What was the significance of mummification in the lives of the early to late egp

Question: What was the significance of mummification in the lives of the early to late egpytians!?

Im writting a 2,000 word essay for my world history class!. I need to write 6 different parts (plan of investigation, summary of evidence, evaluation of sources, analysis, conclustion and list of sources)!.

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Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Mummies and the process of mummification had a great impact on the amount of knowledge that Egyptians had of the body!. The ancient Egyptians believed that after the end of their life on earth that there lay before them a journey to an afterlife!. In order to arrive safely in the afterlife the body of the deceased had to be in a fit condition to house the soul of the person: to Egyptians the soul was not detachable from the body as is perceived by many modern religions!. In order to enable this journey the Egyptians had to ensure that the bodies of the dead were treated with the utmost respect and kept as close to the original as possible!. Anatomical knowledge must surely have been acquired through this process as the internal working of the body were understood to the extent that the Egyptians realised that the internal, vital, organs would rot prior to the external parts of the body!. This resulted in a process being developed to preserve the body that was extraordinarily lengthy and complex!.

The body HAD to be preserved to reach the afterlife!. Such was the strength of this belief that much time and energy was put into experimentation with preservation techniques!. Religious belief was at the centre of the whole process, it was never the intention of the Egyptians to use the bodies to advance their knowledge of the human body, embalming and mummification were intended solely to ensure a safe journey to the afterlife!. A result of this dedication to ensuring safe passage to the afterlife is that it is impossible to describe a 'typical' mummification or embalming procedure as it changed gradually over the years but in general the following would form part of the process:

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