One of the most glorified aspects of Ancient Egyptian culture would have to be the mummification of the dead. It is the first thing I personally think of when I hear “Ancient Egypt”, and I have always been very interested in the topic. For my research paper I will be looking deeper into the processes and tools and how they came to be. Mummification was not a process that was created overnight and there are many aspects that evolved as the culture of Egypt evolved.
Death was incredibly important to ancient Egyptians so they took great care to make sure their dead, especially those of royalty, would make it to the afterlife. The mummification process helped with that. Though it meant a lot to the people of ancient Egypt, I do not hope to write a lot about the ‘magical’ aspects that provide reasons people were mummified but rather I will focus on the physical process itself. The reasoning behind the way they preserved their bodies will only be shortly discussed as background information when needed.
Not only did they way the bodies of the dead were treated change, but the tools used in the process changed as well. One specific tool I intend to focus on is the psi-if knife which was used in the opening of the mouth ceremony. There is also the use of bandages to wrap the mummies in as well as linen pads, beeswax and brain hooks. The introduction of these and the material that was used, such as beeswax and the bandages will also be discussed. I will not be writing about any grave goods unless they were used in the process of mummification themselves.
The hot arid climate of Egypt was ideal for preservation and early Egyptians took advantage of that in the way they preserved their bodies. The earliest mummies did not use any kind of chemical component in the process but instead were naturally dried out, though that changed as time went on. The use of these chemicals greatly improved the quality of the bodies. The quality of preservation went up once again with the introduction of the process of removing certain organs, such as the brain. I will be discussing these changes and how it affected the way the bodies were preserved.
I would also like to write about two specific mummies from different dynasties to compare and showcase the differences. As an entire process the changes were gradual, but I think it would be more clear to see when comparing the completed mummies from different dynasties directly to each other.
For my sources I intend to pull information from articles on the specific practices and tools used. Many of the articles I have found/will be looking for provide very detailed information on the processes themselves rather than when they occured so I will have to search and note the dates given and perhaps make some connections myself. I will be looking mostly for scholarly articles, though I also intend to use the readings where I can.

Abdel-Maksoud, Gomaa, and Abdel-Rahman El-Amin. “A REVIEW ON THE MATERIALS
USED DURING THE MUMMIFICATION PROCESSES IN ANCIENT EGYPT.”
Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry 11.2 (2011).

This provided me with basic information on the different types of tools used in the mummification process.

Jones J, Higham TFG, Oldfield R, O’Connor TP, Buckley SA (2014) Evidence for Prehistoric Origins of
Egyptian Mummification in Late Neolithic Burials. PLoS ONE 9(8): e103608.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103608

This gave me the information of the earlier mummies as well as when the use of chemicals in mummification began.

Roth, Ann Macy. “The Psš-Kf and the ‘Opening of the Mouth’ Ceremony: A Ritual of Birth and
Rebirth.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 78, no. 1, Oct. 1992, pp. 113–147,

I pulled information about the opening of the mouth ceremony from this