Myth
5. Mummies look
as if they are alive.
Fact:
Mummies usually
look very different from the living.
Despite their differences, mummies of the world
share another common trait: unwrapped or undressed, most resemble a person
from which the fluids have been removed. Unless the mummy has been packed
with sawdust or powder, or surrounded by liquid, the face and body will
look shriveled, wrinkled, and tightly drawn. Its eyeballs will often be
missing. Sometimes the skin will be soft; other times, it will be quite
dry and brittle — this depends on the method that created the mummy. In
other words, most human mummies do not really look like living persons.
Consider author Carol Andrews's description of
the Egyptian mummification process: after forty days of preparation, a
person's body
was
much darker in color and up to 75 percent lighter in weight. The arms
and legs were like matchsticks but the trunk was sleeved in loose,
rather rubbery skin, for most of the muscles and soft tissues had been
broken down or dissolved.
This doesn't sound like someone you'd pass
walking down the street.
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