Beeswax, cedar oil, juniper, bitumen, pistachio resin, damar gum and elemi resin: these are some of the Ingredients that made the mummies of ancient Egypt last forever. Blended into balms and ointments according to special recipes to treat the various parts of the deceased’s body, they were imported from all over the Mediterranean, tropical Africa and Southeast Asia. More than 2,600 years later they arise from a old lab from embalming discovered a Saqqara and going back to 26th Dynasty (664-525 BC): inside good 31 ceramic vessels with substance residues inscriptions contained therein with their names and instructions for use.
The vessels containing embalming substances discovered in an ancient laboratory at the Saqqara site (Source: Saqqara Saite Tombs Project, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. Photographer: M. Abdelghaffar)
The study of the finds that rewrites our understanding of the chemistry of mummification, is published in Nature by an international team including the University of Turin, led by the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the University of Tübingen in collaboration with the National Research Center in Cairo. “We have known the names of many of these embalming ingredients since ancient Egyptian writings were deciphered, but until now we could only guess which substances are behind each name,” comments Susanne Beck of the University of Tübingen.
Artist’s impression of embalming in ancient Egypt, in the presence of a priest (Source: Nikola Nevenov)
The discovery of the Saqqara Laboratory, which took place in 2016 near Pyramid of Unas, represented a turning point and gave archaeologists many surprises. For example, it was discovered that the substance the Egyptians called “antiu,” commonly translated myrrh, is actually a mixture of ingredients (such as cedar oil, juniper, and animal fats) that researchers were able to separate using techniques such as gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.
The archaeological site of Saqqara where the excavations were carried out (Source: Saqqara Saite Tombs Project, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. Photographer: S. Beck)
Comparison of the identified substances with the Labels on the containers determine for the first time exactly which ingredients were used to embalm certain parts of the body. Pistachio resin and castor oil, for example, were only used on the deceased’s head, while other mixtures were used to wash the body or to soften the skin.
“What really surprised us is that most of the substances are used for embalming it was not from Egypt“, says archaeologist Philipp Stockhammer from the University of Munich, who funded the research with a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). “Some ingredients have been imported from the Mediterranean and even tropical Africa and Southeast Asia.”
In addition to pistachio resin, cedar oil and bitumen (all presumably from the Levant), the researchers also found residues of damar and elemi resin: these two substances in particular show how it works business relationships They are globalized almost 3,000 years ago. “The Egyptian mummification probably played an important role in the emergence of the first global networks,” says Maxime Rageot from the University of Tübingen. “Thanks to all the inscriptions on the vases – so Stockhammer concludes – in the future we will be able to further decipher the vocabulary of ancient Egyptian chemistry that has not been sufficiently understood so far.”