![]() ![]() By 1550 BCE, anyone who could pay for a better body in the afterlife shelled out to become a mummy after they died. It’s why beef jerky doesn’t spoil as quickly as a juicy steak.Īround 3000 BCE, the ancient Egyptians became much more intentional about preserving their dead - kicking off the early days of mummification. The heat and dry climate sucked the moisture out of corpses, making them much less appealing to the microbes that typically drive decay. Mummification in ancient Egypt started by accident. “And they have really very different roles in different belief systems.” So we rounded up a few highlights: Egyptian mummies “Mummies are known from every continent of the world except Antarctica,” he says. Still, he adds, there are a lot of ways to mummify a body - and that body doesn’t always have to be dead when the process starts. (Lead roles in Hollywood blockbusters are an entirely different story.)īut were ancient Egyptian princesses ever mummified alive? “I don’t know of any case like that,” Thomas says. In ancient Egypt, mummification wasn’t limited to men. More than half the mummies in Thomas’ Mummies exhibit are female. “None of the classic mummy movies are about women.” The truth is, that’s one of the more realistic parts of the movie. “The question is - as if authenticity is going to be an issue in a Tom Cruise movie - ‘How realistic is that, to have a female mummy?’” Thomas says. ![]() The number one question he’s getting isn’t about whether a mummy could remain undead and entombed for millennia, or even whether any ancient Egyptian tombs have been found in modern-day Iraq. “Mummies are known from every continent of the world except Antarctica.” ![]()
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