Black Mummies:

  Over time, the morticians created different types of mummies: the black mummies, the red, the bandaged mummies and those with a layer of mud. To prepare the black mummies (around 5,000 – 3,000 B.C.), in general terms they removed the organs from the deceased; they cleaned the skeleton completely and then reinforced all of the bones with sticks, which they tied with coils of vegetable fiber. They then reshaped the body and the extremities with grey clay and frequently “dressed” it again in the person’s own skin, or some other kind of skin (for example, sea lion skin). The head was connected again to the body and was adorned with a face mask and a short wig of black human hair. Finally, the body was painted with a layer of manganese oxide which gave it a brilliant blue-black color.