Chapter 841 Beef Flavor, Crunchy

Ancient Egypt has a clear historical date of 664 BC.

Manetho in the third century BC divided the history of Egypt from the unification of Menes to the conquest of Alexander of Macedonia into thirty dynasties. On this basis, later generations divided the history of ancient Egypt into nine periods.

The first is the Predynastic period, approximately 4000 to 3100 BC.

The second is the Early Dynastic Period, about 3100 BC to 2686 BC. During the 1st and 2nd Dynasties, Menes, the first pharaoh who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, appeared.

Of course, this is the most widely circulated guess. The history is too long, and there are not enough historical documents to prove that Menes was the first pharaoh who unified Upper and Lower Egypt. In the study of Egyptian history, Narmer and Ahab , The Scorpion King, all have the possibility of unifying Upper and Lower Egypt for the first time.

The third is the Old Kingdom period, about 2686 BC to 2181 BC, during the 3-6 Dynasties. The pyramids appeared at the end of this period. In all periods before this, there was only Mastaba.

After that came the First Intermediate Period, the Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom, the Postdynastic Period, and finally the Persians, Macedonians, and Romans.

From the 1st to the 4th period, it is the period of the formation of the slave state and the emergence of the unified dynasty. The 5th to 7th period is the reconstruction of the unified kingdom and the empire period. The 8th to 9th period is the decline of the Egyptian slave state and its fall into foreign rule. next period.

But these are not the point. The point is that the pyramids only appeared during the Old Kingdom in the third period.

This means that the ancient corpse in front of everyone has a history of at least more than four thousand years.

Four thousand years!

What an exaggerated figure!

Just standing in front of it, it seems that you can see that thousands of years ago, workers were made into mummies and transported in.

"The typical burial posture with arms crossed on the chest is imitating the ancient Egyptian Hades Osiris and is usually used when burying members of the royal family, 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 unexpected. If you were not a noble, you 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 with his flashlight at the surrounding murals that were very blurred due to water seepage.

The flashlight penetrated the closed tomb chamber and hit the wall. You can see countless dust flying in the beam of light. Everyone is taking a deep breath, and the dust is flying in waves.

Most of the pictures on the upper walls can be seen clearly, but only a small part can be made out here.

"The architectural style here can also be seen as the shadow of the palace."

“Menes, the first pharaoh who unified Upper and Lower Egypt, in the tomb of Negada, although the rectangular sacrificial hall is entirely made of bricks, vertical ridges are built on the outer wall to simulate wooden pillars and reed bundles. There was clearly an intention to replicate the palace of the time.”

"This practice evolved from the housing popular in Lower Egypt, where forms originally derived from construction techniques acquired aesthetic value."

"Because Menes came from Upper Egypt, he adopted this approach not only for the sake of lightness and magnificence, 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 tomb. "

Waziri pointed at the square walls around it. It was actually quite wide here, and everyone could stand upright and straighten their backs.

"Mausoleums imitate residential palaces because in the early days, mausoleums were regarded as residences for people after death."

"On the one hand, people can only imagine life after death based on daily life; on the other hand, people can only use the most familiar buildings as a model to explore the shapes and forms of various other buildings."

【So awesome】

【This must be very valuable】

[Don’t you think it’s a little scary?]

[What are you afraid of? This thing has been dead for thousands of years. Will it turn into ashes at the slightest touch? 】

【Not that much】

Bi Fang stepped forward, took a flashlight and turned it on, shining it on the mummy's body without even daring to breathe.

This is the first time I've seen anything from this era, let alone touching it. I'm afraid that my breathing may cause any unexpected changes.

The drone also flew closer, giving the audience a clearer and more detailed perspective.

This mummy was wrapped in an extremely large amount of shroud, thickly covering the entire body, leaving only the head and hands exposed.

And Bi Fang also smelled a very strange smell.

In other words, Bifang has been surrounded by various strange smells since he entered.

Bi Fang'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 wet smell becomes.

This smell is not pleasant, on the contrary, it is very unpleasant. Bi Fang is tortured all the time, but he has become accustomed to it.

But after the coffin was opened, a stronger smell came out.

It doesn't smell bad.

Before the advent of modern formalin, all of the most effective embalmings had one purpose - dehydration.

Just like making ham, remove as much moisture as possible so that it will not go bad after being left for more than ten years, and the aroma 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 aromatic ingredients.

Because of dehydration, there will be no odor caused by putrefaction.

Although the basement is very humid, the coffin still blocks the moisture very well, preventing the person in the coffin from turning into a pile of putrid liquid.

"There are many mysterious ways to prepare Egyptian mummies, 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 quality of embalming techniques changed, but the basic principles remained the same."

"Most of the mummies we have discovered so far are made in a way that is inherited. From this, we can also be sure that the antiseptic technology of ancient Egyptian mummies has been continuously improved and matured."

"It is by no means a sudden burst of inspiration. The antiseptic raw materials used are constantly being improved and advanced, reflecting the extraordinary wisdom of a great nation."

"Like now, the head and hands are exposed, which is an early form of mummification. After that, the whole body is wrapped, and no body tissue is exposed."

Waziri explained from the side.

[How about Fang Shen, what does it smell like? 】

[Would it smell bad? 】

[I heard that in the past, people from the Yang Kingdom would powder mummies as health care products. I heard that they could treat impotence]

[Holy shit, is it real or fake? 】

Bi Fang shook his head.

"It doesn't stink. On the contrary, if you smell it carefully, there may be a little fragrance."

[Fragrance, is it real or fake? 】

[Did Fang Shen take money, I don’t believe it]

[This thing has been rotten for more than 4,000 years, but it still tastes good? 】

"Really, I smelled something like pine resin."

Waziri raised an eyebrow.

real or fake.

The experts on the side also went up and smelled it, but they felt that there was no smell at all.

However, Waziri did not doubt it, because pine resin was indeed added to the preservatives used to make Egyptian mummies, but after such a long time, theoretically, he could not smell anything anymore. Perhaps Bifang's sense of smell was relatively keen.

“In predynastic Egypt, bodies would be wrapped in silk or linen and buried in hollow tombs in the desert.”

"If the body had not been discovered and torn apart by jackals, the hot, dry sand would have sucked the moisture out of the body, leaving it looking like a black leather chair cover, but still recognizable thousands of years later."

"Simple sand burials were common practice among peasants, but during dynastic times, pharaohs and other noble men were buried in more elaborate tombs."

"Unfortunately, placing a body in a relatively cool, moist catacomb makes it susceptible to decay."

"If the pharaoh wanted both a beautiful resting place and a well-preserved body, he needed new ways of handling the body in order to live forever."

"Drying can be accomplished through techniques used to preserve food and skins, as with kippers or kippers."

"But preserving the pharaoh's body like a pickle was unsightly, so a mysterious process provided a better way: in hot places with dry sand or vinegar brine, embalmers used natron as a Desiccant.”

"It is a natural sodium salt compound that removes the most perishable internal organs, while the heart, considered the seat of the mind, remains in the body."

[I know this. There are too many microorganisms in the internal organs. After being removed, it will also be beneficial to antisepsis]

【Like this】

【Awesome】

Waziri continued.

"The ancient Greek writer Herodotus left many records about corpse embalming, and much of the information contained in them reflects an advanced, perhaps degenerate state of embalming."

"According to him, there were three methods of mummification, which differed in degree and price."

【Is it so realistic? 】

[This Herodotus sounds so familiar, I seem to have heard it somewhere before]

[Fang Shencai said not long ago, have you listened carefully to the lecture? If you do, you will be hit on the head! 】

"At the first level, the embalmer will use an iron pipe to pull out the brain from the nose, then take out the internal organs from the ribs, and rinse the abdominal cavity with palm wine and spices. Before filling the abdominal cavity with spices, the body must be soaked 70 days in alkali.”

“When the embalming was complete, the body was washed, wrapped in fine linen, smeared with pine resin, and placed in a human-shaped wooden box.”

"If you don't have that much money, you can ask the embalmer to do it cheaper, which is the second level."

"They will skip the steps of extracting the brain and incising the abdominal cavity, inject pine oil directly into the abdominal cavity from the anus, and then embalm the body in natron."

"After 70 days, remove the plug from the anal opening to allow the oil and dissolved intestines to flow out. Only the skin and bones remain after the embalmer returns the body to relatives."

[Damn, isn’t this really disgusting?]

[This is faith (face covering)]

[After all, they were ancient people thousands of years ago, and they really believed in this. 】

[Batching is okay]

"The third group, the poorer people, can only hope to use simple rinsing to clear the abdominal cavity and 70 days of soaking to embalm."

"However, Herodotus' detailed description of the embalming process is also clearly flawed."

"According to other sources, the embalmers used juniper oil rather than cedar oil."

"The entire embalming process takes 70 days, of which 40 days are spent wrapping the body inside and out with bags of natron and dehydrating the body."

"Sometimes embalmers use simplified procedures, omitting to remove the internal organs, and using onions and garlic instead of appropriate aromatic preservatives."

"These inferior skills and obvious deceptions are shown in the mummy's wrapping. The internal organs are severely incomplete, the bones are broken or missing, and animal remains or wood chips are used to fill the body."

"Chemists have tried to re-extract and analyze the ingredients of ancient preservatives. Some scientists believe that the preservatives are extracted from cedar wood because cedar contains a chemical called o-methoxyphenol, which is not found in juniper oil."

"After comparison, compared with other less commonly used preservatives, cedar wood can hinder bacterial growth and effectively preserve animal tissues."

"It's eye-opening."

Bifang exclaimed.

As a professional, Waziri's explanation is obviously more detailed than his.

After all, these news and contents of Egypt were all found by him by looking up materials, not given by the system, so it is always a bit messy.

Waziri gave the flashlight to the head and pointed his finger at the mummy's teeth: "Look at this mummy's teeth, they are very complete."

"This also shows that he was an extraordinary person before his death." Bifang continued.

"Yes, if it were an ordinary civilian, the teeth would not be so neat and intact."

"Before the introduction of modern technology to determine the age of ancient organisms, we would use indirect methods, such as estimating the age of mummies by estimating the decoration of the coffin, the name of the deceased and the burial objects, which were usually uncertain."

"Sometimes it is inaccurate because some mummies have been damaged by tomb robbers, and the bodies often end up in new, incompatible coffins. "

"Now researchers can use CT scanning three-dimensional imaging to determine the image of the mummy without opening the shroud."

"This method allows scientists to detect earlier unknown Egyptian funerals and the burial objects placed in the mummies."

"If the tissue specimen is not contaminated or there is collagen available, then carbon 14 can be used to estimate the age of the mummy. "It is difficult to remove impurities from mummy materials."

"X-ray analysis can also provide valuable data on medicine and dental diseases, estimate the age of 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]

[I predict that within 100 years, these researchers will die because of the Pharaoh's curse]

[I just want to know what this tastes like, is it like beef jerky]

[I heard that Europeans used to soak mummies in honey, and then added it to cakes as a secret recipe after soaking]

[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 goes against my ancestors. 】

[Arabs detect what ancestors of the ancient Egyptians do 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 died, the gods would weigh the weight of their heart, and then the soul would enter reincarnation and finally enter the body to gain eternal life."

"It was under the influence of this concept that the ancient Egyptians would strive to preserve the body intact to prevent the deceased's 'soul from having nothing to rely on when it returns'."

The camera on the side kept taking pictures of the mummy, and white light kept flashing in the dark tomb.

Finally, after taking a look and satisfying his inner curiosity, Bifang, at the invitation of everyone, moved the burial objects in the tomb together.

All kinds of burial objects once again made the audience scream.

Until 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 was much faster, and the initial low cave was expanded a lot, which was 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.