ENTERING THE
UNDERWORLD
Mummification was
an elaborate ritual
carried out by priests,
such as the two (left)
who are preparing
mummified bodies
for their journey to
the afterlife. National
Archaeological
Museum, FlorenceM
ummies are often a star
attraction at many of the
world’s great museums.
Their temperature-
controlled glass cabinets
protect and preserve these bodies, which are
thousands of years old. Locked within them is
the history of how people lived along the Nile
many millennia ago. Modern scholars treat
them with reverence and great care, but it was
not always the case.
Until very recently, Egyptian mummies were
used by Europeans for practical rather than
academic purposes. Their bodies were treated as a
commodity because of the medical, supernatural,
and physical characteristics they were believed to
possess. Starting in the 15th century, merchants
sought to profit from trafficking mummies out
of Egypt and into Europe, and a robust “mummy
trade” grew around them.Strange Medicine
Mummification was a complex, lengthy process
that helped preserve the body for its journey inExamining
Ancient
Egypt’s Dead
1698
Benoît de Maillet, the French
consul in Egypt, unwraps a
mummy in Cairo in front of a
group of Europeans. He will
later publish his findings.1716
The German apothecary
Christian Hertzog unrolls
a headless mummy and
finds 74 amulets among
its wrappings.1834
The London physician
Thomas Pettigrew publishes
a foundational work on the
study of mummies: A History
of Egyptian Mummies.1881
A cache of royal mummies
from the New Kingdom
(second millennium b.c.)
is found, including that of
Thutmose III and Seti I.1912
Grafton Elliot Smith writes
the Catalogue of the Royal
Mummies in the Museum
of Cairo, and is the first to
successfully x-ray a mummy.DEA/ALBUM