It is believed that the earliest mummies were accidental. It was only by chance that some bodies were preserved by dry sand and air after they had been buried in shallow pits in the sand.
However, it is thought that the Egyptians only started intentionally mummifying the dead until about 2600 B.C.
For well over 2 000 years the process was developed and practiced, even into the Roman period (ca. 30 B.C. - A.D. 364). The quality of the mummification depended on the period of time and the price paid for it.
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