The first thing majority of people think when hearing the word mummy, is possibly the walking living dead, who roses from his tomb or sarcophagus in museum to release some ancient curse or hunt for humans. This is what the cinema industires and horror stories offer us nowadays.
Historical
Reffering to the history, the most famous mummies come from Ancient Egypt. Tha egyptians mummified their pharaos as well as every other dead, including animals such as cats, birds etc. There can be also references to soma Aztec or north mummies, yet they are very different from their Egyptian "relatives"
The Process of Mummification
1) Taking off the skin from the bodies feet; 2) Taking out the inner organs as well as the brain (they would breake the scull open through the nose (good thing you were already dead...) to get the brain out). The organs would play a big role in the afterlife, especially the heart, which will be very important in the court of the gods; 3) The body was kept in a salt water for a month (kinda like pickled), this was done to press the water out of the skin etc. , after this the body was dried; 4) The stomach and chest were filled with dry grass and closed, after that the body was wrapped in a linen cloth (the richer you were, the more cloth you could afford and get); 5) After this, the poor ones were put into a simple wooden sarcophagus along with a wooden stick in a shape of a human - KA - in case, if the coffin was destroyed, the soul would return to the KA. The pharaos were buried with a golden death-mask, they had sarcophagus made out of gold, usually these guys were placed in around five sarcophagus inside each other.
The mummification usually happened in the temples which were placed near the tombs. From time to time, there were made some kind of rituals for the dead not to die the second time.
Tomb Raiders
It was an usual thing in the Ancient Egypt that the tombs were raided in searches for gold and jewels. Because of the priests, who were the only one who remained alive after the pharaos tombs were sealed (the slaves, who did it, were always killed), the burglras knew exactly, where to go and how to get in, most of the times they were the priests themselves... Also the guards took a part in their dealings. Nowadays, as the archeologists find a new place of burial, that is untouched by the thieves, (this is very common in the poor countries or countries with high level of crime) they have to work fast and cooperate, this means, they usually have only one of a few days to explore the tomb and collect the treasures, for the next morning the raiders will have already been there...
Horror and adventure
Now, the mummys character is used in a lot of horror and adventure films, books and sometimes comics. The Egyptian pharaos have become something like the boogeyman for kids and even some adults. It is the ancient fear of almost all civilizations, that the dead could awake from the death and walk the earth, harming those people they meet.
Popular Culture
- Nowadays, the most well-known mummy is Imhotep from the Stewen Sommers film "The Mummy" with Brendan Frazer, and his "relative" from "The Mummy Returns";
- Amen, the guitar player of the Finnish hard rock band Lordi, is human flesh-eating mummy;