In an embalming workshop dating from 664–525 BC, archaeologists discovered dozens of ceramic vessels used in the embalming process, many of which were labeled with the ingredients they contained and their use.
Labeled jars found in a 2,500-year-old embalming lab have revealed the plant and animal extracts used to preserve Egyptian mummies in ancient times — including ingredients from hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away from where the lab was housed.
Chemical analysis of the contents of the pots has shown complex mixtures of botanicals, resins and other substances with some of these plants growing as far away as, for example, substances originating in Southeast Asia.
The discovery was reported in a study published on February 1 in Nature1.
In the past, knowledge of the embalming process came from two main sources: historical texts and chemical analyzes of the mummies themselves.
But piecing together the existing information to fully understand the process on the bodies has proven difficult, says Salima Ikram, an archaeologist and mummy specialist at the American University in Cairo.
“We may read the name of a substance in a description and not be able to tell what material it is, in the present day, unless there are hieroglyphics indicating that it is oil or resin.”
But that is now changing as in the underground embalming workshop discovered in 2016 at Saqqara, which dates from 664–525 BC, archaeologists discovered dozens of ceramic vessels used in the embalming process, many of which were labeled with the ingredients they contain and their use.
“This is the first time we have seen jars with labels of the contents,” says Ikram.
The laboratory even includes an ancient Egyptian burial site that was used from 2900 BC. or earlier.
The site includes burial chambers and it is likely that elite members of society were buried there, researchers say.
To determine the specific contents of the vases, an Egyptian-German team of experts analyzed the mixtures using a technique called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, at a National Research Center laboratory in Giza, Egypt.
This showed that the vessels contained substances previously associated with mummification, including extracts from juniper, cypress and cedar bushes, which grow in the eastern Mediterranean region.
The team also found tar from the Dead Sea, along with animal fats and beeswax, possibly of local origin.
But the researchers also identified two surprising ingredients: a resin called elemi, which comes from Canarium trees that grow in tropical forests in Asia and Africa, and another called dammar that comes from Shorea trees found in tropical forests in the south India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
“Egypt was poor in resources of many resinous substances, so many resins were sourced or traded from distant lands,” says Carl Heron, an archaeologist at the British Museum in London.
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