Mummified Chickens

We had a great and exciting activity this week mummifying our two class chickens. We followed the ancient process of mummification. We replaced the heart (a craisin) with a scarab beetle (almond) charm. We took out the insides (cooked noodles) and put them in canopic jars. We stuffed the chest cavity with linen. We then dried the chicken as much as we could with towels. We filled a bag with salt and put the chickens inside. We will change the salt every few days until it is mummified. It takes, on average, 40 days and 5 pounds of salt per chicken. When they are mummified; we will wrap them in linen, make a sarcophagus and have a mini burial procession.