Ancient Egyptian Hot Dogs

Abby chose to mummify hot dogs for her science fair project this year. She tested both meat and veggie hot dogs and baking soda and salt as the mummification agents. Her hypothesis:

My hypothesis is that a meat hotdog in salt will work the best because the ancient Egyptians mummified meats -- like humans, bulls, cats, and dogs -- by using salts. Baking soda might also work because it was an ingredient in what the ancient Egyptians used.

Over the course of three weeks, Abby measured the weight, length, and circumference of the hot dogs. She also noted her observations on the hot dogs' smells and conditions. (Let's just say that some of the smells weren't so great!)

And because we had to purchase hot dogs for the experiment, she even ate a hot dog for dinner one night.

Abby worked really hard on her science fair project. And was very careful in measuring and keeping notes.

As I was helping Abby type up her presentation, she impressed me with her knowledge of mummifiation:

The ancient Egyptians wanted to preserve the body so that the Ka (the dead person’s soul) could find their body in the afterlife. At first they just buried the bodies in the hot desert sand. This worked because the sand and heat would dehydrate the body and preserve it.

Then the ancient Egyptians put the bodies in coffins to protect them from wild animals. But they found that the bodies rotted if they were not exposed to the hot desert sands.

So, after many years, the ancient Egyptians found out how to mummify (or preserve) the bodies. They used salts and natron (a mixture of salt and what we know today as baking soda) to preserve the bodies. This process is called mummification. (I decided to use salt and baking soda because those are two main ingredients in natron.)

And Abby TOTALLY made me laugh when she added the following...

So, hopefully my experiment will help the hotdog’s Ka (the dead hotdog’s soul) find its body in the afterlife of the garbage can!

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Grandma and Grandpa Engelhardt even made the trip north on Friday to come to Abby's school to see her science fair project.

At the end of the science fair, Abby suggested that her science fair project next year might involve me (the mom) and coffee and the effects of caffeine on mood. Let's just say that I'm fully prepared to help my child develop her scientific mind -- as long as cream and sugar are also part of her hypothesis!