WEBVTT - How Mummies Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know? 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:16.479 From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.119 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:23.720 We're about to do this stuff you should know saying, yeah, 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.400 did you like that? I did? Are you doing? Man? Great? 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.440 Now that I've switched out my foul smelling microphone cover? Yeah, 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.479 this is actually take two things. I'm not getting near it, 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:39.680 but I can you really imagine? Yeah, something's future facted 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:44.440 on the mike cover, the peak clipper cover. Yeah, weird. 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:46.959 You know, in real studios they change you out every 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:50.040 now and then. These things have been running for at 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.960 least a year. Fifty cents? All right, what's your chuck 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.120 your sterling intro? Speaking of fifty cents, do you remember 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:01.200 when we were talking about fossils. Oh, yeah, and we 0:01:01.280 --> 0:01:04.680 said that every once in a while, something happens so 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:09.280 that a fossil naturally occurs um and that it's desiccated, 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:14.440 the skin is dried out. That's a mummy. Yeah, who knew? 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.760 I knew. Actually when we talked about that, I was 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:19.840 like we have to do how mummies work. And here 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:21.720 we are. I'm kind of surprised this one had slipped 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.480 under the radar for so long, right up our Yeah, um, 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.520 I went and looked. I'm like, surely we do have it, 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:31.240 and yeah, it's it's like stuff you should know died 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:35.200 in the wool. Yeah yeah, um. And you're about to 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.000 hear why dear listeners, because we're about to talk about 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.240 all the things that happened to a corpse after death, 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:42.559 which we've done before, but we need to go over again. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.840 Mummies are cool, though, they are very cool. So Chuck, 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:50.000 let's say that you were stabbed in the stomach enough 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.600 times so that you could not move any longer. You 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:55.640 couldn't walk back home. It was out in the woods, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:57.880 and the one person you're with, the very person who 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.880 stabbed you, left you there to die. You bleed out. 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.600 You're dead. Things start happening to your body, right, yeah, 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:10.639 pretty quickly. Up first is autolysis. Yes, that is uh, 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.120 that's kind of gruesome. That's when your organs that have 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:17.640 digestive enzymes actually say, well, this is what we do, 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:20.760 so we're gonna start digesting the organs right and not 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:24.040 like my stomach is eating itself because I'm hungry, Like, 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.040 my stomach is actually eating itself. It's rupturing and oozing 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.880 and it's it's it's being reduced to nothing. Um while 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.360 that's going on. And then actually, I think if I 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:39.080 remember correctly, that kind of helps kickstart the process of 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.720 puture faction. Right, yeah, autolysis starts within a few hours 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.960 after you're dead. The body, the body knows. And if 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.000 you want like a really um big overview of this 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.280 or in depth look at what happens to the body 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.440 immediately after death, you should listen to a Rigor Mortis 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:58.320 podcast if you haven't already body farms. I talked about 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.919 it in there too, So yes, intra faction, you're right, 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.640 is followed by or follows autolysis. And that is when 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:11.200 bacteria does its a little job and reduces everything to 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:13.320 a skeleton. And you know, depending where you are, it's 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.720 gonna happen in a few months, right, depending on where 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.880 you are. Now, We as human beings are a subtropical species, right, Chuck, 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.240 You know that, sure? So we are designed, if you 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.919 believe in that kind of thing, to decomposed, decomposed most 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:31.040 readily in a warm humid climate. That's where the bacteria 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:36.400 that breaks down our tissue lives or thrives moisture warmth. 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.600 If you have cold, dry, things change a little bit. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.920 Like a refrigerator exactly. Um, which is a good place 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.320 to store body if you want to preserve it, or 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.480 food if you want to eat it. It's a good 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:51.000 point to your body if you want to eat it. 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:53.480 For an in depth flick at that, you might want 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.000 to listen to our cannibalism podcast though. That's right, Um, 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.800 But let's say you don't have a refrigerator. Nature provides it, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:06.360 are you? On some occasions there's you'd see the ice man, right, yeah, 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.800 see the ice man. Yeah, that's the ice man. Yeah, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.600 and the Italian ounce. This dude is very well preserved 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.239 natural mummy. It was amazing. Died and basically got buried 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.400 in ice and kind of stayed that way. Yeah. I 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.359 think they have the impression that he fell into a 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.799 crevasse died, but it was during like a blizzard maybe 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.279 and he was covered with snow and ice that stuck 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.960 around for millennia. Um. But he's so well preserved. You 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.040 can see the tattoos on this um skin and still yeah, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:38.920 and well, and we knew. Hey, they tattooed people years 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.479 ago exactly, little window into what life was like for 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.039 ice Man. Yeah, he um he was. He had I 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:48.120 think a nice little set of arrows and his bow 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.960 and copper age European guy. I think he had a 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:56.880 wallet sized photo of of you as well of me. Yeah, 0:04:57.920 --> 0:04:59.960 he was from the future. That's my that's what I think. 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.240 You just blew my mind, Chuck good So ice as 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.080 we talked about the fossils too, Um was a is 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:11.240 a very good preservant. But nothing does it. Oh, Pete 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.440 Boggs too. You remember I finally took you that picture 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:16.400 of tolin Man. About Pete again, if you have not 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:18.680 gone and looked at tole Man, it's awesome, Like his 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:22.200 whiskers are still there. And he lived a couple of 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.000 thousand years ago. Right, what's his name? Did they name 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:30.320 him just man? I would name him pet terrible. Um. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.120 So those two are pretty good. But the money, the 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.119 natural money preservant is sand. Yeah, I had no idea. 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:40.800 The reason why sand is such a great preservative is 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.760 because it actually wicks away and absorbs and just removes 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.880 the um any type of humidity in the body, which 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.280 allows the body to desiccate, which means that there is 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:57.479 no place for bacteria to live, which means the tissues, 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.120 the tissue remains intact. And that's all about a mummy, 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:04.960 is it's a it's a corpse with its tissue intact. Well, 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.480 and this kind of kick started the whole mummification artificial 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:13.760 mummification craze in Egypt because at first they buried bodies. 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:16.240 They weren't in caskets, they were you know, buried in 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.400 the hot sand, and that preserved the body for so long. 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.240 They said, well, hey, if the body is preserved, then 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.279 that means the spirits preserved. And this all of a sudden, 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.760 we have new views on the afterlife and life. Right, 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.120 So what they decided to do and this was so 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.240 what I guess what you've just said though, was that 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.600 the mummification, the whole concept of mummies that we have 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:41.800 and that was so ingrained in the Egyptian culture, happened 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:46.200 by accident, right yeah. Um, so they started they figured 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.560 this out, So they start purposefully burying people in the 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:54.560 sand with the intent of them being mummified, right, Um. 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.679 But the problem is somewhere along the way they began 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.400 to have horrible thoughts of their dead. Well, it's has 0:07:00.480 --> 0:07:03.440 choked with sand. So they started to say, maybe we 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:06.040 should put some sort of barrier up in between the 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:11.080 corpse and the sand. And that led to caskets, right, Yeah, 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:13.440 started with just like a wicker covering. Than that eventually 0:07:13.520 --> 0:07:18.040 led to wooden boxes. Uh, but here's the rub. Now 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:22.280 the body is not preserved. Now the body rots. Well, 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.480 it's just a normal corpse. Now you put a barrier 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:29.080 between the body and the preservant in the form of 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:31.720 a tomb. So what's the Egyptian to do then? Well, 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.520 the Egyptians, being the very pious culture that they were, 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.160 and the very um intuitive and smart culture that they were, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.880 you should for that, you should go read um did 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.400 the Greeks get all their ideas from the Africans? Good article? 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:47.880 Did you write them? Yeah? Did we do that, podcat man, 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.560 let's do that, okay. Um. They they decided that they 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:56.880 needed to rectify their um, their religious beliefs with their 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:02.400 um problem. They're they're need to preserve bodies. And what 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.680 did they do, Well, they said, maybe we can replicate 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:10.880 this natural process that we've discovered through man made artificial means. 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:15.239 And yeah, it's kind of like it's called embombing Josh. 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:17.960 And they actually figured out Chuck that like um, one 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.720 of the one of the problems with the desiccation, the 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:25.520 natural desiccation and the desert um was that the skin 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:30.600 turned like this crisp brown, like you know, over baked chicken. 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.480 It's exactly what it looks like actually. And Um, with 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.880 these embalming techniques that they eventually mastered, they could they 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:43.280 could preserve a body better than it could be preserved naturally, 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:49.640 which is man conquering nature, conquering death. Even well, uh, 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.640 they didn't have a huge success at first. They they 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:55.880 would embalm the bodies mainly to keep it away from 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.760 the elements, wrap it in linen, soaked in resin, and 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:00.640 they would create a nice little shape pola forums it 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.720 looked kind of like people. But that didn't really do 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:06.679 a whole lot because the bandages didn't really halt the composition. 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:10.480 They basically figured out that it happens from the inside out. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:12.839 It took him, It took him a few centuries of 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.800 not millennia, basically wrapping it up and it's just disintegrating 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.600 within the bandages at first, right, But those bandages are 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.959 important because they stick around pretty much the whole time, 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.839 same with the resin right. Yes, so those two very 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:30.080 early embalming techniques are mummification techniques. UM stuck around, but 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:32.120 it was a big leap when they figured out, oh 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.960 wait a minute is going on inside and so we 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.160 need to start addressing that by removing organs. Right, And 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.360 it's about here I think that we we hit the 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.640 Middle Kingdom and like the the mummies that we think 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.679 of were produced in the from the eighteenth to twentieth 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.080 dynasties of the Middle Kingdom. Yeah, that was when the 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.240 like the heyday of mummification, right right, which was um 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.760 between fifteen seventy and ten seventy five b C. The 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:00.000 mummies that we think of, the ones that are still 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:04.199 around like really well preserved today, they they were preserved 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.400 during this time, right, right. So what do you do 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:11.160 when when you realize that everything bad is happening to 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.280 a corpse from the inside out? How do you how 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.000 do you address that? Should we just walk through the 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:22.480 process one by one, the gruesome process? Yeah, okay, the 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:25.320 first thing you do is you take it and it varies, 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.040 you know, the different processes and within the processes, they 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.320 had things that they would say, sort of like religious 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.120 rights that they would go through as well. It's very 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.440 sacred process. But they would take the body generally to 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.240 the red Land desert region is not near a whole 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:42.600 lot of people, so people aren't grossed out, but it 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:44.880 is near the Nile River. They needed the Nile River 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.720 to well, we'll see that in a second step one. 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:50.160 Step one. You need the Nile for step one. They 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.120 think they did in an open tents obviously to get 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.640 some good ventilation going. And uh, the first place they 0:10:55.679 --> 0:11:00.880 took the body was to the Ibou, the place of purification. Yeah, 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.640 that was basically the Nile or the place where they 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:06.920 place near the Nile where they rensed the body with 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.680 you washed the body off. It's like a rebirth symbol 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.760 of rebirth. Right, so the the the corpse was hastened 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:17.719 or some of the spirit was hastened in the afterlife, 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:19.679 and we should probably stay here so it doesn't get 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.959 too confusing. There were three spirits um that the Egyptians 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:28.520 believed comprised a person, right, the ka, the ba, and 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:34.079 the ak. Yeah, okay, it's always tricky to pronounce that, right, 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.160 So I think um with this purification process the co 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.880 or the or the bar or the ah, we're moved 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.559 along to the to the next world. But the ka 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.480 that was the one that was um inextricably linked with 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:54.600 the corpse, which became the whole reason for mummification. As 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.679 long as the corps was preserved, the co was preserved 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.160 and the afterlife could you know, the person could live 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.319 in the afterlife. But once the corpse died, the co 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.440 died and that second death was final, which is why 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.400 they wanted to preserve bodies in the first place. Yeah, 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:12.959 it's pretty cool. It's like the opposite of ashes to 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.640 ashes and dusted us. Right. So, after they've washed the 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:18.600 body and sort of reborn it and the rivers of 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:20.880 the nile, Uh, they carried the body to the per 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:25.160 Kniffer and that is the house of mummification. And this 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.079 is kind of where This is the basement of the 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.200 Fisher house. Basically huh and six ft under the Fishers. 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.000 Oh yeah, this is in the basement. This is where 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:38.160 Rico and the gang would get to work. Um. They 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.880 would lay it on a wooden table. The body. Uh. 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.360 They removed the brain by hammering a chisel through the 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:45.480 bone of the nose, you know. I knew that already 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:50.760 before this article. The Christian slater E's and like he's 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.880 in like one of the creep shows or um Amazing 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.520 Amazing stories or tales from the Crypto movie Pump up 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.360 the volume. It might have been that, but I think 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:05.400 it was like a smaller um vignette, like a mini 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:07.560 movie within the larger movie. It's called like a Lot 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.160 number nine or whatever. And Leaning the Cube, I think 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.079 it was. Now that's called Brotherhood of the Tiger now 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:17.160 I think they Yeah. Anyway, they there's a mummy who's 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:20.560 hell bent on taking other people's brains using these hooks 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:22.560 or whatever. Well, and that's exactly what they do. They 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.280 make a nose hole basically larger than the nostrils they 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.600 in sort of big hook, iron hook and start scooping 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.400 it out. Eventually they go down to a spoon and 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.760 eventually they just rents out the remaining bits of brain. 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:36.760 And what's funny is so hold on they discard the 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.320 brain because they thought, I don't know why we have 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:41.839 this stuff in our head, but we probably don't need 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.319 it in the afterlife, which is kind of unusual for 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:49.520 the Egyptians because they preserved organs, you know, but the brain. 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.280 And what's what's funny though, Like I think what we 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:54.160 just kind of meander past that we should kind of 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.000 um meditate on for a second, Chuck, is that they 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.080 get to a point where they filled the head with water. 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.679 I imagine close the nose in the mouth and shake 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.200 the head around to slash all this stuff out, and 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.800 then lean the head over and let all the last 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.320 bits come out. That's how I would do it. And 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:12.679 I wonder if they did shots of that stuff as 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.600 like part of the ceremony, I would draw the line there. Well, 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:18.559 they probably just thought, I don't know, they didn't even 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:21.840 know what the brain was. Yeah, that's true, that's just waste. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.360 So the brains out, Josh. Then they take a blade 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:30.240 made from obsidian sacred stone, cut a little incision on 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:32.800 the left side and reach in and start pulling out 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.080 the organs that they can get to and then preserving those, 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:38.280 like you said, except for the kidneys, because they didn't 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:40.320 think they were important either, which they were, you know, 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.040 I mean, the kidneys are important, but it's not like 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.880 brain important. Well, I mean, you need kidneys to live. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:48.880 I'm sure they preserve the appendence you need, all of 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.000 you that was probably the most holy of the organs. 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:55.240 So they actually when they preserve these things, they would um, 0:14:55.280 --> 0:15:01.160 they would wrap them in uh in resin strip of linen. Right, 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.960 Basically they would mummify each organ and then they put 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:09.000 them in in canopic jars. Basically it was like here's 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:12.720 your body, and then also here are your organs. They'd 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:14.520 leave the heart though, because they thought the heart was 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:17.640 you know, linked to the soul and the spirit. And 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:20.160 they're kind of on the money there, I think. So 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:27.080 these organs take up space in our chest and abdominal cavities. Um, 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:32.120 so they would actually um stuff the body with like 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.720 incense and other materials as well. Right, yeah, well, first 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.360 they'd rent it once they like I forgot, they take 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.000 out the lungs to the abdomen yeah right right there 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.480 you can't get along little side slit, and then they 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.680 would rent the chest cavity with palm wine and then 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:54.400 they would stuff it actually basically straw what I didn't say, 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.040 what actually just said other materials. How would you straw? 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:03.760 Maybe frankinsense, little mirror, Yeah, just to complete the trilogy, 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:08.760 straw franken cent sin mur that that kept the body 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.440 from like caving in on itself, basically containing a little 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:15.560 bit of shape. And then here is the key. This 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.640 is the key to momification. And as a matter of fact, 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:20.320 I was just gonna say it now. I found it 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.680 on the internet. There is a step by step, very 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.320 easy to follow recipe on UM. I think WICKI how 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.400 which I don't normally go on, but it's the only 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.480 place I can find a recipe for mommifying a chicken 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:41.120 using the Egyptian method, and it calls for UM natron, right, Yeah, 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:45.600 that's the key. Natron is this UM basically a compound 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.440 that the Egyptians figured out they could gather and and 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.840 and combine from the Nile, which is basically baking soda 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:57.640 sodium bicarbonate and um table salt sodium chloride. You mix 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.280 the two together and it becomes this perfect person of it. 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.080 So they would put nature in powder, which is like 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:07.880 this just accelerated the technique of mommification like by light 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.439 years UM and they would cover the body with this 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:14.400 stuff and leave it and it would just completely dry 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.879 the body out. Right. Yeah, this took about forty days. 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.120 They had to guard the body while this was going on, obviously, 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:21.919 because they didn't want vultures digging through the natren for 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:26.560 what lies beneath. After the forty days, they move the 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.840 body then to the wabet, which is the house of purification. Yeah, 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.479 and call that incense and the stuffing out, refill it 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:37.720 with the nature in resin, soaked linen and other materials 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:42.320 again whatever these mysterious things are. Then they would sew 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:46.399 all the incisions up, cover the skin with resin, and 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.160 then say, hey, it's time to wrap this puppy. Yeah. 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.439 And this is where we get the idea for the mummy, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.560 our modern idea of a mummy always wearing like they 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:59.080 are always coming off. You can just see the eyes, 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.960 maybe teeth or something. So this is where we're at 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.600 there at the bandaging procedure that thirty five or forty days, 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:10.240 while um the nature and powder was doing its work, 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.920 working away all of the basically acting as the desk 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:17.439 knt Um, the family of the deceased was going around 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:22.399 town going do you have any linens we can have forever? Uh? 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.000 Do you have some linens we can have and cut 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.000 you like your linen's to spend eternity in the heavens 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.840 above with our dead. Um. They collected about four thousand 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.240 square feet just top the top of my head. That's 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.119 about how much. They gathered um of linen and would 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:43.000 bring it to the embalmers, and the embalmers would say, hey, 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.520 we like this piece that pieces horrible. Um, you're really 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.520 gonna bury your your dad in this, And they would 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:51.600 take the best stuff and they would cut it into 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:53.720 or they would tear him into strips three to eight 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.760 inches wide a bandages, and they would start the rapping, 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.280 which would take a little while, right, Yeah, it takes 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.399 uh week or two, I guess probably depending on how 0:19:02.440 --> 0:19:06.160 big the body is. Common sense. Start with the hands 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:09.719 and feet. You wrap all This is the initial under wrapping, 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.800 I guess. You wrap everything individually, each little finger, each 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.119 will toe everything's wrapped. And then once everything is wrapped individually, 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:21.520 they do a whole body wrap ah, applying new layers, 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.000 coating the linen with again the hot resin to keep 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:28.480 everything in place, uttering spell. Sometimes they would wrap amulets 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.199 over different parts of the body, wrap it up in 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.760 there with you, protect you in the next world, that 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:40.160 kind of thing, right, and then pressto chango you are 0:19:40.200 --> 0:19:45.200 a mummy. And before we go further the process we've 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:51.359 just described this really ordinate, wonderful, lengthy process where you 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:53.320 would think about it like there's so many There were 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.320 a lot of Egyptians running around, and a lot of 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.159 them died on any given day, and there was a 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:00.960 lot of work to be done. So this process that 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.280 we just described was for the people who had lots 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.359 of money. For some reason, the wealthy have always been revered, right, 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:11.720 and I've also gotten special treatment, right right. Um, if 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.840 you were just an ordinary schmoke like me or Chuck, 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.760 you were going to get the budget package, which is 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.199 basically like instead of like carefully removing all of the 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:27.760 organs each one, they would inject oil like this oil 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:34.000 mixture into your cavities. Let it sit for a few days. Um, 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.360 it was to stop up all your orifices first leak out, 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.080 thank you. So I don't know how they did that. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.159 I guess with other materials that you right, So they 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.280 would stop you up full of oil, let it, let 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:47.600 you sit for a few days, and then unstop your 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.960 orifices and let all the oil drain out and it 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:55.840 would carry the liquefied organs and tissue out with it. 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:58.520 It's a lot easier, a lot faster. So even this 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:00.680 many thousands of years ago. You get what you pay 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.760 for exactly. That's pretty sad. Yeah, it's always been a 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.159 budget package. Or maybe that's a good thing that it 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.560 wasn't only just reserved, like if you don't have any money, 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.040 you just can't get Mummified's the way to go. They thought, 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:14.840 you know what, let's think of it a cheaper way 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.280 to do this for you folks. Let's just fill you 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:19.800 up with the oil, stop up your orifices, and give 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.920 you a good shake. So um, you're you're prepared. You're 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:26.320 all wrapped. However, they got your organs out there out 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:31.280 you're bandaged, um, and you're now about to be outfitted 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.800 what's called a cartonage cage, which is kind of like 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:41.240 a breastplate, um, some cool like forearm armor, leg armor, 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:43.919 pretty much this thing that's gonna hold your body together 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.919 for a while. And a funerary mask, which is like 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:50.000 the famous masks we think of when we think of 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.840 like King tut like it's a death mask. And these 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:57.440 were extremely important because they directed the spirit the car 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:01.159 to the right body your words. So it was in 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.800 a person's visage or possibly that of a god, but 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:07.919 the spirit would be in on you know what to 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:09.920 look for. They would know that. That's how they knew. 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:13.679 This guy is supposed to supposed to either look like 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:17.520 Josh or Anubis. Either way, I think that's him right 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:20.760 away there, so let's grab him. And speaking of Anubis, 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:25.400 you would be committed to your tomb uh following a 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.520 funeral procession where you were carried in your sue right, 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:31.640 which that's what you think of with King Tutt. That's 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:35.600 the casket that looks like a person, like the gold 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:38.359 casket in the shape of a human. Let's a suet 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.119 um that would be carried to your tomb, and there 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.119 would be a priest dressed as the jackal god Anubis. 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.720 Um there were there was the ceremony of the mouth, 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:52.919 which is pretty cool because there was some sort of 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:58.719 weird understanding. I guess that Um, you had died and 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.880 now certain things had to be stored, and the ceremony 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:06.159 of the mouth was um. This um passing over of 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:09.760