Photo: KHALED KSOUKI/AFP/Getty Images
For: The opinion Posted 01 Feb 2023, 22:44 pm EST
The ancient Egyptians are knowns, among other things, for the way they preserved their dead through mummification and now a group of researchers has revealed some used secrets by that ancient civilization to carry out that process.
An international team of researchers from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany), and the University of Tübingen (also in Germany) reveals the secrets of embalming in ancient Egypt. Research reveals that rvessels from a workshop in Saqqara, Egyptprovide new knowledge about the substances that were used to preserve human bodies.
In collaboration with the National Research Center in Cairo, the German scientists analyzed chemical residues in vessels from a Saqqara embalming workshop -not far from the Unas pyramid- which was not discovered until 2016 and in which countless mummified remains have been found.
In the newly discovered workshop, the Egyptian experts mummified the dead in the 7th and 6th centuries BC For Egyptologists, power recover numerous used vessels so long ago by skilled craftsmen was a tremendous stroke of luck. Better still, the vessels were labeled with their previous contents, and some even had instructions for use.
“We have known the names of many of these embalming ingredients since ancient Egyptian writings were deciphered,” explains Susanne Beck of the University of Tübingen, who is leading the excavation. “But until now we could only guess what substances were behind each name,” adds.
The analysis of the chemical residues of the vessels has now allowed isolate and identify the molecular remains of the substances that were once used in a certain vessel. As the mystery was unraveled, several surprises occurred. As the revelation of what is the oldone of the substances used by embalmers, now known it was a mixture of cedar oil, juniper and cypress oil and animal fats.
The researchers were also able to discover that substances such as pistachio resin and castor oil They were only used for the head. Other substances used in the process to embalm the deceased in ancient Egypt were cedar oil and bitumen.
Ingredients brought from far away places
The researchers also they found residues of dammar gum and elemi resin, substances that, according to them, show how globalized commercial relations were already almost 3,000 years ago. While the resin of the elemi tree reached Egypt from Tropical Africa or Southeast Asiathe dammar tree continues to grow to this day only in the tropical Southeast Asia.
Therefore, the authors of the study emphasize, it is evident that great efforts were devoted to obtaining chemical substances very specific to the embalming process. “Ultimately, Egyptian mummification probably played an important role in the emergence of global networks,” says Maxime Rageot of the University of Tübingen. “They were needed large quantities of these exotic resinsyes,” he adds.
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