Secrets of the Dead by Matt Ralphs
This November marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. In a fascinating new book published in collaboration with the British Museum, author Matt Ralphs explores how the living communicate with their dead, and how present and future generations can learn about past civilisations from the remains they leave behind. Here Matt shares some extracts from the book.
The Ancient Egyptians
The ancient Egyptians communicate to us across the many centuries that have passed since their empire ended. Many of their monumental structures remain to this day, including those dedicated to the dead: tombs and burial chambers cut into rocks, and the earlier and far more physically imposing pyramids. The scale and care with which these places were built and decorated tell us how important treating the dead was to the ancient Egyptians. But they were not places of rest for dead to quietly moulder away in, but gateways to allow them to pass into the afterlife. We know his because of the incredible artwork on the walls and sarcophagi that depict their intricate religious ceremonies.
The ancient Egyptians built many enormous stone pyramids and tombs chiselled into rock for their dead. These monuments were expensive, needed thousands of workers, and often took decades to complete. Why did the ancient Egyptians spend so much time and energy on buildings meant only for the dead? The answer lies in their beliefs in life, death and the afterlife.
The ancient Egyptians believed that death was not the end of a person’s existence, but a doorway to reach a wonderful new home. Imagine golden wheat fields swaying in the breeze, a wide blue river reflecting a wide blue sky, the sun on your back and the taste of honey on your lips. This afterlife of everlasting happiness (one of many that the ancient Egyptians believed in throughout their history) was called the Field of Reeds and everyone, from farmer to pharaoh, wanted to get there.
An ancient Egyptian knew exactly what was required to reach the Field of Reeds after their death. First, the dead person needed their body to be mummified so it could serve as an eternal home for their spirit.
Next, the person’s soul – which left the body at the point of death – had to be encouraged to return. This was done at the funeral during a ceremony called the Opening of the Mouth. By touching the mummy’s eyes, ears, nose and mouth with a special axe-like tool called an ‘adze’, the priest re-awoke the deceased’s senses and invited the soul to re-enter the body. With body and soul reunited and its senses alert, the mummy was considered alive.
The deceased then had to find their way from the tomb, through a dangerous shadowland filled with demons, traps and fiery lakes, to a place called the Hall of Two Truths. There they met Osiris, god of the Underworld, and faced the Weighing of the Heart ceremony.
The person’s heart was placed on a set of scales. If it was heavy with sin, the scales would tip and the person would suffer a ‘second death’. But if they had led a good life, the scales would balance and Osiris would allow them entrance into the Field of Reeds to live in perfect happiness forever.
The Incas
This was a difficult subject to write about. La Doncella is so incredibly well-preserved we can see exactly what she looked like when she was alive: her hair, her face, the creases in her skin. And it’s hard to think about that alongside the cold and lonely death she suffered at the top of the mountain without feeling desperately sad for her, and the other children who met a similar fate. Yet the Inca society she was a part of did not take her life away to be cruel. To them it was a necessary act to ensure their ongoing prosperity; and they sincerely believed that her death led to a much better existence, in which her immortal soul watched over and helped to look after her people.
The Inca gods were an important part of everyday life. They were often connected to the living world of plants, animals and the landscape – mountains, in particular. Because the Inca believed that gods controlled the rains and harvests, they wanted to keep them happy with prayers and sacrificial offerings of food, drink and sometimes animals.
This idea of giving back to the living landscape was an important part of Inca life, and everyone made daily offerings to ensure health and happiness for their families. The Inca also believed that sometimes the gods wanted more than a cup of beer and a cut of llama meat.
The most valuable gift the Inca could give the gods was the life of a child. This important decision was made by those in power, and only happened on rare occasions. Perhaps the emperor wanted the gods to bring a rich harvest, or the gods were angry and needed to be soothed. Whatever the reason, the emperor would send agents to the far corners of his empire to find the perfect child to use as an offering.
Around 500 years ago, a girl aged around 15, who we now call La Doncella (The Maiden), was chosen. There is a lot we don’t know about her, like her real name or where she came from. We don’t know what she was like as a person, or how she felt about being used as an offering to the gods. What we do know is what happened to her during the final months of her life, and the last moments before her death.
After being chosen, La Doncella was taken to the capital city Cusco to be prepared. There she was treated like royalty. Her old diet of potatoes and vegetables appears to have changed to feasts of meat and maize. She was dressed in the finest clothes, lived in a secluded temple and took part in religious ceremonies with the emperor himself.
The priests decided when she was ready to go to her place of sacrifice – a mountain called Llullaillaco, 1,300 kilometres away. This difficult journey was made on foot and would have taken many months. Wearing a magnificent white feather headdress, La Doncella led a parade of priests, royal officials and servants from village to village, where feasts, music and religious rituals were held in her honour. Although treated like a princess, La Doncella would have known that her life would soon be ending.
The last stage was an exhausting hike up the rocky slopes of Llullaillaco, where the air is thin and hard to breathe. La Doncella was given coca leaves to chew (some were found half eaten in her cheek) to stop her from becoming too tired.
After a year of preparation, a 1,300-kilometre journey and a 6,705-metre climb up a freezing mountain, it was time for La Doncella to meet her fate. The priests gave her a strong drink called ‘chicha’, a fermented brew made from maize, which dulled her senses and made her fuzzy-headed. Eventually the combination of chicha, cold and exhaustion would have made her fall unconscious. The priests then wrapped a cloth around her head to stop her from breathing . . . and waited.
Starved of oxygen, La Doncella appears to have slipped from sleep into death. She was then sealed inside a chamber in the ground wearing her feather headdress, ready for the gods to receive her.
To end a child’s life is a terrible thing to do, but the Inca didn’t see it this way. They believed that although her heart had stopped, she was not really dead. La Doncella still lived, roaming free in the mountains, watching over and protecting her people for eternity. Her passing into the gods’ care was a cause of celebration, not sorrow.
We’ll never know how she felt as she looked down on the world spread out below. Did she sense the gods watching? Was she proud to have been chosen? Sad to leave her family? Afraid to die? Perhaps all these things. When they reached the summit, the priests performed a solemn ceremony asking the gods to accept this young girl, their most precious gift.
The Capuchin Catacombs.
The Capuchin monastery is the perfect example of bodies being preserved and displayed as a way to keep them close to the family and friends they left behind after their deaths. When the practise was ongoing, they were visited and tended to (clothes could be washed and changed) by relatives, who would gain comfort in their grief by simply being close to their mortal remains – perhaps reminded of happy times they spent together.
Beneath the stone floor of the Capuchin monastery in Palermo, Sicily, are a series of halls, corridors and chambers now dimly lit with electric lights. The air is dusty and dry. Hanging from the walls, standing in recesses and lying in lidless coffins are hundreds of mummies – men, women and children, all fully dressed and on display. Who were they, and how did they end up here?
When Capuchin monks dug up the bodies of some of their deceased fellow monks at the end of the 16th century, they were amazed at how well-preserved they were. Convinced this was the work of God, they moved the mummies to a new room inside their monastery. More deceased friars were stored over the following decades, usually wearing robes, and the Capuchin catacombs were made bigger to accommodate them.
After a while the monks offered their mummification and display service to anyone who could afford it. This meant that friends and family could visit their loved ones whenever they wanted, safe in the knowledge that the monks would look after them and even wash and change their clothes to keep them looking fresh.
Bodies destined to be put on display were first taken to a preparation room called the colatoio. They were then laid on a grid made from terracotta tubes (terracotta is a type of pottery) and left to dry out, or ‘desiccate’, for about a year. This left them stiff but with skin and hair intact. The bodies were then washed with vinegar, occasionally stuffed with straw and bay leaves, and finally dressed up and placed in their new home inside the Capuchin Catacombs.
Perhaps the most famous mummy in the catacombs belongs to a girl called Rosalia Lombardo. She was only two years old when she died of pneumonia in 1920. Heartbroken, her father asked a professional embalmer called Alfredo Salafia to use his expertise to preserve her body.
Alfredo set to work. He used a special embalming fluid called ‘Alfredo Salafia’s Protection Fluid: New Special Formula for the Preservation of the Entire Human Cadaver in a Permanently Fresh State’, that he’d invented himself. Ingredients included formalin to kill decay-causing bacteria, salicylic acid to kill fungi, glycerin to stop the flesh and skin from shrivelling, and zinc salts to ensure the body kept
its natural shape. This mixture was injected and allowed to spread throughout Rosalia’s body. Alfredo’s procedure worked so well that, over 100 years later, Rosalia’s state of preservation is almost miraculous: her brain and organs are intact and in place, her skin is tight and unmarked, and her flesh plump. She doesn’t look dead, only dozing – perhaps this helped to comfort her grieving father.
Secrets of the Dead by Matt Ralphs, illustrated by Gordy Wright, is published by Nosy Crow in association with the British Museum. Out now. ISBN 9781788009003. www.nosycrow.com