They left only the heart in place, believing it to be the center of a person's being and intelligence. The other organs were preserved separately, with the stomach, liver, lungs, and intestines placed in special boxes or jars today called canopic jars. These were buried with the mummy.
The ancient Egyptians believed that when they died their spiritual body would continue to exist in an afterlife very similar to their living world. However, entry into this afterlife was not guaranteed. The dead had to negotiate a dangerous underworld journey and face the final judgment before they were granted access.
In some cases they were put in jars, in others they were placed back in the body. The brain, however, could be left in the body to mummify inside the skull during the embalming process.
Preserving the organs
These jars were often decorated with one of the four animal-headed sons of the god Horus, with each son protecting a particular organ. Preservation of these organs was important as they allowed the dead person to breathe and eat in the afterlife.
With these "improvements", decay was hastened because the body no longer came in contact with the hot sand. To solve this problem, the internal organs of the deceased were removed and drying agents were used to mummify the body.
Canopic jars were made to contain the organs that were removed from the body in the process of mummification: the lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach. Each organ was protected by one of the Four Sons of Horus: Hapy (lungs), Imsety (liver), Duamutef (stomach), and Qebehsenuef (intestines).
Interesting Facts about Egyptian Mummies
The brain was thrown away because it was thought to be useless. Sometimes the mummy's mouth would be opened to symbolize breathing in the afterlife.
The Egyptians used them for safekeeping of particular human organs. They contained the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver. Egyptian believed they would be needed in the afterlife. The jars were placed in the tombs with the bodies.
89 has been proven accurate by archaeologists. Female mummies from ancient Egypt are regularly found in a more advanced stage of decomposition than males and this is because, as Herodotus says, women's corpses were kept at home for three or four days after death to make the body less attractive to unprincipled ...
They carefully removed the abdominal organs through this slit, setting each one aside (with the exception of the kidneys, which the Egyptians did not hold as important). After removing these organs, the embalmers cut open the diaphragm to remove the lungs.
But why preserve the body? The Egyptians believed that the mummified body was the home for this soul or spirit. If the body was destroyed, the spirit might be lost.
Eventually, the Ancient Egyptians progressed in their mummification process by removing the internal organs because they learned the internal organs would also decay quickly.
Funerary rites
This was an elaborate ritual performed by priests so the dead person could use all their senses in the afterlife. The practices involved in this ceremony included purification, anointing and the reciting of prayers and spells, as well as touching the mummy with ritual objects to restore the senses.
By 50 years in, your tissues will have liquefied and disappeared, leaving behind mummified skin and tendons. Eventually these too will disintegrate, and after 80 years in that coffin, your bones will crack as the soft collagen inside them deteriorates, leaving nothing but the brittle mineral frame behind.
By three days, internal organs have decomposed. From three to five days after death, the body will begin to bloat from gasses produced from internal decomposition. The body could actually double in size and turn a greenish color. Extremely unpleasant and long-lasting odors called putrification begins.
A standout among the ancient Egyptian tools used for mummification is the brain hook — which is just as gory as it sounds. Embalmers used this tool, which resembled a crochet needle, to pull the corpse's brain through the nose. They would make an abdominal incision and remove the lungs, stomach, liver and intestines.
However, "screaming" mummies are not uncommon, according to a 2009 commentary in the journal Archaeology, and these grotesque expressions are the result of the jaw ligaments relaxing after death. Wrappings around the jaw typically held the mouth closed, but these could loosen.
In particular, the hot Egyptian climate, high humidity levels in tombs and chemicals used in mummification can cause DNA to degrade making long-term survival unlikely.
Robert Morkot wrote in 2005 that "The ancient Egyptians were not 'white' in any European sense, nor were they 'Caucasian'... we can say that the earliest population of ancient Egypt included African people from the upper Nile, African people from the regions of the Sahara and modern Libya, and smaller numbers of people ...
The Egyptians did not regard the funeral as a final goodbye. People made regular visits to their family tombs, where parties were held to bring the living and the dead together, and statues of the gods were sometimes carried through the cemeteries to allow the dead to participate in religious festivals.
After the 70 days wrap the body from head to toe in bandages. Place in a sarcophagus (a type of box like a coffin)
Canopic jars were containers in which the separately mummified organs would be placed. The best known versions of these jars have lids in the shape of the heads of protective deities called the four Sons of Horus.
The Hom-Dai curse was an ancient malediction created by the ancient high priests of Egypt as a punishment reserved for blasphemers. It is described as "the worst of all ancient Egyptian curses. One so horrible, it had never before been bestowed."
The embalmers first had to remove the moist parts of body which would rot. The brain was removed through the nostrils with a hook and thrown away because it was not believed to be important. 2. The internal organs were removed through a cut in the left side of the body.
Summary. Ancient Egypt, its society, law and belief system were brought into being, and sustained, by the threat and application of violence in the form of cruel and unusual punishments intended unabashedly to intimidate.