Researchers Develop Better Idea of How Egyptians Made Mummies

Researchers Develop Better Idea of How Egyptians Made Mummies

For thousands of years, ancient Egyptians preserved their dead in a process known as mummification. Now, researchers have used chemistry and an unusual collection of containers to figure out how they did it.

The study, published recently in Nature, is based on a rare find: An embalming² workshop with pottery³ that is around 2,500 years old. Many containers from the site still had instructions written on them like "to wash" or "to put on his head."

By matching the writing on the outside of the containers with the chemical traces⁴ inside, researchers discovered new details about how ancient Egyptians preserved bodies for thousands of years.

Joann Fletcher of Britain's University of York was not involved with the study. Fletcher described the find as " like a time machine, really... It's allowed us to not quite see over the shoulders of the ancient embalmers, but probably as close as we'll ever get."

The workshop is at the famous burial grounds of Saqqara. It was found in 2016 by study author Ramadan Hussein, who passed away last year.

Parts of the workshop sit above the surface, but a narrow area goes down to an embalming room and burial area underground, where the containers were discovered.

It was in rooms like these where the last part of the embalming process took place, said Salima Ikram of The American University in Cairo. Ikram was not involved with the study. After drying out the body with salts, which probably took place above ground, embalmers would then take the bodies below.

Experts already had some clues about what substances were used in those final steps, mainly from testing individual mummies and looking at written texts. But a lot of information remained unclear, said senior author Philipp Stockhammer of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany.

The new finds helped break the case.

Take the word "antiu," which shows up in a lot of Egyptian texts but did not have a direct translation, Stockhammer said. In the new study, scientists found that several containers with the word "antiu" contained a mixture of different substances — including animal fat, cedar⁶ oil and juniper resin⁷.

These substances, along with others found in the containers, have important properties that would help preserve the mummies, said lead author Maxime Rageot of Germany's University of Tubingen.

Plant oils could fight off bacteria and fungi⁸, while also improving the smell. Hard materials like beeswax, used on the stomach and skin, could help keep out water and seal the pores⁹.

Some of the substances came from very far away — like dammar and elemi, types of resin that come from Southeast Asia. These results show that ancient Egyptians would trade far and wide to get the best materials, the authors said.

"It's interesting to see the complexity," Stockhammer said. "Having this global network on the one hand, having all this chemical knowledge on the other side."

Ikram said an important next step for the research will be to test different parts of mummies to see if the same substances show up. And these embalming instructions were probably not always the same — they changed over time and differed between workshops.

Still, the study gives a basis for understanding the past, and can bring us closer to people who lived long ago, she said.

"The ancient Egyptians have been separated from us through time and space, yet we still have this connection," Ikram said. "Human beings all throughout history have been scared of death."

Words in This Story

preserve – v. to keep (something) safe from harm or loss

embalm¹ – v. to treat (a dead body) with special chemicals to keep it from decaying¹⁰

trace⁵ -- n. a small amount of something

allow -- v. to make it possible for someone or something to have or do something

author – n. a person who has made an important contribution to a journal¹¹ article

clue -- n. something that helps a person find something, understand something, or solve a mystery or puzzle

resin – n. a yellow or brown sticky¹² substance that comes from some trees and that is used to make various products

global -- adj.

1 embalm   

v.保存（尸体）不腐

参考例句：

• The Egyptians used to embalm the bodies of their dead kings and queens.埃及人以前用药物保存国王和王后的尸体。
• His body was embalmed.他的尸体进行了防腐处理。

2 embalming   

v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的现在分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气

参考例句：

• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming. 尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They were experts at preserving the bodies of the dead by embalming them with special lotions. 他们具有采用特种药物洗剂防止尸体腐烂的专门知识。 来自辞典例句

3 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。

4 traces   

踪迹( trace的名词复数 )； [电子学]示踪； 挽绳

参考例句：

• infinitesimal traces of poison 微量毒素
• vestigial traces of an earlier culture 早期文化的遗迹

5 trace   

n.痕迹，踪迹，微量；vt.追踪，找出根源，描绘；vi.追踪

参考例句：

• There isn't a trace of a smile on her face.她脸上没有一丝笑容。
• We have lost all trace of him.我们找不到他的踪迹。

6 cedar   

n.雪松，香柏(木)

参考例句：

• The cedar was about five feet high and very shapely.那棵雪松约有五尺高,风姿优美。
• She struck the snow from the branches of an old cedar with gray lichen.她把长有灰色地衣的老雪松树枝上的雪打了下来。

7 resin   

n.树脂，松香，树脂制品；vt.涂树脂

参考例句：

• This allyl type resin is a highly transparent, colourless material.这种烯丙基型的树脂是一种高度透明的、无色材料。
• This is referred to as a thixotropic property of the resin.这种特性叫做树脂的触变性。

8 fungi   

n.真菌，霉菌

参考例句：

• Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
• The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。

9 pores   

（皮肤上的）毛孔，微孔( pore的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The pores of your body secrete sweat. 身上的毛孔分泌汗液。
• Sweat exudes through the pores. 汗从毛孔中渗出。

10 decaying   

v.（使）腐烂，腐朽( decay的现在分词 )；衰败，衰退，衰落

参考例句：

• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

11 journal   

n.日志，日记；议事录；日记帐；杂志，定期刊物

参考例句：

• He kept a journal during his visit to Japan.他在访问日本期间坚持记日记。
• He got a job as editor of a trade journal.他找到了一份当商业杂志编辑的工作。

12 sticky   

adj.粘的，闷热的，困难的，令人不满意的

参考例句：

• This paste is not sticky enough.这糨糊不黏。
• Here is a sticky business!这事真难办！