Threads or wires were wound round the digits, or metal sheaths placed upon them in order to prevent the nails from becoming detached and lost. The body was then taken out of the jar, washed, straightened and desiccated. The final stages in the process involved the packing of the body-cavity and skull with preservatives, plastering the body all over with a paste made of resin and fat, and wrapping it in a complex series of bandages.
The internal organs were separately treated and placed in four vases known as the "Canopic Jars." The whole process occupied 7o days (bourn. of Egyptian Archaeology, xiii., PP. During the 21st and 22nd dynasties the art of mummification reached its highest pitch of perfection. In order to make the body more life-like, an elaborate system of introducing packing material under the skin was devised. A schematic series of incisions was made in various parts of the body, and through these sand, mud, or other material was forced into the space between the skin and the underlying muscular tissue. The material was distributed and moulded into shape, and the shrunken contours of the body were thus plumped out into the form they had assumed during life.
The use of canopic jars was discontinued, and the viscera were made into linen parcels and replaced in the body. The mummy was painted all over with red-ochre, the lips and cheeks were rouged, artificial eyes were inserted, and, in short, every care was taken not only to preserve the body but to make it complete and life-like. This distinctive method of embalming was first described by Prof. Elliot Smith from the examination of 44 mummies of the period (Contribution to the Study of Mummification, 1906). Since then numerous other specimens of the same kind have been examined. After this period the art declined and, although well made mummies of the later periods are occasionally found, the embalmer's craft had become superficial and slipshod, and less care was devoted to the body than to the arrangement of the superficial bandages so as to give the mummy a presentable ex terior. In the Ptolemaic period, the body was usually merely treated with molten resin, which destroyed the tissues : the re sulting mummy was a mere cast of the contours of the body. During the 26th dynasty and after, mummies were sometimes eviscerated per anum instead of by the usual flank-incision. Mum
mification survived the advent of Christianity by several cen turies. The bodies of this period were not eviscerated or treated with resin but packed in large quantities of common salt, and are usually well preserved (Archaeological Survey of Nubia, Report for vol. ii., pp. 194-220, 1910.
Objects of Mummification.—Throughout the period of more than 3o centuries during which mummification was practised in Egypt, the embalmers had two definite objects in view: first, the preservation of the body from decay ; and, secondly, the perpetua tion of the personal identity of the deceased. During the Pyramid Age the features of the mummy were painted on the outer wrap pings, and in some cases a thin layer of plaster was applied to the head and the features painted upon it. In the I 1 th dynasty, the face and wig were modelled in cartonage, and this head-piece was placed upon the head of the mummy. The use of cartonage masks lasted until Ptolemaic times, but out of it was early evolved the anthropoid coffin, on which the features, dress and ornaments of the mummy were elaborately detailed. In Roman times, painted portrait-panels were employed (Petrie, The Hawara Portfolio, 1913). All these measures had one object—the preservation of the dead man's personal identity. That the idea underlying mummification was physical survival is further indicated by the magical ceremonies to which the finished mummy was subjected. These ceremonies, which are usually known as "Opening the Mouth," had for their object the reanimation of the mummy by restoring to it the faculties of which death had deprived it. By means of magical instruments and the recitation of formulae, the eyes, mouth and ears of the dead man were opened in order that he might once more see, speak, eat and hear. The use of his limbs was restored that he might move and walk, and amulets were used to stimulate the functions of the heart, the spine and the blood. Moisture and warmth were restored to the mummy by the ceremonial use of incense and libations. The funerary ban quet which followed was envisaged, not as spiritual food for the soul, but materialistically as physical sustenance to be consumed by the mummy with its restored faculties.