The pre-dynastic mummies of the fourth millennium BC were so well preserved by the dry desert sands – without human intervention – that their tattoos are still visible. After this period, it was carefully wrapped in linen bandages and finally laid to rest inside a coffin.īy the time Herodotus wrote this, Egyptians had been practising mummification for more than two millennia, gradually perfecting the technique through experimentation. The body was left to dry in a natron solution (a substance harvested from dry lake beds and used to absorb moisture) for up to 70 days. The cut was then stitched up and the body rinsed with wine and spices. The brain was removed through the nostrils with a hook, while the inner organs were removed through a cut in the abdomen. In the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus described the elaborate way Egyptians preserved their dead.
Found inside a limestone sarcophagus in a burial shaft, the body and its wrappings are unusually well preserved for the period.
In January 2023, a group of archaeologists excavating tombs in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, near Cairo, discovered the mummified remains of a man named Hekashepes, who lived circa 2300BC.
