Brining is a process of preservation and a process of flavoring food. Brining uses processes known as diffusion and osmosis, which means a passage of a fluid through a barrier. The brine also carries the flavor into the meat as well. The brine makes meat moist and adds flavor.
Another process of preservation is salting. Different types of salt were used for salting. Salting was used for flavoring too. Sometimes salt was mixed with spices. Salt was produced by evaporating water from brine springs. Things like ham and fish were preserved using the salting method. Ham was preserved by putting layers of salt alternating with the ham so that each slice of ham never touched another slice of ham. It could be left like that for many days without spoiling. Fish was preserved in the same way. Each fish would alternate with a layer of salt.
Emabalming was used in ancient Egypt. It would take 70 days. It doesn't take that long to embalm bodies nowadays. All of the organs of the body, except for the heart, were taken out of the body. The reason for why they left the heart in the body was because, in the Afterlife, it was weighed at the Spiritual Judgment to find out what would happen to that person's spirit. Once the body was dry, perfumes and resin were poured over the whole body to disinfect it. Pieces of bandage-like linen were wrapped around the body to protect the body from moisture, bind the spirit to the mortal body, and confine the deceased to the world of the dead.