How to make a mummy - Len Bloch

如何造一具木乃伊 - 蘭恩·布洛赫

譯者: Jerry Jia 審譯者: Quan Sun

Death and taxes are famously inevitable, but what about decomposition?

眾所周知，死亡和交稅是不可避免的， 但是腐爛分解可以避免嗎？

As anyone who's seen a mummy knows,

見過木乃伊的人知道，

ancient Egyptians went to a lot of trouble to evade decomposition.

古埃及人費了很大的力氣去防止屍體腐爛。

So, how successful were they?

所以，他們是怎麼做的呢？

Living cells constantly renew themselves.

活著的細胞會自動自我更新修復。

Specialized enzymes decompose old structures,

特殊的酶會分解舊的組織

and the raw materials are used to build new ones.

然後營養物質會合成新的組織。

But what happens when someone dies?

但是如果一個人死了呢？

Their dead cells are no longer able to renew themselves,

他的細胞就再也不會自動更新了

but the enzymes keep breaking everything down.

但是特殊的酶會繼續讓它們分解

So anyone looking to preserve a body

所以如果要保存身體

needed to get ahead of those enzymes before the tissues began to rot.

需要搶在酶分解完身體前處理

Neurons die quickly,

神經是很快就會死的

so brains were a lost cause to Ancient Egyptian mummifiers,

所以對於木乃伊而言，腦子就是沒用的東西

which is why, according to Greek historian Herodotus,

所以希臘歷史學家希羅多德說

they started the process by hammering a spike into the skull,

首先用錘子在腦子上開個洞

mashing up the brain, flushing it out the nose

清理乾淨大腦，讓它從鼻子里流出來

and pouring tree resins into the skull to prevent further decomposition.

然後把鬆香倒入頭顱來防止頭腐爛

Brains may decay first, but decaying guts are much worse.

大腦會最先腐爛，但是內臟腐爛是更棘手的

The liver, stomach and intestines contain digestive enzymes and bacteria,

肝臟、胃、腸子都含有分解酶和細菌

which, upon death, start eating the corpse from the inside.

一旦人死了，這些酶和細菌就開始分解屍體

So the priests removed the lungs and abdominal organs first.

所以“神父”最先去除肺和腹部的器官

It was difficult to remove the lungs without damaging the heart,

要去除肺難免要損壞心

but because the heart was believed to be the seat of the soul,

但是因為埃及人相信心是封印靈魂的

they treated it with special care.

他們就對心用了特別的處理方式。

They placed the visceral organs in jars

他們把內臟都放在罐子裡

filled with a naturally occurring salt called natron.

用天然碳酸鈉填滿罐子

Like any salt, natron can prevent decay by killing bacteria

天然碳酸鈉像鹽一樣 可以殺死細菌，阻止腐化

and preventing the body's natural digestive enzymes from working.

並且防止體內自身的酶分解屍體

But natron isn't just any salt.

但是天然碳酸鈉又不僅僅是鹽

It's mainly a mixture of two alkaline salts,

它是兩種堿式鹽

soda ash and baking soda.

蘇打(Na2CO3)和小蘇打(NaHCO3)的混合物

Alkaline salts are especially deadly to bacteria.

堿式鹽對細菌有致命的作用

And they can turn fatty membranes into a hard, soapy substance,

並可以讓脂肪變成硬的肥皂類的物質，

thereby maintaining the corpse's structure.

這樣就可以保持體形了。

After dealing with the internal organs,

在處理完內臟後

the priest stuffed the body cavity with sacks of more natron

神父用更多的天然碳酸鈉填滿整個身體

and washed it clean to disinfect the skin.

洗乾淨外表並消毒

Then, the corpse was set in a bed of still more natron

然後，屍體被放在一個 裝有更多天然碳酸鈉的床裡

for about 35 days to preserve its outer flesh.

持續35天來保持他的外表的肉

By the time of its removal,

等到屍體出爐的時候

the alkaline salts had sucked the fluid from the body

堿式鹽已經滲透整個身體了

and formed hard brown clumps.

身體變成了棕色的硬塊

The corpse wasn't putrid,

屍體雖未腐爛

but it didn't exactly smell good, either.

但是也很難聞

So, priests poured tree resin over the body to seal it,

然後，神父再往身體上倒鬆香來密封屍體

massaged it with a waxy mixture that included cedar oil,

用包含松油的蠟質給身體做個按摩

and then wrapped it in linen.

然後用亞麻布裹起來。

Finally, they placed the mummy in a series of nested coffins

最後，他們把木乃伊裝在密封的棺材裡

and sometimes even a stone sarcophagus.

有些甚至是大理石棺材。

So how successful were the ancient Egyptians at evading decay?

所以，古埃及人是多麼厲害呢？

On one hand, mummies are definitely not intact human bodies.

一方面，木乃伊絕對不是完整的人身

Their brains have been mashed up and flushed out,

他們的大腦被搗爛並流失了，

their organs have been removed and salted like salami,

他們的器官被移除了 並且像意大利香腸一樣醃製

and about half of their remaining body mass has been drained away.

大半身體被脫水

Still, what remains is amazingly well-preserved.

然而，保留下來的真的非常了不起

Even after thousands of years,

即使在千年之後

scientists can perform autopsies on mummies

科學家還是可以通過對木乃伊進行屍檢

to determine their causes of death,

來確定他們的死因

and possibly even isolate DNA samples.

和提取他們的DNA

This has given us new information.

這給了我們當時的資訊

For example, it seems that air pollution was a serious problem in ancient Egypt,

比如，木乃伊告訴我們古埃及空氣污染嚴重

probably because of indoor fires used to bake bread.

有可能是因為烤麵包造成了大量的煙霧

Cardiovascular disease was also common, as was tuberculosis.

心血管疾病和肺結核也非常常見

So ancient Egyptians were somewhat successful at evading decay.

所以古埃及人很擅長保存尸體防止屍體腐爛

Still, like death, taxes are inevitable.

然而，就像死亡，交稅也是必不可免的

When some mummies were transported, they were taxed as salted fish.

當木乃伊要被運送的時候 還要被當做鹹魚一樣征稅。