Natron in Ancient Egypt

Natron Salt

Natron is a by nature occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and around 17% sodium bicarbonate on with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate. Natron is white to colourless when pure, variable to gray or yellow with drosses. Natron deposits are sometimes got in saline lake beds which arose in arid environments. Throughout history natron has had many practical lotions that continue today in the wide place of contemporary uses of its constituent mineral components.

In contemporary mineralogy the full condition natron has come to good only the sodium carbonate decahydrate (hydrated soda ash) that makes up most of the historical salt.

Natron was used in all periods of ancient Egypt, affiliated especially with the action of embalming and mummification. It was jawed net-jeryt, Belonging the God; besmen, the name of a local god; or besmen  desher, denoting  a  red  change  of  natron  that was  hygroscopic. It was learned  in  Wadi Natrun, close contemporary Cairo, too called the Natron Valley, and in Upper and Lower Egyptian sites. Natron is a variety of sodium bicarbonate and sodium carbonate or sodium chloride.

The content was originally used as a detersive and as a tooth easier, and in some eras as a glaze for early craft wares. In time natron was used as the main saving agent for  mortuary  rituals. The  basic  element  for embalming, natron was the infusing content for drying corpses and preventing decay. It was used in its dry crystal form, and mummy linens were sometimes wet in natron  before  wrapping. Natron was likewise formed into balls  and  manducated at certain religious observances by the rulers or their priest instances. When the substance was  used in these rituals,  natron represented  the  translated state assumed by the dead in the paradise beyond the serious.

More about the use of Natron in Ancient Egypt:

- Lucas (A.), "The Use of Natron by the Ancient Egyptians in Mummification" ,The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Apr., 1914), pp. 119-123.

- Sandison (A. T.), "The Use of Natron in Mummification in Ancient Egypt", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Oct., 1963), pp. 259-267.

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