Where and when did people first start mummifying their dead?
Try and think of two or three things that make ancient Egypt stand out from other cultures and there’s a good chance “mummies” will be on your list. The word derives from the medieval Arabic mumiyah, and was adopted by the European travellers who began to visit Egypt in early modern times. Mummification probably arose in Egypt as a result of the ancients’ observation that the arid desert climate led to the natural preservation of soft tissue, and subsequently that the application of certain techniques could enhance the results. The earliest evidence for deliberate mummification in Egypt dates to 3,700–3,500 BC, several centuries before the first pharaohs. Over time the process evolved as the Egyptians attempted to perfect it, and it varied according to the wealth and social status of the deceased. Thousands of mummies have survived, often exceptionally well, some belonging to historically significant individuals including the pharaohs Seti I, Ramesses the Great and, famously, Tutankhamun. Mummification was also practised in a wide variety of cultures around the world in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas. In fact the earliest evidence of intentional mummification pre-dates the oldest Egyptian mummy: the Chinchorro people of northern Chile mummified their dead for more than 3,000 years beginning in the late sixth or fifth millennium BC. Even earlier, 9,400 years ago, the body of a male was buried in Spirit Cave, Nevada, US, and was partially mummified.
Chris Naunton, Egyptologist, writer and broadcaster