From 14 July to 26 October, the CaixaForum Madrid cultural space is hosting an exhibition of objects on loan from the British Museum in London, which explores the idea of mummification and analyses the testimony of six people who lived in Ancient Egypt.

The exhibition contains six mummies of people who lived between the years 900 and 150 BC in Egypt. Non-invasive research carried out with the latest technology is used to exhibit the discoveries made from these specimens.

Scientific and historical evidence shows what life was like in Ancient Egypt, the tools and techniques they used for mummification, the medicinal recipes they used to heal, their diet, cosmetics and ornaments, music, cultural exchanges, and even the role of women and children in the land of the Pharaohs.

Mummification became a common practice in Ancient Egypt, believing that the body should be preserved to reach the afterlife. For them, death was only the beginning, and it represented the separation between the body and the soul.

The first mummies date back to between 4000 and 3000 BC, and it is thought that this practice might have stemmed from accidentally digging up corpses, which had desiccated due to the heat of the desert. By maintaining much of their physical appearance, they tried to manually imitate this conservation. So, they would desiccate the deceased by removing the innards from the body and then dehydrating them with natron and embalming them. 

Image Credits:

Mummy of a young man (detail). Late Ptolemaic Period - Early Roman, ca. 100 BC – 100 AD. Probably Hawara, Fayum, Egypt. British Museum EA 24800. © The Trustees of The British Museum