Chapter 837 Beef flavor, crunchy
Ancient Egypt has a clear historical date of 664 BC.
Manetho in the third century BC divided Egyptian history from the unification of Menes to the conquest of Alexander of Macedonia into thirty dynasties. On this basis, later generations divided ancient Egyptian history into nine periods.
The first is the Predynastic period, from about 4000 to 3100 BC.
The second is the Early Dynastic Period, from approximately 3100 BC to 2686 BC, during which time there was the 1st and 2nd Dynasties, when Menes, the first pharaoh who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, appeared.
Of course, this is the most widely circulated speculation. History is too long, and there is not enough documentary evidence to prove that Menes was the first pharaoh to unify Upper and Lower Egypt. In the study of Egyptian history, Narmer, Aha, and the Scorpion King all have the possibility of being the first to unify Upper and Lower Egypt.
The third is the Old Kingdom period, approximately 2686 BC - 2181 BC, during the 3rd to 6th Dynasties. The pyramids appeared at the end of this period. Before this period, there were only mastabas.
After that came the First Intermediate Period, the Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom, the Late Dynastic Period, and finally the period of rule by the Persians, Macedonians, and Romans.
From the 1st to the 4th period, it was the period of the formation of the slave state and the emergence of a unified dynasty. From the 5th to the 7th period, it was the period of the reconstruction of the unified kingdom and the empire. From the 8th to the 9th period, it was the period of the decline of the Egyptian slave state and its fall under foreign rule.
But these are not the point. The point is that the pyramids only appeared during the Old Kingdom period of the third period.
This means that the ancient corpse in front of everyone is at least four thousand years old.
Four thousand years!
What an exaggerated statistic!
Just standing in front of it, it seems as if you can see thousands of years ago, laborers were made into mummies and carried in one by one.
"The typical burial posture with arms crossed over the chest is an imitation of Osiris, the god of the underworld in ancient Egypt. It is usually used when royal members are buried, which shows that this member is most likely a member of the royal family."
Waziri observed the mummy's movements and made a judgment.
"But this is not surprising. If he was not a noble, he would not have so many burial objects. There are many gold products in it, which shows that he had an extraordinary status during his lifetime."
Waziri pointed his flashlight at the murals around him that had become blurred due to water seepage.
The flashlight penetrated the closed tomb and shone on the wall. Countless dust particles could be seen flying in the light column. Everyone was taking a deep breath, and these dust particles were flying in waves of disturbance.
Most of the pictures on the upper walls can be seen clearly, but only a small part can be recognized here.
“The architectural style here also shows the shadow of the palace.”
"Menes, the first pharaoh who unified Upper and Lower Egypt , built a rectangular sacrificial hall in his tomb at Negada. Although it was built entirely of bricks, vertical ridges were built on the outer walls to simulate wooden pillars and reed bundles, which was obviously intended to replicate the palaces of the time."
"This practice evolved from the popular housing in Lower Egypt, where the form originally derived from the construction technology acquired aesthetic value."
"Because Menes came from Upper Egypt, he adopted this approach not only for the sake of lightness and splendor, but also because as the 'king of Lower Egypt', Menes had to unify the architectural culture of Upper and Lower Egypt in the construction of the mausoleum."
Waziri pointed to the square walls around him. It was actually quite spacious here, and everyone could stand up straight with their backs upright.
"The tombs imitated residential palaces because in the early days, tombs were considered as places where people lived after death."
"On the one hand, people can only imagine life after death based on daily life; on the other hand, people can only explore the shapes and forms of various other buildings based on the most familiar buildings."
[Too awesome]
[This must be very valuable]
[Don’t you think it’s a bit scary?]
[What are you afraid of? It's been dead for thousands of years. It will turn into ashes if you touch it, right? ]
【Not really】
Bifang walked forward, took a flashlight, turned it on, and shone it on the mummy, not even daring to breathe.
Things from this era were new to me, let alone touching them. I was afraid that my breathing would cause some unexpected changes.
Drones also fly in closer, giving viewers a clearer and more detailed perspective.
The mummy was wrapped in an extremely large shroud that covered the entire body, leaving only the head and hands exposed.
And Bifang also smelled a very strange smell.
In other words, Bifang was surrounded by all kinds of strange smells since he came in.
Bifang's sense of smell is very sensitive. Outside the desert, there is a smell of earth and sand everywhere. After entering the tomb, there is an extremely strong smell of dampness and mold.
And the further down you go, the stronger the musty and damp smell becomes.
This smell was not pleasant, on the contrary, it was very unpleasant. Bifang was tortured all the time, but he had gotten used to it.
But when the coffin was opened, an even stronger smell came out.
It doesn't smell bad.
Before the advent of modern formalin, all the most effective preservation methods were inseparable from one purpose - dehydration.
Just like making ham, remove as much moisture as possible and it won’t go bad even after being stored for more than ten years, and the flavor will become more mellow.
The same is true for mummies, but of course they are not cured with salt to make ham, but with various spices.
Because of dehydration, there will be no odor caused by corruption.
Although the basement was very humid, the coffin was able to block the moisture very well, preventing the person turning into a pile of rotten liquid.
"The mysterious methods of Egyptian mummification are many, but the basic steps are simple: remove the internal organs, dry the body thoroughly, and wrap the dried body."
"Over about 3,000 years, the specific methods and the quality of embalming techniques have changed, but the basic principles remain the same."
"Most of the mummies we have discovered so far have been made using methods that have been passed down from generation to generation. This shows that the embalming techniques used in ancient Egyptian mummies have been continuously improved and matured."
"It is by no means a sudden burst of inspiration that came about overnight. The preservative materials used are also constantly being improved and progressed, reflecting the extraordinary wisdom of a great nation."
"Like now, exposing the head and hands is an early form of mummification. Later, the whole body would be wrapped, and not even a single bit of body tissue would be exposed."
Waziri explained beside him.
[How about it, Fangshen, what does it smell like? ]
【Will it smell bad? 】
[I heard that in the past, Chinese people would grind mummies into powder and use it as a health product. I heard that it can cure impotence.]
[Fuck, is this true? ]
Bifang shook his head.
"It doesn't stink. On the contrary, if you smell it carefully, it may even have a little fragrance."
[Is the fragrance real or fake? ]
[ Did Fang Shen take the money? I don’t believe it]
[This thing has been rotten for more than 4,000 years. How can it still smell good? ]
"Really, I smell a pine resin."
Waziri raised his eyebrows.
Is this true or false?
The experts nearby also came over to smell it, but felt that there was no smell at all.
However, Waziri was not suspicious, because pine resin was indeed added to the preservatives used to make Egyptian mummies. But after such a long time, theoretically, nothing could be smelled. Perhaps Bifang's sense of smell was more acute.
"In predynastic Egypt, bodies were wrapped in silk or linen and buried in hollow tombs in the desert."
"If the body is not discovered and torn apart by jackals, the hot, dry sand will absorb the moisture from the body, making it look like a black robe-colored leather chair cover, but it is still recognizable after thousands of years."
"Simple sand burials were the norm for peasants, but during the dynastic era, pharaohs and other nobles were buried in more elaborate tombs."
"Unfortunately, placing bodies in the relatively cool, moist underground crypts can actually increase the risk of decay."
"If the pharaoh wanted both an exquisite resting place and a well-preserved body, new methods of dealing with the body were needed to achieve immortality."
“Drying can be done using techniques used to preserve food and furs, such as salting fish or pickling vegetables.”
"But preserving the pharaoh's body like a pickle was not very aesthetically pleasing, so a mysterious process provided a better solution. In hot, dry sand or vinegar-salt brine, the embalmer used natron as a drying agent."
"It is a natural sodium salt compound that removes the most perishable organs, while the heart, which is considered the seat of the mind, remains in the body."
[I know this. There are too many microorganisms in the internal organs. Removing them will also help with preservation.]
[Is that so?]
【Awesome】
Waziri continued.
"The ancient Greek writer Herodotus left many accounts of embalming, many of which reflect an advanced and perhaps degraded state of embalming."
"He recorded that there were three methods of mummification, varying in degree and price."
[Is it so realistic? ]
[This Herodotus sounds so familiar, I seem to have heard it somewhere before]
[Not long ago, Fang Shen said, if you listen carefully to the class, you will get hit on the head! ]
"For the first-class ones, the embalmer would use an iron pipe to extract the brain from the nose, then take out the internal organs from the ribs, and then wash the abdominal cavity with palm wine and spices. Before stuffing the spices into the abdominal cavity, the body would be placed in natron for 70 days."
"When the embalming was complete, the body was washed, wrapped in fine linen, smeared with pine resin, and placed in a wooden box in the shape of a man."
"If you don't have that much money, you can ask the embalmer to do it cheaper, that is, the second-class one."
"They would skip the steps of extracting the brain and cutting open the abdomen, and directly inject pine grease into the abdomen through the anus, and then put the body in natron for preservation."
"After 70 days, the plug on the anus is removed to allow the oil and dissolved intestines to flow out. The embalmer returns the body to the relatives with only skin and bones left."
[Fuck, isn’t this really disgusting?]
[This is faith (covering face)]
[After all, they were ancient people thousands of years ago, and they really believed in this. ]
[The grading is OK]
"The third tier, the poorer ones, could only hope for a simple rinse to clear the abdominal cavity and a 70-day soak to preserve it."
"But Herodotus's detailed description of the embalming process also contains significant errors."
"According to other sources, the embalmers used juniper oil rather than cedar oil."
"The entire embalming process takes 70 days, 40 of which are spent wrapping the body inside and out in bags of natron and dehydrating it."
"Sometimes the embalmer simplifies the process by omitting the removal of the entrails and using onions and garlic instead of appropriate aromatic preservatives."
"The inferior workmanship and obvious fraudulent practices are evident in the mummy's wrappings, where internal organs were severely mutilated, bones were broken or missing, and animal remains or wood chips were used to fill the bodies."
"Chemists have tried to re-extract and analyze the composition of ancient preservatives, and some scientists believe that the preservatives were extracted from cedar wood because cedar contains a chemical called o-methoxyphenol, which is not found in juniper oil."
"When compared, cedar wood was shown to retard bacterial growth compared to other less commonly used preservatives and was also effective in preserving animal tissue."
“It’s an eye-opener.”
Bifang exclaimed in admiration.
As a professional, Waziri's explanation was obviously more detailed than his.
After all, these news and contents about Egypt were all found by him through consulting materials, and were not provided by the system, so it always sounds a bit messy.
Waziri pointed the flashlight at the head and pointed at the mummy's teeth: "Look at the teeth of this mummy, they are very complete."
"This also shows that he had an extraordinary status in his previous life." Bifang continued.
"Yes, if it were an ordinary civilian, their teeth would not be so neat and intact."
"Before the introduction of modern technology to determine the age of ancient organisms, we used indirect methods, such as estimating the age of mummies by looking at coffin decorations, the name of the deceased, and the grave goods, which were often uncertain."
"Sometimes it's incorrect because some mummies were damaged by grave robbers and the bodies often ended up in new, inappropriate coffins."
"Now researchers can use CT scans to three-dimensionally image the mummy without having to open the shroud."
"This method allows scientists to detect previously unknown Egyptian burials and the grave goods placed inside mummies."
"Carbon 14 can be used to estimate the age of mummies if the tissue specimen is uncontaminated or if collagen is available, but removing impurities from mummified material is difficult."
"X-ray analysis can also provide valuable data on medical and dental diseases, estimate age at death and biological morphological changes, which also makes the research of modern scholars more objective and reasonable."
[Pharaoh: I never dreamed that I could do CT scans]
[I predict that within 100 years, all these researchers will die from the Pharaoh’s curse]
[I just want to know what this tastes like, does it taste like beef jerky?]
[I have heard that in the past Europeans would soak mummies in honey, and then add it to cakes as a secret ingredient.]
[A lot of preservative spices are used in mummification, so it may be the taste of air-dried cumin beef]
【Cumin is indeed a spice】
【I made a decision that went against our ancestors.】
[Arabs detect which ancestor of the ancient Egyptians did not exist (dog head)]
"Mummy is another name for a dried corpse. The ancient Egyptians had their own unique system of worshipping gods. They believed that after a person dies, the gods would weigh their hearts, and then their souls would enter reincarnation and finally enter their bodies to achieve eternal life."
"It was under the influence of this concept that the ancient Egyptians made great efforts to preserve the bodies intact to prevent the deceased's 'soul' from being left without a place to rest when it returns."
The camera next to it kept taking pictures of the mummy, and white light kept flashing in the dark tomb.
After taking a final look and satisfying his inner curiosity, Bifang, at the invitation of everyone, helped move the funerary objects in the tomb.
The various burial objects once again made the audience scream in delight.
By the next day, the white tent outside the cave was filled with various objects, and the number of people in the camp exceeded fifty. The overall work progress became much faster, and the original low cave was expanded a lot to facilitate the final removal of the entire mummy coffin.
Because of the long time, the mummy could only be transported horizontally. If it was tilted or bumpy, the pharaoh might be torn apart.
