Oldest Known Mummification Manual Reveals How Egyptians Embalmed the Face
Prior to the find, researchers had only identified two ancient texts detailing the enigmatic preservation process
Egyptian mummies have fascinated the public for centuries. But until recently, researchers had only identified two ancient documents detailing the embalming process. Now, reports Amanda Kooser for CNET, a newly discovered, 3,500-year-old manual may shed more light on mummification’s mysteries.
Per a statement, Sofie Schiødt, an Egyptologist at the University of Copenhagen, uncovered the guide while translating a portion of the Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg for her doctoral thesis. The nearly 20-foot-long manuscript, which focuses mainly on herbal medicine and skin conditions, contains a short section outlining embalming methods, including how to preserve a dead person’s face.
“The text reads like a memory aid, so the intended readers must have been specialists who needed to be reminded of these details, such as unguent recipes and uses of various types of bandages,” says Schiødt in the statement. “Some of the simpler processes, [for example] the drying of the body with natron, have been omitted from the text.”
The second-longest ancient Egyptian medical papyrus, the Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg dates back to 1450 B.C., making it older than comparable mummification manuals by more than 1,000 years. As Mindy Weisberger writes for Live Science, Schiødt translated the double-sided text using high-resolution photographs, which helped streamline the process.
“This way we can move displaced fragments around digitally, as well as enhance colors to better read passages where the ink is not so well-preserved,” she tells Live Science. “It also aids in reading difficult signs when you can zoom in on the high-res photos.”
Previous research on the ancient medical text has been complicated by the fact that it’s split into multiple pieces. One is housed in the university’s Papyrus Carlsberg Collection, while another is held at the Louvre Museum in Paris. These two segments were previously housed in private collections, and the whereabouts of several other sections of the papyrus remain unknown, according to the statement.
Among the insights offered by the newly identified manual is a list of ingredients for a plant-based embalming concoction used to coat pieces of red linen.
“The red linen is then applied to the dead person’s face in order to encase it in a protective cocoon of fragrant and anti-bacterial matter,” says Schiødt in the statement.
Brooke Taylor of CTV News reports that this process—like many covered in the manual—was repeated every four days. In between these intervals, embalmers would cloak the corpse with cloth and aromatics-infused straw to keep insects and scavengers at bay.
The entire mummification procedure took 70 days to complete, with the first 35 days focused on dehydrating the body and the next 35 on wrapping it.
According to the Smithsonian Institution, specially trained priests began by removing the brain, stomach, liver and other organs (aside from the heart, which was left in place as “the center of a person’s being and intelligence”). Next, they dried out the body with a type of salt called natron before encasing it in layers of linen and resin. The face embalming process took place during this second wrapping period, notes the statement.
On the 68th day, workers placed the mummy in a coffin; the final two days of the process were dedicated to rituals that facilitated the deceased’s safe journey to the afterlife.
As Joshua J. Mark pointed out for World History Encyclopedia in 2017, medical papyrus scrolls like the recently discovered one often had two sides—the recto (front) and the verso (the back). Scribes would record most information on the front of the scroll but had the option of including additional details, or even other texts entirely, on the back. The ancient Egyptians typically preserved these manuscripts in the Per-Ankh, a section of temples that doubled as both a library and learning center.
The Louvre and the University of Copenhagen plan to jointly publish their respective fragments of the papyrus in 2022.
最古老的木乃伊手册揭示了埃及人是如何将脸部防腐的
在发现之前，研究人员只发现了两部古籍，详细介绍了神秘的保存过程。
古代的防腐者将一块红色的亚麻布浸泡在一种植物性的混合物中，然后将布涂在死者的脸上。
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(Ida Christensen /哥本哈根大学)作者：Isis Davis-MarksSMITHSONIANMAG.COMMARCH 5，2021。
几个世纪以来，埃及木乃伊一直吸引着公众。但直到最近，研究人员才发现了两份详细介绍防腐过程的古代文件。现在，Amanda Kooser为CNET报道，一份新发现的、有3500年历史的手册可能会给木乃伊化的奥秘带来更多启示。
根据一份声明，哥本哈根大学的埃及学家Sofie Schiødt在为她的博士论文翻译一部分卢浮宫-嘉士伯的Papyrus Louvre-Carlsberg时发现了这份指南。这份近20英尺长的手稿主要关注草药和皮肤病，其中有一小部分概述了防腐方法，包括如何保存死者的脸。
"文字读起来就像一个记忆辅助工具，所以预定的读者一定是需要被提醒这些细节的专家，比如unguent配方和各种类型绷带的用途，"Schiødt在声明中说。"一些较简单的过程，[例如]用纳特隆干燥身体，已经从文本中省略了。"
作为第二长的古埃及医学纸莎草纸，卢浮宫-卡尔斯堡纸莎草纸的历史可以追溯到公元前1450年，这使得它比同类木乃伊手册要早1000多年。正如Mindy Weisberger为Live Science所写的那样，Schiødt使用高分辨率的照片翻译了双面文字，这有助于简化这一过程。
"这样一来，我们可以用数字方式移动流离失所的碎片，以及增强颜色，以便更好地阅读墨水保存不那么好的段落，"她告诉Live Science。"当你可以放大高分辨率的照片时，它也有助于阅读困难的标志。"
以前对古代医学文本的研究一直很复杂，因为它被分割成多个部分。其中一段存放在该大学的Papyrus Carlsberg收藏馆，而另一段则存放在巴黎卢浮宫博物馆。据声明称，这两段纸莎草纸此前被私人收藏，其他几段纸莎草纸的下落仍然不明。
近20英尺长的纸莎草纸卷轴的一个片段（哥本哈根大学卡尔斯伯格纸莎草纸收藏）。
在新确定的手册所提供的见解中，有一份用于涂抹红色亚麻布片的植物防腐混合物的成分清单。
Schiødt在声明中说："然后将红色亚麻布涂抹在死者的脸上，以便将其包裹在芳香和抗菌物质的保护茧中"。
CTV新闻的布鲁克-泰勒（Brooke Taylor）报道说，这个过程和手册中涉及的许多过程一样，每四天重复一次。在这些间隔之间，防腐人员会用布和注入芳香剂的稻草给尸体披上，以防止昆虫和食腐动物。
整个木乃伊化过程需要70天才能完成，前35天的重点是给尸体脱水，接下来的35天则是包裹尸体。
根据史密森学会的说法，经过特殊训练的祭司们首先要切除大脑、胃、肝脏和其他器官（除了心脏之外，作为 "人的存在和智慧的中心"，心脏被留在原地）。接下来，他们用一种叫做纳豆的盐将尸体烘干，然后用亚麻布和树脂层层包裹起来。声明指出，脸部防腐过程是在这第二次包裹期间进行的。
在第68天，工人们将木乃伊放入棺材中；最后两天的过程是专门举行仪式，以促进死者安全地前往来世。
正如约书亚-马克（Joshua J. Mark）在2017年为《世界历史百科全书》（World History Encyclopedia）指出的那样，像最近发现的这种医疗纸莎草纸卷轴通常有两面--直面（正面）和反面（背面）。文士会在卷轴的正面记录大部分信息，但可以选择在背面加入额外的细节，甚至完全是其他文字。古埃及人通常将这些手稿保存在Per-Ankh中，这是神庙的一个区域，既是图书馆又是学习中心。
卢浮宫和哥本哈根大学计划在2022年联合出版各自的纸莎草纸碎片。
