 How did Ned become a mummy?
His car hit the white-painted wooden rail sideways, crashed through, tumbled down a steep slope, struck a huge boulder, bounced up a little, and arced outward, falling as gracefully as a swan-diver toward the inky waters of the Pit, fifty feet beneath.... Ned Vince was still dimly conscious when that black, quiet pool geysered around him in a mighty splash. A launching catapult for the last space ships built by the gods in exodus, perhaps it was—half a million years ago. A mineral saturation that had held time and change in stasis. A strange accident, happening in a legendary antiquity, had aided them in their quest for knowledge. The final instrument he used to test the mummy, looked like a miniature stereoscope, with complicated details.
 A combination of the alkali and mud his body had been soaked in. Also, the years of dryness after the world became a desert.
 Loy Chuk's workers wrapped Ned's body in strips of cloth to preserve it in transport.  The earth became a desert wasteland. All the moisture was leached from the corpse.  A combination of the alkali and mud his body had been soaked in. Also, the years of dryness after the world became a desert.  The body had been devoid of moisture for a million years.