over

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00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 1: a woman's body for several days out of fear that

439
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,680
Speaker 1: it would be violated in some way. That was all

440
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 1: new information for me. So there are a lot of

441
00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:04,560
Speaker 1: these things that we don't ever hear about. Yeah, And

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00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:07,240
Speaker 1: I think even including in today's episode, I've never heard

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00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:11,360
Speaker 1: anything about any kind of different treatment for a woman's organs,

444
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 1: which are not the same as a man's organs internally,

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00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,320
Speaker 1: Like I've never heard any Uterus ovary like what happened

446
00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:25,000
Speaker 1: with those discussed in any way? Ever? Uh, they certainly,

447
00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 1: to the best of our knowledge, did not usually end

448
00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 1: up in a jar. So there's always more stuff to learn.

449
00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 1: I know, maybe someone knows and we'll write us a letter.

450
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: I'll tell us some some cool obscure thing that we

451
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 1: haven't learned. You are an Egyptologist, you should write us

452
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,320
Speaker 1: for sure. Speaking of letters, I think you have some.

453
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 1: I have to both kind of short and one made

454
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:48,560
Speaker 1: me giggle. Uh. So the first one is from our

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00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 1: listener Stephanie, and she says, I just recently discovered the podcast,

456
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: and I was super excited when I saw an episode

457
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:56,520
Speaker 1: about Sarah Edmonds. So really, this is a praise Tracy

458
00:25:56,560 --> 00:26:00,080
Speaker 1: moment because that was her choice. Uh. Sarah, she as

459
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 1: an ant on my mother's side and kind of a

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00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 1: point of pride for our family. There is a monument

461
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: to her influence Michigan erected in the ninety nineties. Thank

462
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:09,400
Speaker 1: you guys so much for doing a podcast on her.

463
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 1: My mom and grandpa were super excited to hear about it.

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00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,760
Speaker 1: Awesome that's so cool. I always love when people write

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00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 1: in and they're related to someone that we talked about, her,

466
00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,200
Speaker 1: someone in the story that we talked about, or recently

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00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:23,399
Speaker 1: when the plane was landing and they could see us

468
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:25,880
Speaker 1: out the wind. I love those. It's you know how

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00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,440
Speaker 1: history stays alive day to day. And the second one

470
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,199
Speaker 1: is from our listener, Julia, and she says, I'm so

471
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 1: happy I recently found your podcast. I live in New

472
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:35,560
Speaker 1: York City, and my long commute to work on the

473
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,640
Speaker 1: subway is now a lot more interesting as I listen

474
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: to your back episodes. I hope you enjoyed this discussion

475
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:44,240
Speaker 1: of death. Julia uh. She goes on to say, since

476
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 1: you always mentioned Pinterest at the end of the podcast,

477
00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:49,240
Speaker 1: I was curious to see what you're both pinning. I

478
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,160
Speaker 1: plugged missed in History into the pinner search and got

479
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 1: this message. We couldn't find any results for missed in History,

480
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:59,400
Speaker 1: but you might try holidays, corgy sneakers, or passa. I'm

481
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:02,359
Speaker 1: not sure holidays, quarky sneakers, and pasta have to do

482
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:04,960
Speaker 1: with the podcast, but perhaps I'll figure it out as

483
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:08,199
Speaker 1: I continue to listen. Thank you for the always fascinating topics.

484
00:27:08,200 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see what you two have planned

485
00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 1: for the new year. It's funny you should say that

486
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:16,119
Speaker 1: we have actually just moved our Pinterest, so it should

487
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:20,400
Speaker 1: be much easier to find. Uh. It was a board

488
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 1: under the main house stuff works Pinterest, and now we've

489
00:27:23,119 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: moved it off to our own individual Pinterest account with

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00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: lots and lots of boards of our own. So if

491
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 1: you search for us now, we should come up and

492
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 1: search and if you just want to go there and

493
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,400
Speaker 1: check it out, we are at pinterest dot com slash

494
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 1: missed in history, so it's much easier for us to

495
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:42,920
Speaker 1: tell other people about Also, so you would like to

496
00:27:42,960 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: find our Pinterest again, that is pinterest dot com slash

497
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,199
Speaker 1: missed in History. We're also on Twitter at missed in

498
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 1: history and on Facebook at a new U r L

499
00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: which is Facebook dot com slash missed in history. Uh.

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00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 1: And our email address that one still the same. That

501
00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:01,320
Speaker 1: is History Podcast at Discovery dot com. If you would

502
00:28:01,359 --> 00:28:03,400
Speaker 1: like to learn more about what we talked about today,

503
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: you can go to our website and do a search

504
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,960
Speaker 1: for the term embalming and you will get how embalming works,

505
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 1: which does touch on ancient Egypt in the first embalmers.

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00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 1: If you'd like to learn almost anything else your brain

507
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 1: can conjure, you can do that at our website as well.

508
00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: And that's how stuff works dot com. For more on

509
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,560
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, because it how stuff

510
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: works dot com