mummy

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mummy

1. an embalmed or preserved body, esp as prepared for burial in ancient Egypt
2. Obsolete the substance of such a body used medicinally
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

What does it mean when you dream about a mummy?

A mummy is a preserved dead person, so a dream about a mummy can be referring to something that has died but which we continue to preserve. A mummy is also concealed beneath layers of cloth, so a mummy can represent something we are hiding from ourselves.

The Dream Encyclopedia, Second Edition © 2009 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Mummy

a corpse protected from decomposition by artificial means. Preservation of the body after death was connected among many peoples with their concepts of life after death and the immortality of the soul. The mummification of people and sacred animals was widely practiced in ancient Egypt. The oldest known mummy is the Egyptian Queen Hetepheres (third milennium B.C.). The preservation of the bodies of the dead by fumigation was known to the ancient peoples of Peru, Mexico, and the Canary Islands. Mummies were discovered in the USSR during the excavations of the Pazyryk kurgans in the Altai, dating from the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. The burial sites of mummies usually contain numerous articles that provide valuable material on the way of life, culture, art, and religion of ancient societies.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
Well, there was a huge interest in mummies in the United States back at the time when King Tut's was discovered.
For further information visit: Facebook group - Liverpool Mummies with Cancer Instagram - Mummies with Cancer
The identities of the mummies were still unknown, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Egypt's Antiquities Minister said on February 2 that a joint mission from the ministry and Minya University's Archaeological Studies Research Center found upon a collection of Ptolemaic burial chambers engraved in rock and filled with a large number of mummies of different sizes and genders.
These aims are explained at the start of the exhibition, beside a giant map showing where mummies are found across the globe (almost everywhere), and a panel addressing the ethics of displaying human remains.
Recently, Piombino-Mascali and his colleagues have uncovered remnants of the smallpox virus in one of the mummies, gaining new insights into the origins of a deadly scourge that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone.
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The conservators didn't want to open the coffins and risk harming the mummies inside.
To their surprise, scans of many mummies revealed that not all contained animals inside.
This encyclopedia is the definitive resource on all things related to mummies. It combines scientific, historical and pop culture information to provide a one-of-a-kind resource for those interested in mummies.
Spectacles like recreations of Ancient Egyptian tombs, the public unwrapping of mummies, giant moving dioramas of journeys to the East, and mock-up Cairo streets, worked to objectify Egypt to the point that "the simulacra became more real than Egypt itself" (124).