Historians say that the important dead were often immersed in honey. Such is the practice in ancient Babylon and Egypt.
Like the Etruscans, Ancient Egyptians buried their wealthy dead in elaborate tombs filled with artifacts and wall paintings depicting families during everyday life. As with Etruscans, Egyptians had a positive view of the Afterlife. Both the Egyptians and the Etruscans, however, would see these positives change as their societies began to wan. The Afterlife became a place of fear, filled with evil spirits. Egyptians began to bury their deceased with the Book of the Dead, containing spells to help the departed. This would also be respected by tomb raiders because they fear that the dead in the tomb are protected by these spells (often thought as cursed).
As one of the earliest civilizations on earth, it is well known that Ancient Egyptians took seventy days to prepare a pharaoh for the burial ceremony, although such elaborate preparations were not provided for the average Egyptian. Every ancient civilization, however, had methods of preparation, often designed to stop the rapid decomposition of the body.
The very term “sarcophagus” (which is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone) comes from a Greek term referring to “flesh eating.” This is why in most of the Ancient Near East, preparation and burial was swift to make sure that the flesh is still totally intact as they bury their dead.
