Egyptian mummies

Prof. Garrett Reed of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers desecrating the remains of an Egyptian mummy in 1929. (Historic photo of archaeologist Howard Carter grave-robbing the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen).

### Type

Preserved human remains

**Egyptian mummies** known to the Ancient Egyptians as **Sah** (Coptic: **Nobility**/**Dignity**) refers to human corpses which were augmented via Ancient Egyptian burial practices to preserve the dead and follow religious ideals.

## Description

Mummification is the process of preserving the soft-tissue and/or organs of a dead animal (in this instance, humans). Ancient Egyptians performed their own extravagant form of mummification known as *Sah* on their nobility. This process was connected to the Egyptian afterlife in-which good-hearted nobles could have their spirits join the gods in the Afterlife but would have their metaphysical states tied to their physical corpses. The god of mummification was the jackal-headed psychopomp Anubis who guided these souls into the afterlife.

Egyptian mummification involved removing all internal organs except the heart which was essential as a tie to the soul and for being weighed in the afterlife as a final judgement. These organs were placed within canopic jars decorated with canopic deities to protect the remains. The remains had their eyeballs, tongues and brain-matter removed albeit without preservation to cut their ties with the physical world. The mummies would subsequently be dried and preserved in salts, wrapped in bandages, and placed within sarcophagi with charms and spells to protect them. Mummies would often have their remains placed in tombs of earthly belongings as tribute and to entertain their spirits in the afterlife.

## History

### Real-world history

#### Ancient Egypt

The origins of Ancient Egyptian mummification are unknown with the oldest known Egyptian mummy (at time of writing) being 5,600 years old. The process of, "Perfect mummification" which involved removing internal-organs was not put into practice until the fourth dynasty ( c. 2600 BC) though the context surrounding this is unknown. Warnings and spells were often placed in tombs as a means of warding off grave-robbers. Most of these tombs were located within the Valley of the Kings which would hold at least 63 tombs between roughly 1539 BC to 1075.

#### Colonial grave-robbing

In the 19th century, grave-robbing Egyptian tombs and desecrating corpses became a popular trend in Europe, most prominently in Victorian England. Victorian explorers and adventurers would seek out places of burial to steal their antiques, treasures and corpses. Said explorers would either sell these stolen human remains to aristocrats or keep them for themselves; in both cases most frequently being followed by, "Unravelling parties".

Unravelling parties would involve contemporaries of the explorers and/or aristocrats coming together to rip the bandages off of the mummy. What often followed was chopping up the corpse in order to hand out remains as party-favours while throwing out the rest as trash. What was also incredibly common was for the British to cannibalize the ancient corpses, usually be serving them in tea or as a jerky. These cannibalized remains were seen as both an exotic delicacy and believed to hold medicinal values. This exploitation of human remains by the British Empire caused countless places of burial to be devastated and human remains to be lost; by 1889, excavator Theodore M. Davis noted, "*I fear the Valley of the Tombs is exhausted*".

In 1922, the consensus of the Valley of the Kings being left barren changed due to the discovery of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun by archaeologist Howard Carter. Carter would pillage the grave and sell off the items within to museums. Since then, the majority of Egyptian tombs and mummies unearthed have been grave-robbed to have the corpses put on display in (predominately western) museums.

## Jungle Cruise appearances

### Disney Parks

#### Jungle River Cruise: Curse of the Emerald Trinity

In the *Daily Colonial Journal* there was a story by Andrew Sinclair-Harris on Professor Garrett Reed of the *Society of Explorers and Adventurers* having grave-robbed an Egyptian tomb in 1929. Following the event's publicity, this crime is provided as the reason for expulsion from the society by senior-member Lord Henry Mystic (himself a grave-robber of Egyptian mummies). A photograph of the crime in-question is provided in the Daily Colonial Journal newspaper.

### Film

#### Raiders of the Lost Ark

Various mummies were located in the *Well of Souls*, an Egyptian structure used to hold the Ark of the Covenant.

### Other connections

#### Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye

Various Egyptian inspired mummies appear within a chamber in the *Temple of the Forbidden Eye*, set within the Lost Delta of India.

#### Jungle Cruise

There are several photographs and illustrations of the pyramids and Sphinx in the Amazon River Base. There is also a book in the base by one, "Hillis" with the title, "*The Story of Pharaohs; How we got the Greatest Book in the World*".

## Other appearances

### The Great Movie Ride

Various skeletal mummies with glowing red eyes appeared in this attraction, set either in the Well of Souls from *Raiders of the Lost Ark* or a general movie-monster Egyptian tomb resembling those from 1930s Universal horror films. The mummy pharaoh was dressed similarly to the pharaoh from the EPCOT attraction *Spaceship Earth*.

### Haunted Mansion

A mummy (often given the name of Prince Amenmose, a historic prince of Egypt) appears in the graveyard of the Haunted Mansion as one of its 999 undead denizens. He is seen drinking tea and attempting to converse with an elderly ghost.

#### Haunted Mansion Holiday

The, "Mummy Boy" of Halloween Town from *Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas* makes a cameo in the load area.

### Mystic Manor

Lord Henry Mystic has a grave-robbed Egyptian mummy in his collection, kept within the *Egyptian Antiques* chamber. In the queue of the ride is a portrait of Lord Henry Mystic pillaging the artifact and laughing as his pet monkey Albert rips off the corpse's bandages. The mummy is seen in the ride where it is destroyed and ripped apart by bugs as a result of Albert having opened the cursed Balinese Music Box.

### Tower of Terror

In the queue of this attraction is artwork of the villainous S.E.A. member Harrison Hightower III stealing various mummies from the Valley of the Kings aboard a hot-air balloon. Mummies and sarcophagi also appear in the interior queue as part of the late-Hightower's collection.

## Trivia

* The Jungle Cruise film has often been compared to Universal Studios' 1999 remake of *The Mummy*. Frank Wolff's actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson acted in one of this film's sequels.
* A photo of Reed grave robbing in the Daily Colonial Journal is actually a photograph of historic archaeologist Howard Carter (1874-1939) opening the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen. Likewise, Reed's face was edited onto the body and outfit of Howard Carter.

## Gallery

Mummies in the Great Movie RideMummies in the Hotel HightowerMummy's tomb of the Haunted MansionA grave-robbed mummy in Mystic ManorLord Henry Mystic and Albert desecrating a mummy's tomb
## References

1. ↑ https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/disneys-magic-kingdom-late-morning-adventureland-touring-with-jungle-cruise-pirates-and-crowds/
2. ↑ http://ksean.com/blog/tower-of-terror-mural-egypt/