Mummifying an orange

In order to understand the Ancient Egyptian process of mummification year 3 mummified an orange on Wednesday. We are not sure if it will survive for 5000 years but it gave us an understanding of what they did and why. It was also great fun!

To mummify an orange:

Take 1 orange

vinegar to wash the insides

kitchen towel to dry the insides

half and half of salt and bicarbonate of soda

some cloves and a pinch of cinnamon

bandages

We cut a slit in the orange and scooped out all of the flesh and juices then we washed the insides with white vinegar. Once that was done we dried the inside with the kitchen towel and then added 3 cloves and a pinch of cinnamon, this is to stop any bad odours! Then we stuffed the orange with the salt and bicarbonate of soda mixture. Finally we covered the orange in PVA glue to act as a resin before wrapping it in a bandage.

All the oranges are now drying in the year 3 area.