“People from the Past
Mummies are interesting for many different reasons. We all know we are going to die, so we think about death from time to time. We may have different ideas about what we will experience after death, but we know what will happen to our bodies. Most will be burned, or buried, and allowed to decay. However, a few people over the centuries have managed to cheat this process. They have become mummies.
Sometimes this has happened naturally. Well-preserved bodies have been dug out of bogs in various countries, especially Denmark. In certain types of bog, there is no air below the surface, and hardly any decay takes place. The skin of these bodies looks rather like leather but the long-dead faces are recognizable. Scientists can discover many things about the way they lived and the way they died. Bodies have also been found in hot, dry deserts and on icy mountains.
For bodies to decay, both air and water are needed. Take away one of these, and the process can be slowed down or even stopped. This was discovered centuries ago, and various peoples mummified their dead for religious reasons.”