Body of terminally ill man is mummified for UK TV documentary
Keen: The British man agreed to feature posthumously on Channel 4 because of his interest in mummies
Channel 4 could find itself at the centre of another taste row after agreeing to broadcast a documentary showing the body of a British man being mummified like an Egyptian Pharoah.
The macabre programme, called Mummifying Alan, will make television history when it airs later this month as a scientific embalming experiment is unprecedented.
Sources say the man, who had been terminally ill, was interested in preservation techniques used at the time of Tutankhamun.
The man, from the West Country, is not expected to be identified until next week when his family will explain why he agreed to be part of the show, according to The Sunday Express.
A team of scientists was brought together to perform the little-known technique used by the ancient embalmers at one of the UK's leading pathology laboratories.
It is understood the body remained in excellent condition when it was examined months after the experiment.
Researchers concentrated on the techniques used on Tutankhamun, whose body was mummified during Egypt’s 18th Dynasty.
The Pharoah's body was remarkably preserved more than 3,000 years later when his tomb was found in 1922.
Egyptian embalmers left few clues about their ingredients, but it is known embalming took 70 days, with 15 days spent cleansing and purifying the body, 40 days for drying and 15 days for wrapping, bandaging and art work.
The Egyptians were able to 'mummify' bodies for longer than any other civilisation, and are believed to have used resins found only in Burma - more than 4,000 miles from Egypt.
Archaeologists remove the lid of King Tutankhamun's sarcophagus in Egypt's Valley of the King's in 2003. He was mummified after his death in around 1323BC
Quest for answers: King Tut's preserved face (right) was revealed to the public for the first time in 2003. The documentary is trying to unearth the secrets of mummification used after his death in Egypt's 18th Dynasty
EGYPTIANS BELIEVED MUMMIFICATION WAS CRUCIAL FOR AFTERLIFE
Ancient Egyptians believed the preservation of the body after death was essential because it would be needed for the journey to the afterlife.
This led to a lengthy and complex mummification process carried out by priests.
The best literary account of the process comes from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. He recorded that the process took 70 days.
The earliest known Egyptian mummy, nicknamed "Ginger" because of its hair colour, dates back to approximately 3,300 BC.
The body was cut open and the internal organs, apart from the heart and kidneys, removed. These were dried and wrapped and placed in jars close to the sarcophogus (coffin).
The brain was removed by inserting a hook through the nostril and pulling it through the nose. This was then discarded.
Bags of natron salt were then placed inside and outside the body for 40 days until the body was dried out.
The body was then cleansed with aromatic oils and wrapped with bandages.
Some of the bodies have been so well preserved that scientists have been able to identify lung cancer thanks to CT scans of the mummies (pictured below).
Two years ago, chemical analysis of a shrine from the 18th Dynasty by German scientists found that the body had been preserved with cedar wood extract.
Another opinion among Egyptologists had been that resins from juniper wood had been distilled to produce the balm.
A Channel 4 spokesman said: 'Using a secret and complex blend of ingredients and processes, embalmers managed to stop decomposition almost entirely.'
A spokesman said payment was not made to the man as far as he was aware.
He said further details about the programme would be released tomorrow.
He added it was 'not for him to speculate' whether it would prove controversial.
Early in 2010, Channel 4 stoked controversy after advertising for a terminally-ill volunteer to take part in the project.
An advert by Channel 4 and production company Fulcrum TV read: 'We are currently keen to talk to some one who, faced with the knowledge of their own terminal illness and all that it entails, would nonetheless consider undergoing the process of an ancient Egyptian embalming.'
Fulcrum TV has not produced this documentary.
It was said payment would not be made, but that costs would be covered.
A Channel 4 spokesman said at the time: 'If you were to question why we were interested, we’d say "If the scientists have solved one of the ancient world’s most enduring mysteries [the process of mummification] it would give us a unique insight into science and Egyptian history and may well prove to have other significant benefits for medical science."
The broadcaster has courted controversy on a number of occasions over the years.
In 2001, satirist Chris Morris provoked a flood of complaints with a Brass Eye special about paedophilia.
Two years later, around three million viewers watched illusionist Derren Brown survive his Russian Roulette stunt. Police feared it could inspire copycat incidents.
Mummifying Alan will be screened on Monday, October 24.
Peering inside: A mummy prepares to go through a scanner at University College Hospital in London. Medical technology is being used to unlock the secrets of Ancient Egypt
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