Ancient Egyptian Embalming Residues Analyzed

Scientists have unwrapped long-sought details of embalming practices that ancient Egyptians used to preserve dead bodies.

Clues came from analyses of chemical residue inside vessels from the only known Egyptian embalming workshop and nearby burial chambers. Mummification specialists who worked there concocted specific mixtures to embalm the head, wash the body, treat the liver and stomach, and prepare bandages that swathed the body, researchers report February 1 in Nature.

“Ancient Egyptian embalmers had extensive chemical knowledge and knew what substances to put on the skin to preserve it, even without knowing about bacteria and other microorganisms,” Philipp Stockhammer, an archaeologist at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, said at a January 31 news conference.

The findings come courtesy of chemical residue inside 31 vessels found in an Egyptian embalming workshop and four vessels discovered in an adjacent pair of burial chambers. Writing on workshop vessels named embalming substances, provided embalming instructions (such as “to put on his head”) or both. All the artifacts — dating from Egypt’s 26th dynasty which rose to power between 664 B.C. and 525 B.C. — were excavated at a cemetery site called Saqqara in 2016. Archaeologist and study coauthor Ramadan Hussein, who died in 2022, led that project.

Newfound mummy embalming mixtures

Five of the vessels had the label antiu. The substance was thought to have been a fragrant resin called myrrh. The antiu at Saqqara, however, consisted of oil or tar from cedar and juniper or cypress trees mixed with animal fats. Writing on these jars indicates that antiu could have been used alone or combined with another substance called sefet.

Three vessels from the embalming workshop bore the label sefet, which researchers have usually described as an unidentified oil. At Saqqara, sefet was a scented, fat-based ointment with added ingredients from plants. Two sefet pots contained animal fats mixed with oil or tar from juniper or cypress trees. A third container held animal fats and elemi, a fragrant resin from tropical trees.

Clarification of the ingredients in antiu and sefet at Saqqara “takes mummification studies further than before,” says Egyptologist Bob Brier of Long Island University in Brookville, N.Y., who was not part of the research.

Egyptians may have started mummifying their dead as early as 6,330 years ago (SN: 8/18/14). Mummification procedures and rituals focused on keeping the body fresh so the deceased could enter what was believed to be an eternal afterlife.

Embalming and mummification procedures likely changed over time, says team member Maxime Rageot, a biomolecular archaeologist also at Ludwig Maximilians University. Embalmers’ mixtures at Saqqara may not correspond, say, to those used around 700 years earlier for King Tutankhamun (SN: 11/2/22).

Mummy embalming instructions

Outside surfaces of other vessels from the Saqqara embalming workshop and burial chambers sported labels and, in some cases, instructions for treatment of the head, preparation of linen mummy bandages, washing the body and treating the liver and stomach. Inscriptions on one jar referred to an administrator who performed embalming procedures, mainly on the head.

Chemical residue inside these pots consisted of mixtures specific to each embalming procedure. Ingredients included oils or tars of cedar and juniper or cypress trees, pistachio resin, castor oil, animal fats, heated beeswax, bitumen (a dense, oily substance), elemi and a resin called dammar.

Most of those substances have been identified in earlier studies of chemical residues from Egyptian mummies and embalming vessels in individual tombs, says Egyptologist Margaret Serpico of University College London. But elemi and dammar resins have not previously been linked to ancient Egyptian embalming practices and are “highly unexpected,” notes Serpico, who did not participate in the new study.

Elemi was an ingredient in the workshop mixtures used to treat the head, the liver and bandages wrapped around the body. Chemical signs of dammar appeared in a vessel from one of the burial chambers that included remnants of a range of substances, indicating that the container had been used to blend several different mixtures, the researchers say.

Specific properties of elemi and dammar that aided in preserving dead bodies have yet to be investigated, Stockhammer said.

A far-flung trade network for mummy embalming ingredients

Elemi resin reached Egypt from tropical parts of Africa or Southeast Asia, while dammar originated in Southeast Asia or Indonesia, Rageot says. Other embalming substances detected at Saqqara came from Southwest Asia and parts of southern Europe and northern Africa bordering the Mediterranean Sea. These findings provide the first evidence that ancient Egyptian embalmers depended on substances transported across vast trade networks.

Egyptian embalmers at Saqqara took advantage of a trade network that already connected Egypt to sites in Southeast Asia, Stockhammer said. Other Mediterranean and Asian societies also engaged in long-distance trade during ancient Egypt’s heyday (SN: 1/9/23).

It’s no surprise that ancient Egyptians imported embalming ingredients from distant lands, Brier says. “They were great traders, had limited [local] wood products and really wanted these substances to achieve immortality.”

Evidence of Egypt’s Great Revolt Uncovered

Rare evidence of a decades-long rebellion against Greek-Macedonian rule, mentioned in the Rosetta Stone, has been found in an ancient Egyptian city.

Excavations at Tell Timai, ancient Thmouis, 102km north of Cairo, revealed extensive destruction that occurred during the Great Revolt, which happened from 207 to 184 BC.

“Archaeological evidence from the [revolt] is quite rare,” says Jay Silverstein of Nottingham Trent University, UK, one of the lead authors of the paper published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.

“There are of course a number of decrees and inscriptions, like the Rosetta Stone, some historical accounts, and a few papyri with indirect references, but when it comes to finding the locations where the sword meets the bone, as far as I can tell, this is the first that has been recognized.”

Over the course of several years, the team uncovered the remains of burned buildings, weapons, stones thrown by a siege engine, coins hidden beneath the floor of a house, a broken divine statue near a temple, and unburied bodies strewn among the ruins or dumped in mounds of rubble and refuse.

The skeleton of one young man was discovered with his legs sticking out of a large kiln, where he had perhaps hoped to hide from his attackers.

A man in his 50s, whose body displayed earlier healed wounds, appears to have died defending himself. He may have decomposed sitting upright.

By examining the pottery and coins, the team dated the destruction to the Great Revolt, when the Egyptians tried, but failed, to liberate themselves from Ptolemaic rule—the line of Greek-Macedonian kings that began after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and ended with the famous Cleopatra VII.

“We have opened a new door into our understanding of Hellenistic colonialism, indigenous resistance, and the mechanisms of control including the brutality of the Macedonian dynasty’s rule of Egypt,” says Silverstein.

“Many other cities suffered a similar fate to that of Thmouis and I hope that this discovery will help broaden the scope of our archaeological understanding of these events.”

The discovery made Silverstein reconsider how decisive the events of the rebellion were in the development of the Western world.

“Hellenistic Egypt played a crucial role in the trajectory of history including its role as a crucible of Christianity and a bulwark of Roman imperial power. Had the Egyptians retaken their land from the Greek occupiers, I suspect the world would look significantly different today.”

Saqqara Secrets: A Book Of The Dead Was Found Near Step Pyramid

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a 52-foot-long (16 meters) papyrus containing sections from the Book of the Dead. The more than 2,000-year-old document was found within a coffin in a tomb south of the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. 

There are many texts from The Book of the Dead, and analysis of the new finding may shed light on ancient Egyptian funerary traditions.

Conservation work is already complete, and the papyrus is being translated into Arabic, according to a translated statement, which was released in conjunction with an event marking Egyptian Archaeologists Day on Jan. 14.

This is the first full papyrus to be uncovered at Saqqara in more than 100 years, Mostafa Waziry, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said, according to the statement. 

The Step Pyramid of Djoser was constructed during the reign of the pharaoh Djoser (ruled circa 2630 B.C. to 2611 B.C.) and was the first pyramid the Egyptians built.

The area around the step pyramid was used for burials for millennia. Indeed, the coffin that housed the newfound papyrus dates to the Late Period (circa 712 B.C. to 332 B.C.), Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of Antiquities, told Live Science in an email. Information about who owned the papyrus and its precise date will be announced soon, Hawass said. 

The Book of the Dead is a modern-day name given to a series of texts the Egyptians believed would help the dead navigate the underworld, among other purposes. They were widely used during the New Kingdom (circa 1550 B.C. to 1070 B.C.).

While 52 feet is lengthy, there are other examples of Book of the Dead papyri of that length or longer. “There are many manuscripts that would have been similar in length, but papyrus manuscripts of ancient Egyptian religious texts can vary quite dramatically in length,” Foy Scalf, the head of research archives at the University of Chicago, told Live Science in an email. Scalf, who was not involved in the latest discovery but holds a doctorate in Egyptology, noted that there are Book of the Dead scrolls that measure over 98 feet (30 m) long. 

Second papyrus

This appears to be the second papyrus containing texts from the Book of the Dead that has been found at Saqqara in the past year. In 2022, a 13-foot-long (4 m) fragmentary papyrus containing texts from the Book of the Dead was found at Saqqara in a burial shaft near the pyramid of the pharaoh Teti (reigned circa 2323 B.C. to 2291 B.C.). It had the name of its owner, a man named “Pwkhaef,” written on it. 

Despite being buried near pharaoh Teti’s pyramid, Pwkhaef lived centuries after the ruler.

The burial shafts where this papyrus was found date to the 18th and 19th dynasties of Egypt (1550 B.C. to 1186 B.C.). But the practice of being buried next to the pyramid of a former ruler was popular in Egypt at the time.

The discovery was made by a team of Egyptian archaeologists from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which has yet to release images of the ancient document. According to the statement, the papyrus will soon go on display in an Egyptian museum.

Roman-Era Residential Area Revealed in Luxor

Archaeologists have discovered a residential area in Luxor dating to the time when the Roman Empire ruled Egypt. 

A team of archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities found a number of residential buildings, along with workshops and pigeon towers (where pigeons could be raised for eating), according to a ministry statement, which noted that this is the “first complete residential city” from the Roman Empire era found in east Luxor.

A variety of artifacts were also uncovered, including pottery, bells, grinding tools (often used for food preparation), and Roman coins made of copper and bronze.

The residential area is close to Luxor Temple, a large religious center built during the reigns of several pharaohs before the Roman Empire, including Amenhotep III, Ramesses II and Tutankhamun. But the residential area dates to much later, during the second and third centuries A.D. During this time, Egypt was a Roman province and Roman emperors were sometimes depicted as pharaohs. 

The team found that when the Romans took over Luxor, they started raising pigeons by erecting pigeon towers containing pots that the pigeons could use as nests, the statement said. Pigeons are the descendants of rock doves (Columba livia), which breed on rocky, coastal cliffs; but towers can mimic cliff conditions, making the birds feel right at home.

Live Science contacted a number of scholars who were not involved with the research to get their thoughts. 

Susanna McFadden, a professor of art history at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in Greco-Roman art, called the finds “exciting news.” She is curious to learn how the team determined that the remains dated to the second and third centuries A.D. 

She also wonders if there could be a relationship between this settlement and a military camp that was active in the area during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian (reign circa 284 to 305). “It stands to reason that a residential area servicing the camp would have grown up outside the walls,” McFadden told Live Science in an email. 

Another scholar noted that this Roman residential area is not an entirely new find. The residential area in Luxor has “been known for a long time,” Jacek Kościuk, professor emeritus at the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology in Poland, told Live Science in an email. 

Kościuk participated in excavations of Roman residential remains at Luxor that were carried out by an Egyptian-German team in the early 1980s. He sent Live Science two papers, published in 2011 in the journal Bulletin de la Société d’Archéologie Copte (Bulletin of the Coptic Archaeological Society), noting that while the 1980s team was able to survey only a small part of the settlement, they found the remains of Roman houses and baths. 

While the existence of the Roman residential area was already known, the recent excavations unearthed a large portion of it, which may shed new light on what Luxor was like in Roman times.

The new finds have “the potential to elucidate some critical research questions about Roman-era [Luxor], if the analysis is done carefully,” McFadden said. 

Egypt discovers 4,300-year-old tombs in the ancient burial ground

Egypt on Thursday said it uncovered several 4,300-year-old tombs in Saqqara as it continues a series of discoveries in the ancient burial ground.

The tombs date back to the Fifth and Sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 B.C.), officials said in Saqqara, which lies some 19 miles south of Cairo.

Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, who led the team that made the discovery in Saqqara’s Gisr Al-Mudir area, said “12 beautifully carved statues” were also found as well as two deep burial shafts, one of which includes what he described as possibly the “most complete mummy found in Egypt to date.”

“The most important tomb belongs to Khnumdjedef, an inspector of the officials, a supervisor of the nobles, and a priest in the pyramid complex of Unas, the last king of the fifth dynasty. The tomb is decorated with scenes of daily life,” Hawass said.

“The second largest tomb belonged to Meri, who held many important titles, such as keeper of the secrets and assistant of the great leader of the palace.”

Another tomb featured a handful of statues of unidentified individuals, including two couples.

Hawass said the main highlight was the uncovering of a 15-meter-deep burial shaft where a “large rectangular limestone sarcophagus” was found at its bottom.

The mummy of a man called Hekashepes was found inside, he revealed. It is covered with gold leaf.

“This mummy may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt to date,” Hawass added.

Wooden and stone statues were also uncovered in another 10-meter-deep shaft, as was a stone sarcophagus that included a mummy of a man called Fetek, according to the inscriptions found on the coffin.

Egypt hopes a string of discoveries will help revive its ailing tourism industry, a key source of hard currency.

Extensive excavation efforts in Saqqara in recent years have led to several high-profile archaeological discoveries, including the unearthing of a 4,400-year-old tomb of royal priest Wahtye in 2018 and the discovery of hundreds of mummified animals and statues a year later.

Egyptian Tomb Carving May Be Earliest Depiction Of Circumcision… Or Something Far More Painful

We humans have been messing with our willies for thousands of years, and while penis science has come a long way in that time, getting the snip in Ancient Egypt was apparently a rather crude affair.

Thought to represent the earliest ever depiction of a circumcision, a scene carved into a 4,300-year-old-tomb shows a male figure having his sphinx sculpted, although some scholars say the engraving may actually portray a considerably more excruciating procedure.

Located in Giza, the tomb of Ankhmahor belongs to a political advisor to King Teti of the Sixth Dynasty and has been dated to 2340 BCE.

Though there is no evidence to suggest that Ankhmahor was himself a physician, his crypt has been nicknamed the “doctor tomb” because of the various medical scenes carved on its walls.

The most famous of these is the circumcision scene, which has been the subject of multiple interpretations since its discovery by Victor Loret in 1897. Sliced into two sections, the scene shows two stages of an operation, though exactly what is going on is still up for debate.

On the left, a man is apparently being physically restrained by another man, while a third character chisels away at his artifact and says (in hieroglyphs) “hold him still. Don’t let him faint.”

On the right, however, the fella having his old geezer chopped is left unrestrained and tells the operator to “sever, indeed, thoroughly.” To this ballsy command, the guy holding the knife promises to “proceed gently”.

According to a recent analysis of the carving, the scene might portray two separate techniques for performing a circumcision.

The unfortunate chap on the left, the author says, could be having a trim without any painkillers, which might explain why he needs to be restrained and prevented from passing out.

Meanwhile, the surprisingly relaxed guy on the right may have received some sort of analgesic and is therefore in less discomfort.

“We do not have information about the nature of the material that was used to avoid struggling of the person who had the circumcision,” writes the author, who concludes that “it is possible that the ancient Egyptians had knowledge about local anesthetics.”

A separate interpretation holds that the right-hand side of the scene shows a young man acting tough while preparing to be circumcised, while the left-hand side depicts the same person on the verge of fainting during the procedure a few moments later.

Yet another reading of the scene proposes that the person on the left is actually having his penis rubbed with a stone. It has been suggested that the rock in question may be the so-called Stone of Memphis, which is made of carbonate of lime and has a painkilling effect when mixed with acid. Thus, it may be that the man on the left is actually the one receiving a local anesthetic.

Finally, and most disturbingly, the left-hand part of the scene might not be a circumcision at all, and could instead show a surgical treatment for a horrible condition called paraphimosis. This occurs when an infected foreskin swells up and retracts to below the head of the penis, cutting off blood flow and potentially leading to gangrene. 

This would certainly explain the extreme pain experienced by the patient on the left, while the circumcision depicted on the right could be seen as an instruction for preventing paraphimosis.

Quite the epitaph, you have to say.

Digital Scans Reveal Secrets of ‘Golden Boy’ Mummy

Incredibly detailed computed tomography (CT scans) of the so-called “Golden Boy” mummy from ancient Egypt have revealed a hidden trove of 49 amulets, many of which were made of gold.

The young mummy earned its nickname because of the dazzling display of wealth, which included a gilded head mask found in the mummy’s sarcophagus. Researchers think he was about 14 or 15 years old when he died because his wisdom teeth had not yet emerged.

The Golden Boy was originally unearthed in 1916 at a cemetery in southern Egypt and has been stored in the basement of The Egyptian Museum in Cairo ever since. The mummy had been “laid inside two coffins, an outer coffin with a Greek inscription and an inner wooden sarcophagus,” according to a statement.

While analyzing the scans, the researchers found that the dozens of amulets, comprised of 21 different shapes and sizes, were strategically placed on or inside his body. 

Those included “a two-finger amulet next to the [boy’s] uncircumcised penis, a golden heart scarab placed inside the thoracic cavity and a golden tongue inside the mouth,” according to the statement. 

The mummy was also wearing a pair of sandals, and a garland of ferns was draped across his body, according to the statement.

“This mummy is a showcase of Egyptian beliefs about death and the afterlife during the Ptolemaic period,” Sahar Saleem, the study’s lead author and a professor of radiology at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University in Egypt, told Live Science in an email.

While researchers aren’t sure of the mummy’s true identity, based on the grave goods alone, they think he was of high socioeconomic status.

The amulets served important roles in the afterlife.

“Ancient Egyptians believed in the power of amulets … and they were used for protection and for providing specific benefits for the living and the dead,” Saleem said. “In modern science, this is explained by energy.

Different materials, shapes and colors (e.g. crystals) provide energy with different wavelengths that could have [an] effect on the body. Amulets were used by ancient Egyptians in their lives. Embalmers placed amulets during mummification to vitalize the dead body.”

For example, the teenage mummy’s tongue was capped in gold “to enable the deceased to speak” and the sandals “were to enable the deceased to walk out of the tomb in the [afterlife],” Saleem said.

However, one amulet in particular stood out to Saleem: the golden heart scarab placed inside the torso cavity. She wound up creating a replica of it using a 3D printer.

“It was really amazing especially after I 3D printed [it] and was able to hold it in my hands,” Saleem said. “There were engraved marks on the back that could represent the inscriptions and spells the priests wrote to protect the boy during his journey. Scarabs symbolize rebirth in ancient Egyptians and [were] in the form of a discoid (disc-shaped) beetle.”

She added that the heart scarab measured about 1.5 inches (4 centimeters) and was inscribed with verses from “The Book of the Dead,” an important ancient Egyptian text that helped guide the deceased in the afterlife. 

“It was very important in the afterlife during judging the deceased and weighing of the heart against the feather of Maat (the goddess of truth),” Saleem said. “The heart scarab silenced the heart [on] judgement day so not to bear witness against the deceased.

A heart scarab was placed inside the torso cavity during mummification to substitute for the heart if the body was ever deprived [of] this important organ for any reason.”

The findings were published Jan. 24 in the journal Frontiers of Medicine.

Scientists discover 43 million-year-old fossil of a four-legged whale

Scientists have discovered the 43 million‮-‬year-old‮ ‬fossil of a previously unknown four-legged whale species, which helps trace the transition of whales from land to sea.

The newly discovered amphibious whale was found in Egypt and belongs to the Protocetidae, a group of extinct whales that falls in the middle of that transition, say the team of researchers.

Its fossil was unearthed from the middle Eocene rocks in Egypt’s Western Desert – an area once covered by sea that has provided an array of discoveries showing the evolution of whales. It was then studied at Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Centre (MUVP).

The whale, named Phiomicetus anubis, had an estimated body length of around three metres and a body mass of about 600 kg, and was likely a top predator. Its partial skeleton revealed it to be the most primitive protocetid whale known in Africa.

“Phiomicetus anubis is a key new whale species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African paleontology,” said Abdullah Gohar of MUVP, lead author of the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Despite recent fossil discoveries, the big picture of early whale evolution in Africa has largely remained a mystery, say the researchers. More work in the region has the potential to reveal new details about the evolutionary transition from amphibious to fully aquatic whales.

The new whale has raised questions about ancient ecosystems and pointed research towards questions about the origin and coexistence of ancient whales in Egypt.

Are whales endangered?

Whales are at the top of the food chain and play an important role in the overall health of our oceans. In particular, they play a significant role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere.

Each whale sequesters a huge amount of CO2 in their lifetime. Because they store tonnes of carbon dioxide in their bodies, they are key to mitigating the climate crisis.

But six out of the 13 great whale species are classified as endangered or vulnerable, according to WWF.

Threats include habitat degradation, contaminants, climate and ecosystem change, disturbance from whale watching activities, noise from industrial activities, illegal whaling, reduced prey abundance due to overfishing, and oil spills.

It is crucial that we continue to have a healthy, dynamic population of these top predators, as if whales are threatened, it’s bad news for us all.