Making the Mummies of Egypt Involved a Lot More Than We Knew
By Ariana Perez-Castells, Feb. 1, 2023, WSJ

The ancient embalming facility was discovered by the late Dr. Ramadan B. Hussein and co-author of the paper, during an excavation project that started in 2016. The whole structure is believed to be from around 664-525 B.C.

Vessels discovered at the site are inscribed with Hieratic and Demotic texts, scripts that were used progressively throughout time in Egypt, giving instructions such as “to put on his head,” “bandage or embalm with it,” “to wash,” almost
providing a recipe in the mummification process. Researchers were able to use inscriptions on some vessels to match the name with the organic material analyzed.

Dr. Ikram theorizes that the initial stages of the mummification might have occurred in an aboveground area of the structure where the bodies were dried out. Then, the bodies may have been moved to a subterranean embalming workshop about 13 meters
underground where the organic mixtures were applied on the body and prayers were read, away from predators such as dogs or jackals. Finally, the embalmed body would have to leave the chamber, travel aboveground where funeral rites might have been
performed with a priest and mourners, and then make its way down to a burial chamber even deeper underground.

Previously, insight into the mummification process had been thanks to the analysis of samples of the mummies themselves such as embalming materials, bandages and the bodies, said Dr. Ikram. Classical Egyptian texts and works written by Greek authors
Herodotus and Diodorus have also allowed experts to gather clues about embalming, according to the study.

Researchers analyzed the materials through a German-Egyptian collaboration with the Univ. of Tübingen and the Ludwig Maximilian Univ. of Munich, and the National Research Centre of Cairo.

Maxime Rageot, co-author of the study and postdoc researcher in biomolecular archaeology at the Univ. of Tübingen, used a method of chemical testing called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze the substances with a team at the National
Research Centre of Cairo.

To carry out the study, they drilled into the vessels to extract samples, which were then examined by researchers, Dr. Rageot said. The powders are prepared with liquid chemical substances before being introduced into a gas chromatography-mass
spectrometry machine which turns the material into a gas and separates the different molecules in it. This allowed researchers to study the molecule structure to identify what substance they could have originated from.

Most of the embalming substances studied are believed to not have been available locally, but could have arrived from other parts of the Mediterranean. Some might have come from even farther. Elemi resin, for example, is produced from trees which grow in
rainforests in Africa and Asia, according to the study.

Although trade routes were already known, these materials have pushed our knowledge of the trade networks, Dr. Ikram said, because we didn’t know that these kinds of materials could have been imported to Egypt from so far away.

“The embalming of the dead connected the living around the globe,” said Dr. Philipp W. Stockhammer, co-author of the paper, and archaeologist at the Ludwig Maximilian Univ. of Munich in Germany.

The study revealed, too, that there was human manipulation of materials, heating, cooking or mixing certain substances used for embalming.

The study is an important step in collaboration among experts of different fields, according to Dr. Paul T. Nicholson, a professor of archaeology at Cardiff University, in Cardiff, Wales, who wasn’t involved in the study. He noted that this study is
part of an increasing combination of archaeological science and Egyptology working “hand in hand,” instead of having them exist separately.

“It is good to see the combination of written evidence, archaeological evidence and archaeological science all put together,” he said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ancient-egyptian-vessels-reveal-secrets-of-how-mummies-were-made-11675267810

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