Hi!
I am writing a piece about Sir Walter Raleigh's head! After he was beheaded his wife was given his embalmed head. She kept it at her side for 29 years.
What I want to know is how would it have been embalmed? What would it have looked like? I can't find anything about emmbalming in the 1600s.
Can anyone help please?
Thanks,
Shirley
3 comments:
"The modern techniques of embalming can be traced back to the 1600s when an English physiologist named William Harvey (who also discovered the circulatory system) started injecting arteries with a preservative. After studying veins and arteries, he learned the way blood traveled through the body and believed he could use preservatives as a replacement for blood. While it took a few moments to develop the concept, it wasn’t until more than 100 years that the practice of draining off blood became a reality."
I was able to find this from the following website: http://www.unexplainable.net/Ancients/Ancient-Embalming-vs-Modern-Embalming.shtml
Thanks AmanDUH.What was the preservative used? Formaldehyde was used much later.
I think embalming might have been in practice before 1600? I just came across a reference to how Henry VIII's "body had to be embalmed and properly arrayed before the coffin..." (J. Loach, Edward VI, p.29). That's an interesting fact about Harvey!
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