The discovery of dozens of beakers and bowls in a mummification workshop has helped reveal how ancient Egyptians embalmed their dead, with some “surprising” ingredients imported from as far as Southeast Asia, a study said Wednesday.
The exceptional collection of pottery, dating from around 664-525BC, was found at the bottom of a 13-meter well at the Saqqara Necropolis south of Cairo in 2016.
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.
Photo: AFP
Ancient Egyptians developed a remarkably advanced process to embalm corpses, believing that if bodies were kept intact they would reach the afterlife.
The process took up to 70 days. It involved desiccating the body with natron salt, and evisceration — removing the lungs, stomach, intestines and liver. The brain also came out.
Then the embalmers, accompanied by priests, washed the body and used a variety of substances to prevent it from decomposing.
Photo: AFP
But exactly how this was done has largely remained lost to time.
Now a team of researchers from Germany’s Tuebingen and Munich universities in collaboration with the National Research Center in Cairo has found some answers by analyzing the residue in 31 ceramic vessels found at the Saqqara mummification workshop.
By comparing the residue to containers found in adjacent tombs, they were able to identify which chemicals were used.
‘TO MAKE THIS ODOR PLEASANT’
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.
Helpfully, the vessels have labels on them. “To wash,” reads the label of one bowl, while another says: “to make his odor pleasant.”
The head received the most care with three different concoctions — one of which was labeled “to put on his head.”
“We have known the names of many of these embalming ingredients since ancient Egyptian writings were deciphered,” Egyptologist Susanne Beck said in a statement from Tuebingen University.
“But until now, we could only guess at what substances were behind each name.”
The labels also helped Egyptologists clear up some confusion about the names of some of the substances.
The scant details we have about the mummification process mostly comes from ancient papyrus, with Greek authors such as Herodotus often filling in gaps.
By identifying the residue in their new bowls, the researchers found that the word antiu, which has long been translated as myrrh or frankincense, can actually be a mixture of numerous different ingredients. In Saqqara, the bowl labeled antiu was a blend of cedar oil, juniper or cypress oil and animal fats.
EMBALMING DROVE ‘GLOBALIZATION’
The discovery showed the ancient Egyptians had built up “enormous knowledge accumulated through centuries of embalming,” said Philipp Stockhammer of Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology.
For example, they knew that if the body was taken out of the natron salt, then it was in danger of being immediately “colonized by microbes that would eat up the skin,” he said.
Stockhammer said “one of the most surprising findings” was the presence of resins, such as dammar and elemi, which likely came from tropical forests in Southeast Asia, as well as signs of Pistacia, juniper, cypress and olive trees from the Mediterranean.
The diversity of substances “shows us that the industry of embalming” drove momentum for “globalization,” Stockhammer said.
It also shows that “Egyptian embalmers were very interested to experiment and get access to other resins and tars with interesting properties,” he added.
The embalmers are believed to have taken advantage of a trade route that came to Egypt through present-day Indonesia, India, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea from around 2000 BC.
The Saqqara excavation was led by Ramadan Hussein, a Tuebingen University archaeologist, who died last year before the research was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
President William Lai’s (賴清德) March 13 national security speech marked a turning point. He signaled that the government was finally getting serious about a whole-of-society approach to defending the nation. The presidential office summarized his speech succinctly: “President Lai introduced 17 major strategies to respond to five major national security and united front threats Taiwan now faces: China’s threat to national sovereignty, its threats from infiltration and espionage activities targeting Taiwan’s military, its threats aimed at obscuring the national identity of the people of Taiwan, its threats from united front infiltration into Taiwanese society through cross-strait exchanges, and its threats from
Despite the intense sunshine, we were hardly breaking a sweat as we cruised along the flat, dedicated bike lane, well protected from the heat by a canopy of trees. The electric assist on the bikes likely made a difference, too. Far removed from the bustle and noise of the Taichung traffic, we admired the serene rural scenery, making our way over rivers, alongside rice paddies and through pear orchards. Our route for the day covered two bike paths that connect in Fengyuan District (豐原) and are best done together. The Hou-Feng Bike Path (后豐鐵馬道) runs southward from Houli District (后里) while the
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
RSS