the.com/mummification

means The process of preserving a dead body — through drying, embalming, and wrapping — so it resists decay for a very long time.

from From 'mummy,' which English picked up via medieval Latin 'mumia' from Arabic 'mūmiyā,' meaning embalmed body or bitumen — itself tracing back to Persian 'mūm,' meaning wax. The link to wax and bitumen isn't coincidental: early European observers believed Egyptian mummies were preserved in tar-like substances, and 'mumia' was even sold and ingested as medicine for centuries. The '-fication' suffix just bolts on the ordinary Latin 'facere' (to make), so the word literally means 'the making of a mummy.'