first evidence

Scientists say the desert did this naturally, long before humans mastered mummification. The first known evidence of hand mummification dates back to B.C. It dates back to 4300 BC. However, York University researcher Stephen Buckley says that we may encounter earlier cases one day.

The evidence we have today includes packaging materials for 6,300-year-old mummies found in an ancient Egyptian cemetery in the Mostagedda area, about 320 kilometers south of Cairo. The graves were excavated at the beginning of the 20th century and the packagings were brought to England. They are now in Bolton Museum.

Scientists tested this ancient material and found that it contained resins commonly used in mummification in later times. Tests show that these resins are made from a variety of ingredients, including vegetable oil, animal fats, beeswax, and vegetable gum.

natural mummification

The first evidence of the use of artificial methods to mummify corpses dates back to B.C. Although it dates back to 4,300 BC, Egyptians were practicing natural mummification even earlier.

According to Buckley, natural mummification is “an accidental process caused by suitable burial conditions”; bury in hot dry sand. The oldest examples of natural mummies date back to B.C. It dates back to 5000 years ago. It is not known whether the people of that time understood what the result would be.

Even after artificial mummification was developed, many Egyptians were still mummified naturally because they could not afford artificial mummification and were therefore buried in the desert. Most ancient Egyptians were simply placed in a hole in the ground without any preparation and could accidentally be mummified naturally..

The use of artificial mummification declined with the spread of Christianity in Egypt between the 2nd and 5th centuries AD. While ancient Egyptian religion emphasized the importance of preserving the body for the afterlife, Christianity did not.