This headline would make a good logline for a horror movie. The reality, though is more mundane. So far ...
By identifying residues from labeled jars found in an ancient Egyptian mummification workshop, the researchers were able to show the process involved complex chemistry and exotic ingredients, including resins sourced from a continent away. “You can actually look into the vessels and see what’s still inside,” says Barbara Huber, an archaeological scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology who was not involved with the research.Ariel David has an article at Haaretz with more details: How to Make a Mummy: Archaeologists Reveal Ancient Recipe for Embalming in Egypt. Analysis of 2,600-year-old ceramics from embalming workshop at Saqqara, Egypt shows mummification process included products sourced from as far as Southeast Asia.
The ancient Egyptians believed that preserving the body of the deceased was essential to ensure the soul’s continued existence in the afterlife, and the richer you were the more effort and money were poured into the embalming process.Yet another important discovery at Saqqara. (UPDATE [14 February]: For still more on Saqqara, see here.Just how much effort can be gleaned from the new study, which identified the substances held in 31 beakers and bowls found at the Saqqara complex. The workshop, excavated in 2018, served as a one-stop-shop funeral home for Egypt’s elites in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C.E.
Back in 2006, archaeologists announced the discovery of a "room for mummification" in the Valley of the Kings. For more on room KV-63 (KV63), see here.
According to Genesis 50:1-3, the body of the patriarch Jacob was embalmed by the Egyptians in a forty-day process. The story seems to be saying that he was mummified.
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