How to make an Egyptian mummy: new clues found in ancient workshop
- 2,500-year-old jars labelled with instructions like ‘to wash’ and ‘put on head’ are helping scientists learn more about ‘recipes’ used to embalm the dead
- These included materials from far-flung parts of the world, meaning Egyptians went to great lengths to make their mummies ‘as perfect as they could possibly be’
For thousands of years, ancient Egyptians mummified their dead in the search for eternal life. Now, researchers have used chemistry and an unusual collection of jars to figure out how they did it.
Their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is based on a rare archaeological find: an embalming workshop with a trove of pottery around 2,500 years old. Many jars from the site were still inscribed with instructions like “to wash” or “to put on his head”.
By matching the writing on the outside the vessels with the chemical traces inside, researchers uncovered new details about the “recipes” that helped preserve bodies for thousands of years.
“It’s like a time machine, really,” said Joann Fletcher, an archaeologist at University of York who was not involved with the study. “It’s allowed us to not quite see over the shoulders of the ancient embalmers, but probably as close as we’ll ever get.”
Those recipes showed that embalmers had deep knowledge about what substances would help preserve their dead, said Fletcher, whose partner was a co-author on the study. And they included materials from far-flung parts of the world – meaning Egyptians went to great lengths to make their mummies “as perfect as they could possibly be”.