"To wash," reads the label of one bowl, while another says: "to make his odor pleasant". Helpfully, the vessels have labels on them. The substances had "antifungal, anti-bacterial properties" which helped "preserve human tissues and reduce unpleasant smells," the study's lead author, Maxime Rageot, told a press conference. Now a team of researchers from Germany's Tuebingen and Munich universities in collaboration with the National Research Centre in Cairo has found some answers by analysing the residue in 31 ceramic vessels found at the Saqqara mummification workshop.īy comparing the residue to containers found in adjacent tombs, they were able to identify which chemicals were used. Then the embalmers, accompanied by priests, washed the body and used a variety of substances to prevent it from decomposing.īut exactly how this was done has largely remained lost to time. It involved desiccating the body with natron salt, and evisceration - removing the lungs, stomach, intestines and liver. Inside the vessels, researchers detected tree resin from Asia, cedar oil from Lebanon and bitumen from the Dead Sea, showing that global trade helped embalmers source the very best ingredients from across the world.Īncient Egyptians developed a remarkably advanced process to embalm corpses, believing that if bodies were kept intact they would reach the afterlife. The exceptional collection of pottery, dating from around 664-525 BC, was found at the bottom of a 13-metre well at the Saqqara Necropolis south of Cairo in 2016.
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