Victorians wrong about why Egyptians mummified the dead, exhibition reveals

Colonial Egyptologists assumed the mummification process was to preserve the body after death. But new evidence asserts it was to steer the body towards divinity

Egyptian mummies, long an object of modern fascination, seem to link us with the ancient past by preserving distinct human form. But this was not the true reason for the intricate process, a major new British exhibition will argue.

The technique was instead a way of transforming dead dignitaries into a shape that the gods would accept. So, far from ensuring the survival of individual features, mummification aimed to make the occupant of a tomb match a divine formula.