What is a mummy?

There are two kinds of mummies: natural and anthropogenic.

Natural mummies occur when people die and are buried without embalming. If the conditions are just right, the bodies dry out in the arid soil and become preserved, kind of like beef jerky. The fluids of the body are drawn into the sand where they eventually evaporate, thereby leaving the body in a state of preservation. The bodies never have a chance to rot because the sands provide an airtight, very dry environment. Natural human mummies can be found anywhere on Earth except Antarctica, but are most commonly found where the soil is sandy and very dry such as parts of South America, parts of Africa and parts of Australia. In these areas the conditions are nearly perfect in order to preserve a human body.

Anthropogenic mummies are created when living humans intervene in the process of preservation. When humans embalm a body in some way in order to preserve it, they have created an anthropogenic mummy. The first culture to preserve a body were the Chinchorro of what is currently southern Peru and northern Chile. They were making the first mummies about 7000 years ago, about 2000 years before the Egyptians made the first mummy.

Of course the most famous mummies are those from Egypt, most notably King Tutankhamun, the boy king of Egypt from 1333-1323 BCE. While mummies from around the world are frequently buried with possessions they had while the person was alive, only the Egyptian pharohs were buried with large amount of gold and jewels. Their burials are truly breathtaking. Once you are an anthropologist, you can get the opportunity to study one of these burials!