to Sixth Dynasties, the body was in the same position,
but with the head north, loosely covered with shawls and
garments. The crouching position, with some slight modifications,
continues to be used for the poorest class down to the New
Empire. Among the Nubians, it is universal to the New Empire and
customary even later in unmixed Nubian communities. The swathed
extended burials begin in Egypt in the Fourth Dynasty, so far as
remains are preserved. Some members of the royal family of Cheops
were buried in swathed wrapping, lying extended on the left side
with the knees bent. During the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties this
extended position on the side becomes customary for the better
classes; and during the Middle Empire it becomes almost
universal.

The final burial position, the swathed mummy lying extended on
the back, does not become general until the New Empire, about
1600 B.C. although it is the position hitherto regarded as the
characteristic Egyptian burial position. A few isolated cases,
some of them perhaps accidental, occur as early as the Old
Empire; but in the New Empire the extended burial on the back is
practically the only one to be observed. In other words,
beginning in the predynastic period with a burial position which
may be called natural and primitive, the Egyptian gradually
adopted a position which imitated the form of the dead Osiris,
the god of the dead. Each new change is first adopted by the
royal family, and is taken up by the other classes in turn until
it becomes universal. In the final form, the mummy was a
simulacrum of the dead as Osiris.

Alongside these changes in the burial position progressed the art
of preserving the body. The earliest attempts were made on the
body of the king; and the knowledge of embalming gained in
preserving his body was gradually utilized for the higher classes
and finally for all but the poorest. It seems indisputable that
the royal personages of the Fourth and Sixth Dynasties were
mummified--i.e., the entrails were drawn, the body prepared
with spices and resins and wrapped tightly in cloths smeared with
resin. But the mummies of the nobles, even of this period, show
no trace of such treatment. The receptacles for the viscera are
sometimes found in their graves in the Sixth Dynasty, but are, as
a rule, empty, being mere dummy vases. Even in the Middle Empire,
the preservation of the bodies of the better classes was
extremely imperfect. The bun