Death and taxes are famously inevitable, but what about decomposition?
谁都会面临死亡，就如同所有人都得交税一样，但是腐烂分解呢？
As anyone who's seen a mummy knows, ancient Egyptians went to a lot of trouble to evade decomposition.
见过木乃伊的都知道，古埃及人费了很大功夫防止尸体腐烂。
So, how successful were they? Living cells constantly renew themselves.
那么，他们做的有多好呢？存活的细胞如今依然在进行自我修复。
Specialized enzymes decompose old structures, and the raw materials are used to build new ones.
酶还在分解被代谢的组织，借此分解物重新合成新的组织。
But what happens when someone dies?
但是，我们所说的“死亡”意味着什么？
Their dead cells are no longer able to renew themselves, but the enzymes keep breaking everything down.
死亡的细胞不再自我修复，但酶依然在分解组织。
So anyone looking to preserve a body needed to get ahead of those enzymes before the tissues began to rot.
所以想要保持尸体完整，就必须在组织腐烂前获得这些酶。
Neurons die quickly, so brains were a lost cause to Ancient Egyptian mummifiers,
神经元消亡的时间很短，所以对于古埃及的木乃伊来说，脑组织是个麻烦，
which is why, according to Greek historian Herodotus, they started the process by hammering a spike into the skull,
这也就解释了希腊历史学家希罗多德所提到的为什么木乃伊的制作过程第一步是将长钉钉入头骨，
mashing up the brain, flushing it out the nose and pouring tree resins into the skull to prevent further decomposition.
搅烂脑组织，让其从鼻孔排出，然后将树脂注入头骨，以防止进一步腐烂。
Brains may decay first, but decaying guts are much worse.
尽管脑组织可能是最先分解的，但更大的麻烦来源于内脏。
The liver, stomach and intestines contain digestive enzymes and bacteria,
肝，胃，肠中含有消化酶与细菌，
which, upon death, start eating the corpse from the inside.
一旦人死去，消化酶与细菌就开始从内部侵蚀尸体。
So the priests removed the lungs and abdominal organs first.
所以牧师会首先摘除肺部与腹部器官。
It was difficult to remove the lungs without damaging the heart,
要想摘除肺又不伤及心脏不太容易，
but because the heart was believed to be the seat of the soul, they treated it with special care.
但是由于心脏被视为灵魂归属之处，所以需要特别小心的对待。
They placed the visceral organs in jars filled with a naturally occurring salt called natron.
他们将内脏放在罐子里，用泡碱这种天然盐保存。
Like any salt, natron can prevent decay by killing bacteria and preventing the body's natural digestive enzymes from working.
同其他盐一样，泡碱可以杀菌，同时使天然消化酶失活以防腐。

But natron isn't just any salt.
但是泡碱不仅是一种盐。
It's mainly a mixture of two alkaline salts, soda ash and baking soda.
其主要成分是纯碱与小苏打这两种碱性盐的混合物。
Alkaline salts are especially deadly to bacteria.
碱性盐杀菌效果极佳。
And they can turn fatty membranes into a hard, soapy substance, thereby maintaining the corpse's structure.
另外，碱性盐还可以将脂肪膜转化为坚硬的泡状物质，从而保持尸体原有形状。
After dealing with the internal organs,
搞定内部器官后，
the priest stuffed the body cavity with sacks of more natron and washed it clean to disinfect the skin.
牧师用大量泡碱填满尸体并冲洗干净为尸体消毒。
Then, the corpse was set in a bed of still more natron for about 35 days to preserve its outer flesh.
之后，牧师将尸体放在充满泡碱的底座上，这将持续35天左右，以保存尸体的皮肉。
By the time of its removal, the alkaline salts had sucked the fluid from the body and formed hard brown clumps.
尸体被移动时，已被碱性盐完全脱水，形成棕色坚硬物体。
The corpse wasn't putrid, but it didn't exactly smell good, either.
虽然尸体并未腐烂，但也会散发恶臭。
So, priests poured tree resin over the body to seal it,
然后，牧师用树脂涂满身体表面隔离恶臭，
massaged it with a waxy mixture that included cedar oil, and then wrapped it in linen.
再用含有香柏油的蜡状混合物覆于表面，之后在尸体上缠满亚麻绳。
Finally, they placed the mummy in a series of nested coffins and sometimes even a stone sarcophagus.
最后，木乃伊会被放在层层嵌套的棺材中，有些甚至是石棺。
So how successful were the ancient Egyptians at evading decay?
那么，古埃及人的尸体防腐做的有多好呢？
On one hand, mummies are definitely not intact human bodies.
首先，木乃伊绝对不是完整的人体。
Their brains have been mashed up and flushed out, their organs have been removed and salted like salami,
脑组织被捣碎取出，器官被摘除，并像腌制腊肠一样用盐保存，
and about half of their remaining body mass has been drained away.
尸体由于脱水，重量减轻近半。
Still, what remains is amazingly well-preserved.
尽管如此，被完好保存的部分依然令人惊叹。
Even after thousands of years, scientists can perform autopsies on mummies to determine their causes of death,
即使在数千年之后，科研人员仍可以解剖木乃伊来断定其死因，
and possibly even isolate DNA samples. This has given us new information.
甚至还有可能会分离出DNA样本。我们可从中获悉大量信息。
For example, it seems that air pollution was a serious problem in ancient Egypt,
比如古埃及貌似空气污染严重，
probably because of indoor fires used to bake bread.
可能是烘烤面包在室内生火引起。
Cardiovascular disease was also common, as was tuberculosis.
心血管疾病与肺结核患者也很常见。
So ancient Egyptians were somewhat successful at evading decay.
由此，古埃及人在尸体防腐方面还是有一定成就的。
Still, like death, taxes are inevitable.
就像我开始说的，税收，同死亡一样避免不了。
When some mummies were transported, they were taxed as salted fish.
一些木乃伊在运输过程中也要像咸鱼一样被征税。