22 



mained in use throughout the Old Kingdom, as 

 attested by several mummies that remain from that 

 date, including those in the recently discovered tomb 

 of Nefer, from the Vth Dynasty. 



Another technique attested from the Old King- 

 dom was the preservation of the body in a solution of 

 natron. Natron is a naturally occurring compound of 

 sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate that occurs 

 in Egypt, especially in seasonally dried out lake beds, 

 such as those found at Wady el-Natrun (named for the 

 substance), located northwest of Cairo (fig. 7, and 

 map). It was from here and several other sites that the 

 ancient Egyptians obtained their natron. The chemical 

 properties of natron made it a powerful dessicating and 

 purifying agent. The word natron, indeed, is ancient 

 Egyptian, with the same root as the word netcher, 

 meaning "divine." Thus were natron's properties 

 associated with religion and divinity. In the Old King- 

 dom reburial of Queen Hetepheres, mother of Khufu 

 (builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza), her Canopic 

 organs were found in their jars still steeped in a solution 

 of liquid natron, after 4,500 years. An Old Kingdom 

 sarcophagus recovered at Saqqara was still filled with a 

 liquid solution of natron in which the tomb owner was 

 steeped. We also know, from an inscription of Queen 

 Meresankh III, that she spent 272 days undergoing 

 mummification in the House of Purification. Thus, the 

 Old Kingdom practice of mummification involved 

 several methods, including one in which the soft inter- 

 nal organs (lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines) were 

 removed and embalmed separately. 



In the First Intermediate Period (2230-2040 

 B.C.), or in the early Middle Kingdom (2040-1786 

 B.C.), the 70-day process of mummification that we 

 know of from later periods became standardized. The 

 major differences from Old Kingdom practices were the 

 shortening of the mummification process and introduc- 

 tion of dry natron. A description of the later process is 

 to be found in Herodotus's History of Egypt, with sup- 

 plemental details from other Greek authors. While no 

 sequential account is found in Egyptian sources, 

 archaeological and other evidence from the mummies 

 themselves supports the basic accuracy of Herodotus's 

 account. According to him, mummification was of 

 three grades, depending on the ability of the deceased's 

 relatives to pay. In ancient Egypt, responsibility for 

 burying the deceased fell to the children or other 

 relatives; the inheritance law was weighted in favor of 

 the one who performed and paid for the burial. Accord- 

 ing to Herodotus, mummification was performed by 

 specialists with workshops near the cemeteries. The 



Imm^ ' < 



9. Coffin (mummy enclosed) of Cfienet-aa, Dynasty XXII-XXIII. p-541 



