Ancient Egypt hides many secrets, and in 2022, archaeologists have made some fascinating discoveries, including the tomb of a previously unknown queen, lifelike mummy portraits, and mummies with golden tongues.

In sharp contrast to popular understanding of the practice, experts say mummification may never have been intended to preserve the bodies of ancient Egyptians after death. few.

Experts say in a report published on the "Insider" website, "The Egyptians intended to transform their kings and queens into statues and works of art of religious significance," according to the Science Alert report.

alternative theory

The theory holds that the goal of mummification was to alter bodies in a way that did not depend on the popular theory that bodies would be reanimated in the afterlife.

This approach indicates that the Egyptians believed that kings and queens were living deities, and that turning their bodies into statues after death was a way to restore their proper form.

Egyptologists who support this approach of thinking say that the ancient Egyptians imagined that the golden masks in the coffins of members of the royal family would then become perfect, god-like versions of the deceased, and not vibrant images.

"It's a subtle distinction, but an important one," Campbell Price, curator of the Manchester Museum in the UK, told Insider.

Close-up of an ancient Egyptian mummy (Shutterstock)

He added that "the idea of ​​the soul returning to the body, or in some sense revitalizing the body, was not expressed as clearly as you might imagine."

This new approach will be explored and its motivations presented in the exhibition "Golden Mummies of Egypt", which will open at the Manchester Museum in February, and Price has written a book presenting his ideas that will be presented to accompany this event.

Under the alternative theory, Price maintains, "the production of a vibrant, recognizable image was not actually intended in the first place."

justification for the alternative theory

One of the arguments in support of this theory is that there seems to have been little interest in the mummification and preservation of some of the mummies of the prominent ruling classes, for example, the body of King Tutankhamun was found stuck to the bottom of his coffin.

"It's as if, to read modern accounts, mummification was a failure, and the ancient Egyptians didn't know what they were doing, and so it wasn't well preserved," Price said.

He explained his theory by saying, "It seems that there is the world of the living and the people who go about their daily lives. Then there is the world of images, statues, engravings and paintings. This is not just an idealized version of Egypt, it is an image of the gods, a kind of world of statues."

The archaeological record indicates that statues of the gods were anointed with oils and perfumes.

They were also sometimes wrapped in linen, so the bandages may have been thought to confer a kind of divinity.

By placing organs in canopic jars (jars decorated with the heads of gods) during the mummification process, the Egyptians may have intended to imbue the deceased king with a divine spirit, rather than keeping it on hand in the afterlife.

Egyptologists who advance this view say that the Victorians (the Victorian era was a historical era during the first industrial revolution and the heyday of the British Empire) who studied mummies for the first time concluded that preservation was the goal because of their horrific fascination with the afterlife, and this may be explained by the Victorians and their ideas about life after death.

During the Greco-Roman period, it was not uncommon for mummies to be buried with golden tongues, and the ancient Egyptians believed that doing so would help transform the deceased into divine beings in the afterlife.

A team of archaeologists found several examples of the private burial practice at an ancient necropolis excavation site near Quesna, north of Cairo.

The tombs also contained a large number of funerary goods, such as necklaces and pottery.

opposition to the theory

Not everyone agrees with this theory, however, and Stephen Buckley, an archaeologist and analytical chemist at the University of York, said, "The physical preservation of the body was very important. There is no doubt about that."

Indeed, some mummies look like statues, such as Tutankhamun, Amenhotep III and Akhenaten.

Others, such as Thutmose III, Thutmose IV, Amenhotep II, and Queen Tay, were mummified to look "sleeping-like," Buckley said, suggesting a greater interest in the physical body inside.

He said the images contained some imperfections "perhaps so that the soul could identify itself and thus have a 'home' to which it returns periodically".

Buckley acknowledged that mummification was not just about mummy preservation, but to rule it out entirely would be to miss an important point.