Egyptian mummies followed fashion
Egypt, History, 10/29/2001

New scientific analysis of mummies has discovered that ancient Egyptian embalmers followed trends in body preservation and probably altered their mummification recipes in line with supply and demand.

Chemists from the University of Bristol in western England were given scraps of material from 13 mummies spanning 2,300 years of Egyptian history. The samples were subjected to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to separate their molecules and identify a chemical signature.

This was then matched against a library of "diagnostic markers" - a telltale molecule in a natural substance that can resist degradation over thousands of years.

The scientists found that the embalmers used a far wider range of substances to dry out and preserve the body than anyone had realized.

It was already known, thanks to previous chemical analysis and the writings of ancient historians, that embalming recipes included natron (a salt native to Egypt), juniper oil, camphor oil, palm wine, myrrh, coniferous resin and gum resin as well as beeswax.

To that can now be added resin from the pistachio tree, coniferous pitch, plant oils and animal fats and possibly balsam, too.

"Widespread use" of plant and animal fats suggests the embalmers were aware, like oil painters in Western Europe would be thousands of years later, that these unsaturated oils had special properties, the researchers say.

The oils would dry quickly and their molecules would form up in a dense cross-linked network. Like a shrink-wrap film, this polymerized layer would stabilize the fragile cloth enveloping the mummy and provide a barrier sealant against microbes.

As time went by, beeswax and conifer became increasingly popular, presumably because they caught on among Pharaonic funeral directors, who discovered their anti-microbial and sealant qualities.

The research, published in the October 24 issue of the weekly British science journal Nature, was carried out by Richard Evershed and Stephen Buckley of the university's Biogeochemistry Research Center.

The wide variety and composition of ingredients "could be a result of economics (the cost and availability of materials), changing fashions, and/or the preferences of particular embalming guilds," suggests Sarah Wisseman, an archeologist at the University of Illinois.

Market forces, for instance, could make specific kinds of fragrant oils more expensive, which means that only the rich could afford them, ordering the embalmer to buy them so as to impress their friends and relatives.

Mummification was an essential part of ancient Egyptian beliefs. No one, it was thought, could enter the afterlife unless the vital part of the spirit, the ka, could return to the body.

That meant the corpse had to be protected from decay and preserved in a recognizable, lifelike form.

A fascinating glimpse into the ancient world, mummies are now enjoying the benefits of non-invasive techniques, such as DNA, X-rays, ultrasound, 3-D scanners and chemical analysis, that require only minute samples or none at all.

In the latest study, less than 0.1 mg of material was taken from each mummy.

Previous Stories:
  First mud brick Pharaonic temple unearthed in Kharga   (10/27/2001)
  Mummy believed to be of Ramsis I, found at Atlanta museum   (10/25/2001)
  Graeco-Roman Museum starts restoration of ancient coins   (10/25/2001)

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