An intriguing revelation about ancient Egypt's mummification process has come courtesy of the new Golden Mummies exhibit opening in February at the Manchester Museum. Researchers at the museum point out that the real reason bodies were mummified in an elaborate burial ritual was to prepare and ensure the spirit's existence in the next realm, not to preserve the lifeless body.
The misunderstanding began with Victorian researchers, who assumed that mummification was similar to how they preserved fish in the 1900s through salt. The Egyptians used a substance called natron (a natural mixture of sodium carbonates) during mummification, but this was actually more about cleansing, explains Campbell Price, a curator at the Manchester Museum.
Price told Live Science that incense, which the Egyptians also used with their mummies, served as a gift to the gods. Regarding the removal of internal organs during mummification, this served to turn "the body into a divine statue because the dead person has been transformed," he added.