<![CDATA[Meanings of Death]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!uhu7!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F558f6664-7c96-46c3-ab41-05fb54d14876_1280x1280.pngMeanings of Deathhttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.comSubstackWed, 13 May 2026 19:17:33 GMT<![CDATA[Mummy Dearest, Part II]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/mummy-dearest-part-iihttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/mummy-dearest-part-iiSun, 10 May 2026 17:39:46 GMT“In Sicily, death has always been part of life. And for centuries many Sicilians were using mummification to make sure there was a constant relationship between life and death.”
— Paleoanthropologist Dario Piombino-Mascali

Chinchorro mummy

THE OLDEST DELIBERATE MUMMIES were discovered not in Egypt but on a fertile strip of land between the Pacific Ocean and a desert in what is now coastal Chile and Peru. They belong to the Chinchorros, fishermen and women dating from 7,000 BCE to 1,500 BCE.

The mummification process varied over the culture’s 5,500 years. The simplest (and latest) method involved drying out the body and then covering it with a thick mud that was then molded and painted to look like the deceased. Another (earlier) technique involved removing the head, limbs, organs and skin and then using clay, reeds and other materials to rebuild the body. Sticks might be used to reinforce the skeleton, and the skull was reattached to the neck. In many cases, according to Ralph and Wright’s Secrets of the Dead, “the skin was rolled back over the limbs and torso, the head covered by a wig of human hair, and the body painted with black or red pigment.”

Every Chinchorro was mummified – rich and poor, infants, children and adults. These mummies often hung out with the families for years; relatives might drop by to visit with the mummies.

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On the other side of the world, in Palermo, Italy, friars at the Catacombe dei Cappuccini started mummifying their fellow monks at the onset of the 17th century. After a while, the friars offered their embalming and display services to the civilian population. Those on display were first dried out on a pottery table for about a year. The bodies were then washed with vinegar, stuffed with straw and bay leaves, and then dressed up in whatever was the current fashion. The catacombs contain 1,252 mummies. The last to be mummified was the Count of Isnello in 1939.

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The Scythians galloped across the plains of the Siberian steppe between 900 and 200 BCE. They were warriors, nomads, traders. They mummified their dead by

  • removing the brain through holes drilled into the skull,

  • pulling out flesh, muscles and organs through cuts made in the skin,

  • packing the body with straw and hair,

  • adding their prized possessions to the coffin (sometimes including horses and chariots), and

  • burying the whole kit-and-caboodle in a “cabin” in a pit.

A 15th-century mummified cat was discovered inside the walls of a church in the Netherlands. The cat is believed to have been sealed there to protect the building from evil spirits.

In Japan, followers of the legendary Kūkai, who died in 835, practiced Sokushinbutsu, a weird kind of self-mummification. Kūkai was a monk, scholar, engineer, poet and artist who founded a major school of Buddhism. The buzz is that Kūkai cut back on eating and drinking and allowed himself to die of starvation. He ate only nuts, roots, tree bark and pine needles. With death close at hand, his body lacked fat, muscle and moisture. He dried up and became a living skeleton. Until 1903, many monks imitated Kūkai’s regimen of self-mummification but only twenty succeeded.

It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?, why people around the world who never communicated, who never even knew about each other’s existence, developed many of the same beliefs and funerary practices.

Next week: A good death

]]><![CDATA[Mummy Dearest, Part I]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/mummy-dearest-part-ihttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/mummy-dearest-part-iSun, 03 May 2026 18:00:30 GMT“Because of some defect in my motor skill, I can never completely wrap [gifts]…. If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh’s body would be covered only by scotch tape.”
— Dave Barry

A MUMMY IS A DEAD CREATURE which, because of exposure to chemicals, extreme cold or dryness or lack of air, has not decayed. Th…

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]]><![CDATA[Funny Mummies]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/quotes-about-mummieshttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/quotes-about-mummiesWed, 29 Apr 2026 18:08:57 GMT

TO BRACE YOURSELF FOR THE FIRST COLUMN of the second season of Meanings of Death, please enjoy these thoughtful perspectives about mummies:

“I mean, it was a mummy movie. It looks like Lawrence of Arabia on steroids.”
— Brendan Fraser

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]]><![CDATA[Resurrection]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/resurrectionhttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/resurrectionSun, 26 Apr 2026 18:05:53 GMT“David sat down. ‘Do you know the final words of the Torah?’
‘No,’ Kristy said. ‘I haven’t gotten that far.’
‘The final words are an incomplete sentence. The Torah ends, effectively, on an ellipsis; it just continues, off the page, forever….’ ”
– Tod Goldberg, Gangsters Don’t Die

I MAY HAVE CONFUSED YOU. In a March 2025 column inaptly named “Conclusion,” I …

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]]><![CDATA[Still Kicking]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/still-kickinghttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/still-kickingSun, 19 Apr 2026 18:01:40 GMT

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, along comes a big, wet, salty wave. In a week or so, this column will be returning in all its glory.

If you’re reading this email, you’ve probably already signed up for the weekly column. If not, click the button and subscribe for free (you can always switch to paid whenever you want).

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]]><![CDATA[Listen to Me Now]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/listen-to-me-nowhttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/listen-to-me-nowMon, 07 Apr 2025 17:28:39 GMTI know I said “goodbye,” but I should have said “au revoir” or “hasta la vista” because I suspect that I’ll be back, not as a weekly installment but as a special column now and then. There so many aspects of death I never touched upon — Moslem theology, cremation, capital punishment, reincarnation, etc. I’m taking a sabbatical but, in all likelihood, …

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]]><![CDATA[Going by the Book]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/going-by-the-bookhttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/going-by-the-bookSat, 22 Mar 2025 03:28:59 GMT

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]]><![CDATA[In Conclusion, Part 2]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/my-last-column-part-2https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/my-last-column-part-2Sun, 02 Mar 2025 17:30:50 GMT“Looking at death — looking it in the face — is the best way not to be frightened.”
— Tilda Swinton

LAST WEEK, in the first part of this conclusion, I reviewed what death might mean to you if you were dead. I’d now like to focus on the living.

Religions have their rituals to help us get through our grief. Catholics visit the gravesite for a week (Dece…

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]]><![CDATA[In Conclusion, Part 1]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/my-last-column-part-1https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/my-last-column-part-1Sun, 23 Feb 2025 17:30:46 GMT“I have the writer’s and scientist’s faith that, by pulling back the veil and peering in close, a person can make sense of what is most confusing or strange or disturbing.”
— Atul Gawande, Being Mortal

WHEN I FIRST STARTED this journalistic journey on Substack a year ago, I thought I would write about the meaning of life. But I didn’t for two reasons:
…

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]]><![CDATA[Our Last Hours]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/the-barren-gorgehttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/the-barren-gorgeSun, 16 Feb 2025 17:30:59 GMT“Ask people how they’d like to die, and most will say they hope to not wake up on the morning of the day on which a medical catastrophe would force them over the cliff from a fulfilling life into a barren gorge dominated by illness and grave disability. There are two problems with that wish. The first is that it’s almost always impossible to see the c…

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]]><![CDATA[Palliative Care]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/palliative-carehttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/palliative-careSun, 09 Feb 2025 17:52:34 GMT“Many of us hunger to restore a sense of ceremony, community and, yes, even beauty, to our final passage. We want more than pain control and a clean bed. We hope to die well.”
— Katy Butler, The Art of Dying Well

Dr. Kara Bischoff

PALLIATIVE CARE IS specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. Its goal is to improve quality of life throu…

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]]><![CDATA[The Circle of Life]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/more-griefhttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/more-griefThu, 06 Feb 2025 17:30:56 GMT“There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”
— Thorton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

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]]><![CDATA[More Avoidance]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/more-avoidancehttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/more-avoidanceWed, 05 Feb 2025 17:31:19 GMT“It is just as neurotic in old age not to focus upon the goal of death as it is in youth to repress fantasies which have to do with the future.”
— Carl Jung, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche

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]]><![CDATA[Acceptance]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/acceptancehttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/acceptanceTue, 04 Feb 2025 17:30:57 GMT“Actually, I'm looking forward to it.”
— Peter Fenwick, author of five books about near-death experiences, when asked if he feared death

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]]><![CDATA[The Joy of Death]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/the-joy-of-deathhttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/the-joy-of-deathMon, 03 Feb 2025 17:30:47 GMT

“When you are at death’s door, have fun. Don’t take it too seriously.”
— Jeff Bridges

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]]><![CDATA[Reviews of Recent Bestsellers]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/reviews-of-recent-bestsellershttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/reviews-of-recent-bestsellersSun, 02 Feb 2025 17:30:46 GMT“Death cannot write its own story. While we are still alive, we are the ones who get to write the story.” — Edwidge Danticat

SUBSCRIBERS HAVE RECOMMENDED books for me to read. Thank you. Other subscribers have asked me to recommend books for them to read. Here are three shorts reviews, heavy on direct quotes from recent bestsellers about the meaning …

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]]><![CDATA[Death Is Natural]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/death-is-naturalhttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/death-is-naturalSat, 01 Feb 2025 17:30:41 GMT“Death, like life, is natural and not to be afraid of.
If you love life, guard the time.
Time is the stuff that life is made of.”
— Charles Osgood, CBS Sunday Morning

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]]><![CDATA[Death Is an Illusion]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/death-is-an-illusionhttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/death-is-an-illusionFri, 31 Jan 2025 17:31:01 GMT

“Now Besso has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us ... know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
— Albert Einstein

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]]><![CDATA[More Avoidance]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/more-avoiding-the-topichttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/more-avoiding-the-topicThu, 30 Jan 2025 17:31:03 GMT“The fear of death is our primal fear.”
— David Kessler

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]]><![CDATA[The Dead Among Us]]>https://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/the-dead-among-ushttps://meaningsofdeath.substack.com/p/the-dead-among-usWed, 29 Jan 2025 17:30:50 GMT“I think of my dead brother, my grandson Freddy, my parents and my wife’s parents, and I feel the glow of faith that we will be reunited. This faith is not an intellectual feat; it feels miraculous and I carry it around all day.”
— Garrison Keillor

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