Knowra Mummy Mummy A mummy is a dead body whose soft tissues have been preserved through natural conditions or deliberate treatment. Mummification slows decomposition by limiting moisture, microbes, or both.
Mummification : The process of preserving a dead body by slowing its decomposition. Mummies are the preserved results of this process, whether it occurs naturally or through human intervention.
Ötzi : A Copper Age man whose naturally preserved body was found in the Ötztal Alps in 1991. Ice preserved his body, clothing, tools, and biological evidence for more than five millennia.
Chinchorro culture : A pre-Columbian fishing culture of the Atacama coast, known for its artificial mummies. Its communities practiced deliberate mummification millennia before ancient Egypt's famous royal burials.
Paleopathology : The study of disease in ancient human and animal remains. Mummified tissues can preserve evidence of illness, injury, and bodily change.
Ancient Egyptian religion : The religious beliefs and practices of ancient Egypt, including ideas about gods, death, and the afterlife. Beliefs about bodily survival helped give Egyptian mummification its religious purpose.
Desiccation : The removal or loss of water from a substance or organism. Drying deprives many decay-causing microbes of the moisture they need.
Tollund Man : A man whose body was preserved in a Danish peat bog and discovered in 1950. His remarkably preserved face illustrates the effects of bog conditions on human remains.
Ancient Egyptian funerary practices : Rituals and customs surrounding death and burial in ancient Egypt. Egyptian preservation developed within a larger system of beliefs about death and the afterlife.
Radiocarbon dating : A method for estimating the age of once-living material by measuring its carbon-14 content. It can help establish when a mummy lived, subject to contamination and calibration limits.
Mummy unwrapping : The historical practice of removing the wrappings from Egyptian mummies, often as public entertainment. Unwrapping reflects how colonial collecting and spectacle shaped modern encounters with mummies.
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