Scientists have uncovered the materials and mixtures that ancient Egyptians used to mummify the dead from the remnants of an embalming workshop following a report from CNN.
Although researchers had discovered the names of materials used to embalm the dead from Egyptian writings, they were only able to make educated guesses as to the precise compounds and materials they referred to until recently.
Now, some explanations have been provided by genetic analysis of residues found in pots removed from an ancient burial site in Saqqara that was found in 2016.
The underground embalming factory, which was in use during the seventh and sixth centuries BC, yielded a total of 121 jars. The experts from Germany and Egypt examined the organic leftovers in 31 of the clearly labelled pots for their study, which was published on Wednesday in the scholarly magazine Nature.
According to what they discovered, the ancient Egyptians employed a wide range of ingredients to anoint the body after death in order to mask foul odors and guard it against fungi, bacteria, and putrefaction.
Materials found include beeswax, animal fat, and plant oils from juniper, cypress, and cedar trees, as well as resins from pistachio trees.
Additionally, archaeologists were able to identify the specific materials that were employed to preserve certain body parts. For instance, only pistachio resin and castor oil were applied on the head.
In a news conference, coauthor of the study and professor of prehistoric archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Philipp Stockhammer, said; “I was fascinated by this chemical knowledge.”
Philipp added; “They… knew what substances they needed to put on the skin — antibacterial, antifungal substances — to keep the skin best possibly preserved without having any microbiological background, without even knowing about bacteria. This enormous knowledge was accumulated over centuries.”
The research revealed more information, such as the fact that the material known to the ancient Egyptians as “antiu,” which has been translated as myrrh or incense, was a combination of several distinct substances, including a mix of cedar oil, juniper and cypress oil, and animal fats.
However, because so few embalming workshops have been found, coauthor Susanne Beck, a researcher in the Department of Egyptology and the curator of the Egyptian Collection at the University of Tübingen in Germany, noted that it is difficult to know how widely the materials found at the Saqqara site were used.
The workshop’s elements were diverse and came from a wide range of places, not only Egypt. Even while the majority of the compounds came from the Mediterranean, they also discovered traces of elemi resin and dammar gum, which most likely came from Southeast Asian woods or perhaps tropical parts of Africa.
Although more research was required to fully understand the characteristics of these compounds and why they were sourced from such a great distance, the researchers said that this demonstrated the long-distance trade of goods.
A Professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo, Salima Ikram, in a commentary on the study said; “These resins provide fresh evidence for long-distance trade networks, and raise the question of how and when the Egyptians learnt of these resins and obtained a specialized understanding of their properties and relevance to mummification.”
Ikram, who wasn’t engaged in the study, stated that ancient Egyptians artificially maintained the bodies of people and animals in order to give their souls a permanent residence.
It was believed that throughout the 70-day process of mummification and related rites, the departed would change from an earthly to a divine creature.
