Hentepsear

Hentepsear was a household hen in an upper class Egyptian home. She was well loved and received the royal treatment from family and friends. Upon Hentepsear’s death, many grieved. To prepare her for the after life, her body was mummified according the customs of the day.

After seven days, the body was exhumed to prepare her for the next stage of mummification. The jeweled tomb was opened…

First thing to notice is that the liquids from Hentepsear’s body has been absorbed by the desiccant (the salt/baking soda mixture).

Once the mixture is saturated with the liquid, it must be replaced. All of the liquid from Hentepsear must be absorbed or she will rot and can not continue her journy into the after life. The mixture was removed from the body. The hen now weighs a lot less than when she was first deceased. Her skin is a darker color and is getting very dry. There was no smell at all. Not even the smell of the rubbing alcohol.

 

Got Mummies?

We do.  Well, we have one in progress.

The Siblings co-op class made the Mummy Chicken.  Why would we do such a weird thing, you ask?  Just because we can.  🙂

I got the instructions from DonnaYoung.  She has daily step-by-step instructions, which are very easy to follow. 

First you need a chicken.  You don’t need a live one, where you have to kill it and then pull the brains out the nose, just like real Egyptians. Nope, all you need is one from the grocery store.  They have already done the dirty work for you.  Unless you live on a farm and want to try it the ancient way, then that’s ok too.  Post pictures on your blog if you do. ok?  Back to the chicken.  Donna used a cornish hen, but I decided to use a very small chicken.  It probably weighed a couple of pounds.  Sorry, I forgot to read the label.

Next step is to cover the chicken in alcohol.  I bought a large 32 oz bottle of rubbing alcohol.  It was enough to cover the entire chicken.  I did this early in the morning so it could do it’s job before class.

 

I placed it in a large strainer, to be used during class time. This is the funny part. I had this soaking chicken, in the open, for all to see, at co-op. Not one person asked why there was a raw chicken soaking in something strange. That’s homeschoolers for you; everything is considered educational. 🙂

Next we mixed the ingredients. Since this was a small chicken and larger than a cornish hen, I used eight cups of salt and four cups of baking soda. It covered the chicken well.

After the ingredients were mixed, I placed the chicken in another freezer bag and the kids covered it up.

Once the ingredients were in the bag with the chicken, I noticed the bag wasn’t big enough. I came prepared and had another bag that was bigger. I think it was a two gallon size. Anyhoo, it worked out well.

We placed the bag into a decorated tomb. This tomb is a modern day kitty litter container. The kids decorated with jewels the week before. I tried to paint it with gold sparkles, but it didn’t work.  Now we wait. 

Chocolatechic and I were deciding what a chicken may need for the after life. The only thing we could come up with was chicken feed and several roosters.

All we need now is an Egyptian name for the chicken. Got any suggestions?

 Updated to add:  The name of the chicken is Hentepsear.  

PART 2