00:00Egypt's golden embrace, mummies, magic, and mortality.
00:12The gilded path to eternity Egypt, a land forged by the Nile, ruled by pharaohs, and haunted by the promise of eternity.
00:21For millennia, its people looked towards the afterlife, not with fear, but with meticulous preparation.
00:30They sought to cheat death, to preserve the body so the soul could journey onward.
00:36And for some, this journey demanded an entrance unlike any other, an embrace of pure, radiant gold.
00:44They are known colloquially as the golden mummies, not one specific pharaoh, not a singular discovery, but a phenomenon.
00:56Mummies encased, adorned, transformed by the very substance the ancient Egyptians believed was the flesh of the gods.
01:05The body was cleaned again, anointed with fragrant oils and resins like myrrh and cedar wood, both for preservation and ritual purification.
01:16The skin might be treated to restore some suppleness.
01:21The empty body cavity was then permanently packed with linen, sawdust, or other materials, sometimes including the wrapped organs themselves in later periods.
01:32Finally, the intricate wrapping process began.
01:37Hundreds of yards of fine linen strips were used, meticulously wound around the limbs and torso.
01:45The evolution of embalming.
01:48From simple to sublime.
01:51During the Old Kingdom, circa 2686 to 181 BCE,
01:56the era of the Great Pyramid Builders, early attempts at artificial mummification were made.
02:03Organs were sometimes removed and bodies were wrapped in linen.
02:08However, the techniques were still rudimentary compared to later periods.
02:13The focus was perhaps more on the monumental tomb itself as the guarantor of eternity.
02:19The Middle Kingdom, circa 2055 to 1650 BCE, saw refinements.
02:25Embalmers became more skilled at removing internal organs, although the brain was often left inside or removed crudely.
02:34Bodies were treated with dehydrating agents like natron, a naturally occurring salt mixture found in desert lake beds.
02:43Coffins became more common, often decorated with texts known as the coffin texts, spells intended to guide the deceased.
02:51It was during the New Kingdom, Egypt's imperial age, that mummification arguably reached its zenith, particularly for royalty and the elite.
03:02This era gave us the iconic image of the Egyptian mummy.
03:06The process was elaborate and took around 70 days.
03:09First, the brain was typically removed, often through the nostrils using long hooks, a delicate and gruesome procedure.
03:19Then, a slit was made in the left flank, and the internal organs, lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines, were carefully extracted.
03:30Only the heart, considered the seat of intelligence and emotion, was usually left in place, essential for the final judgment.
03:40The removed organs were cleaned, treated with natron, anointed with oils and resins, and placed into special containers called canopic jars.
03:51Each jar's lid represented one of the four suns of Horus, tasked with protecting the specific organ within.
04:00Imseti, human-headed, guarded the liver.
04:04Hopi, baboon-headed, the lungs.
04:07Duamutef, jackal-headed, the stomach.
04:11And Kebisenuef, falcon-headed, the intestines.
04:14The body cavity was then rinsed, often with palm wine possessing antibacterial properties, and temporarily packed with natron or linen to maintain shape.
04:26The entire body was then buried in a large pile of dry natron for about 40 days.
04:33This crucial step drew out moisture, desiccating the tissues and preventing decay.
04:38After the desiccation period the natron was removed, Egypt's golden embrace, mummies, magic, and mortality, the gilded path to eternity.
04:50Egypt, a land forged by the Nile, ruled by pharaohs, and haunted by the promise of eternity.
04:58For millennia, its people looked towards the afterlife, not with fear, but with meticulous preparation.
05:05They sought to cheat death, to preserve the body so the soul could journey onward.
05:12And for some, this journey demanded an entrance unlike any other, an embrace of pure, radiant gold.
05:20They are known, colloquially, as the golden mummies.
05:25Not one specific pharaoh, not a singular discovery, but a phenomenon.
05:30Mummies encased, adorned, transformed by the very substance the ancient Egyptians believed was the flesh of the gods.
05:39The Egyptian Obsession.
05:41Why mummify?
05:43To understand the golden mummies, we must first journey deep into the ancient Egyptian psyche.
05:50Into their intricate beliefs about life, death, and what lies beyond.
05:54For them, death was not an end, but a transition.
06:00A perilous journey that required the deceased's physical form to remain intact.
06:06They believed the individual was composed of several spiritual parts.
06:11The ka, the vital life force, needed sustenance even after death, provided through offerings.
06:18The ba, often depicted as a human-headed bird, was the personality, capable of leaving the tomb, but needing to return to the preserved body each night.
06:31The ak was the transfigured spirit, residing among the stars, achieved only after a successful judgment.
06:38The ultimate goal was resurrection, eternal life in the field of reeds, a paradise ruled by Osiris, the god of the underworld.
06:50But this required passing the final judgment, the weighing of the heart ceremony.
06:56Here, in the Hall of Two Truths, the deceased's heart was weighed against the feather of Ma'at, the goddess of truth and justice.
07:05If the heart was heavy with sin, it would be devoured by the terrifying creature Amit, condemning the soul to oblivion.
07:15If it balanced, the deceased was declared true of voice and granted passage to the afterlife.
07:22But none of this was possible if the body decayed.
07:25The ba would have no home to return to, the ka no vessel to sustain.
07:31Preservation was paramount.
07:33In the earliest days, during the pre-dynastic period, the arid desert sands themselves were the first embalmers.
07:42Bodies buried in simple pit graves were naturally desiccated by the hot, dry environment, preserving them remarkably well.
07:51The skin might be treated to restore some suppleness.
07:54The empty body cavity was then permanently packed with linen, sawdust, or other materials, sometimes including the wrapped organs themselves in later periods.
08:07Finally, the intricate wrapping process began.
08:11Hundreds of yards of fine linen strips were used, meticulously wound around the limbs and torso.
08:18Also, priests recited spells and prayers throughout, embedding magical protection within the lairs.
08:26Amulets, imbued with specific protective powers, were strategically placed.
08:32A funerary mask, often idealized, was placed over the head and shoulders, providing a recognizable face for the ba spirit.
08:51The completed mummy was then sealed within one or more coffins, sometimes nested like Russian dolls,
09:00and finally placed within a stone sarcophagus in the tomb, ready for its eternal journey.
09:06Tutankhamun's burial, with its solid gold innermost coffin and iconic mask, represents the pinnacle of New Kingdom royal funerary practice.
09:18A precursor to the widespread gilding seen later, the advent of the golden mummy.
09:24While gold had always been associated with divinity and royalty in Egypt, used in funerary masks, jewelry, and coffin decorations since the Old Kingdom,
09:36the specific phenomenon, often referred to as golden mummies, becomes particularly prominent in the later periods of Egyptian history,
09:45especially during the Ptolemaic, Greek, and Roman rule.
09:50Why gold?
09:51In Egyptian belief, gold was the skin of the gods.
09:56It was associated with the sun god Ra, the source of all life.
10:02Its incorruptibility mirrored the desire for eternal existence.
10:07To encase the deceased in gold, or even gilded material,
10:11was to magically assist in their transformation into a divine being, an Osiris, ready to be reborn.
10:19It was a statement of status, yes, but more profoundly, it was an investment in divinity.
