National Geographic: Ancient Graves: Voices of the Dead Page #3

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the embalming spices

mentioned by Herodotus,

including frankincense and myrrh.

He would also need special equipment.

"We had to have replica tools

made of all the instruments

we thought the embalmers used.

So for example,

we had to have obsidian,

an obsidian blade flaked by somebody

in the Southwest

who knew how to do this.

We had to have a silversmith

make bronze tools

just like ancient Egyptian

bronze tools."

"Not since the time of Sneferu

has its like been done.

Now I'm a little bigger than

the average Egyptian..."

Copying ancient designs,

Brier built an embalming board

for the elevation of the corpse

and drainage of fluids.

"And I'll tell you,

it might be good for the dead,

but it's not good for the living."

With his colleague Ronald Wade, at the

University of Maryland Medical School,

Brier would mummify a man

who had donated his remains to science.

"There were quite a few surprises

along the way

as we did the mummification.

One was in removing the brain.

Everybody always thought that

you kind of pull the brain out

a piece at a time through the nose,

at least that's how

all the articles say it was done.

We tried it,

it didn't come out that way."

"What we figured out,

what the Ancient Egyptians did was

they inserted a long hook

and then moved it around,

using it like a whisk.

And then broke down the brain until-

it was almost like

a, a milk shake consistency,

and then turned the cadaver

upside down, and then the brain ran out.

That's how they did it."

Internal organs were removed through an

incision made with an obsidian blade -

sharp as any modern scalpel.

Then the body was covered with

several hundred of pounds of natron -

a naturally occurring salt,

Brier had imported from Egypt.

Internal organs

were treated separately.

Left in place for about a month,

the natron was supposed to leach

all moisture from the body.

For Brier,

the suspense was overwhelming.

"What would we get?

Would it look like a mummy?

Or would it need another 3,000 years

before it looked like the things

in the museums?"

"One of the things

that was really almost shocking

was when we took the natron off,

we had a mummy."

A striking demonstration

that people are mostly water,

the body would shrink from more than

"What are the oils in it, Bob?"

"The oils are frankincense, myrrh oil,

palm oil, lotus oil, and cedar oil.

There are five that I got."

Brier anointed the body with oils

considered sacred by the Egyptians,

then began wrapping.

"Nice and tight."

Accurate to the last detail,

he used more than a hundred yards

of pure linen

inscribed with Egyptian spells.

Internal organs were placed

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