The Shadow Route

(the following post includes discussion of mummies and a deceased individual)

Multiple uploads available online, including youtube

It’s 2am. the night owl that i am, i am scrolling through youtube and see a short documentary recommended to me about an experiment conducted in 2011. fast-forward 1 hour later, and i am speechless.

mummification as a subject is already interesting, especially with the additional considerations that this preservation method existed thousands of years ago and has present examples of success. While not surprising that modern science has investigated how this process may have occured, the care and dedication to preserve donor Alan Billis’ humanity in addition to his body makes this documentary a must watch.

So, let’s get into who the proclaimed “Torquay’s Tutankhamun” was, how he came to be mummified, and what it was like to watch this documentary 15 years after its premiere.

Alan Billis, a life remembered

“If people don’t volunteer for things, nothing gets found out. So,…yeah, they mummified people centuries ago but they’re trying to copy that same way of doing it.” – Alan Billis, from Mummifying Alan – Egypt’s Last Secret

a young Alan Billis looking towards the camera, date unknown

Born in 1949, Alan Billis lived in the seaside village of Toruay, an area of devon, england. A taxi driver and family man, it is without a doubt after watching the documentary that billis was content and loved by the end of his life. what struck me while watching his preliminary interview, conducted a mere 4 months before his death in january 2011, was that billis was eager to be part of something groundbreaking. he expressed dissapointment that as a man who enjoyed watching documentaries, he wouldn’t be able to watch the outcome of this experiment. Having been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, his outward curiousity about what he consented to seemed to outweigh any obvious grief or fear about his future.

Pursuit of accuracy

I mentioned that this documentary is a must watch, but i will admit that it is not an easy watch. As some Youtube commenters remarked, watching billis alive one moment and laying lifeless on a table the next is a jarring sequence, but one that I think was intentional. Mummification is meant to be a respectful ritual, each step to insure that the body is handled with care and that the person’s soul and image are preserved. the documentarians wanted their viewers to know the man that would be treated as a modern pharaoh, not an anonymous cadaver donated in scientific pursuit.

An instrumental figure in this documentary is Stephen Buckley, an archaeological chemist from the University of York. Throughout the course of over 20 years, Buckley’s visits to Egypt and particular interest in the traces of resin and salt found on excavated mummies led to the challenge of recreating the process in modern times. Read more about buckley’s work in this Published article from 2017.

Thoughts and reactions

if you’ve already watched the documentary, you might agree that the best way to do it is by having a detatched, morbidly curious mindset rather than a sensitive one. they show the preparation of billis’ body with his face uncovered, so its incredibly important to be comfortable with seeing a deceased person to watch this film.

The educational aspect tied with assumptions made about the egyptians was particularly interesting. It is known that internal organs are removed and placed in jars, including the lungs, intestines, and liver. scans of mummified remains show that the heart (and potentially the brain) are left inside the body, the latter debunking the idea that the brain was “scrambled” and removed via the nasal cavity.

The height of the documentary was undoubtedly the Natron tank, especially as viewers can easily feel the anxious anticipation of BUCKLEY AND HIS TEAM. fORENSIC aNTHROPOLOGIST dR. bILL bASS, WHO WATCHED REMOTELY FROM THE us, REMARKed ON THE FRAGILE STATE OF A CADAVER AND SPoke with his collegue ON THE RISKS OF SUBMERGING A BODY IN WATEr. tHIS SOLUTION ALSO CONTAINS HIGHLY concentrated, HARMFUL CHEMICALS, increasing THE LEVEL OF SUSPENSE GIVEN THAT bILLIS WOULD have to BE SUBMERGED FOR MULTIPLE WEEKS.

aFTER THIS STEP, bILLIS IS PLACED IN A CHAMBER THAT MIMICS WHAT THE DRY, EGYPTIAN CLIMATE WOULD HAVE DONE TO MUMMIFIED BODIES CENTURIES BEFORE. oNE OF MY FAVORITE PARTS CAME WHEN THEY WRAPPED bILLIS LIKE AN EGYPTIAN MUMMY AND HAD A RESPECTFUL VIEWING FOR HIS WIFE. sHE SEEMED MOSTLY FASCINATED BY IT ALL, FEELING HIS FACE THROUGH THE WRAPPINGS AND KNOWING WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT IT WAS Her husband. this moment encourages viewers to consider what mourning would have been like for ancient families and friends, seeing their loved ones respectfully wrapped in cloth and leaving sentimental gifts with their bodies.

cONCLUSION

nOT WANTING TO GO TOO MUCH INTO THE END RESULT (hINT: THE TEAM WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THE RESULTS!), i SAT THERE WATCHING THE CREDITS ROLL AT 3AM IN AWE OF THE FILM. HAVING RECEIVED NOMINATIONS AND A bafta award in 2012, Billis’ mummified body is now housed for educational purposes at the Gordon Museum of Pathology.

the line between respecting alan and his family and upholding education within science needed to have been treaded carefully for the film to maintain audience engagement. The ultimate question i thought about when i finished watching was – how did i feel about this?

I think the answer to this question, and the overall question of whether the filmmakers succeeded in their intentions goes back to the modern mummy- Alan Billis. His attitude towards the experiment, the frankness of his thoughts, and the lack of hesitation he displayed with every interview clip shown in the film ended up being the backbone of this film. He knew the world was going to see him in a way that he would never see himself, and remember him regardless if the experiment worked or not.

That, for me, is the ultimate reason why this documentary is one of the most fascinating that I have seen yet.

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All of the images used are stills taken from the documentary Mummifying Alan – Egypt’s Last Secret, Available on Youtube