Classroom Questions

Questions for “Unusual mud shell covers an Egyptian mummy”

ancient Egyptian mummy sarcophagus and mud shell

An ancient Egyptian mummy (pictured, with the coffin it had been inside when purchased by a collector in the 1850s). CT scans of the mummy showed that under its linen wrappings, the body is encased in a jacket of mud.

K. Sowada et al/PLOS ONE 2021 (CC BY 4.0)

By Science News Explores

To accompany “Unusual mud shell covers an Egyptian mummy”

SCIENCE

Before Reading:

1.  Why did Egyptians mummify their dead?

2.  What does it take to make a mummy?

During Reading:

1.  Name two unusual things about the newly studied mummy.

2.  How many years ago was this body preserved?

3.  What tool did archeologists use to learn how this mummy had been preserved?

4.  How thick was the mud?

5.  What was special about how the head had been treated?

6.  What are two explanations offered for why mud might have been used in the mummification process?

After Reading:

1.  The Egyptians mummified more than just people. Why do you think they mummified some of their dead but not all corpses and dead animals?