Science revives balms to mummify Egyptian nobility

The members of the egyptian nobility They were mummified with highly complex balms and formulated with elements from distant regions, according to a scientific team that has also reproduced one of them for exhibition in museums.

Larch resin, pistacia, coumarin and, possibly, dammar, are some elements found in two canopic jars (for preserving viscera) that were used to contain the lungs and liver of the noble Senetnay, who lived in Egypt in the 18th dynasty, around the 1,450 a. C., and that she was a wet nurse to Pharaoh Amenhotep II.

The organs of this noblewoman were mummified and kept in four containers in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, where they were found by Howard Carter in 1900 and two of them are kept in the August Kestner Museum in Hannover (Germany).

The team of scientists, coordinated by Barbara Huber from the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology (Germany), analyzed the remains of substances found in these canopic jars.

The study reveals that the type of ingredients used in mummification varied from the social status of the deceased.

Based on a review of previous analyzes of mummification salves, the authors found that those applied to Senetnay’s organs were relatively complex compared to others from the same period, and suggest that most of the possible components would likely have been imported from places located out of Egypt.

The balms tested contained beeswax, vegetable oils, animal fats, bitumen and resins from the coniferous family, which includes pine and larch.

In addition, the presence of coumarin, which has a vanilla-like aroma and is found in a wide range of plants, such as cinnamon and pea plants, was also identified, as well as benzoic acid, which occurs in fragrant resins and gums obtained from various types of trees and shrubs.

“These complex and diverse ingredients, unique to this early era, offer novel insight into the sophisticated mummification practices and extensive trade routes of Egypt”, according to Christian Loeben, curator at the August Kestner Museum.

Although the composition of the balms in both vessels appeared very similar, the team identified differences, which could indicate that the compositions varied depending on which organ they were meant to preserve. Thus, the container intended to preserve the lungs had two substances that were not in the other.

One of those ingredients is larixol, which is found in larch resin, and another fragrant resin that they suggest is dammar, which is obtained from trees that grow in India and Southeast Asia, or a resin obtained from Pistacia trees, part of the cashew family.

The team also decided to recreate one of those aromas used in mummification, in what Max Planck defines, in a statement, as “an innovative effort to create a sensory bridge with the ancient past”.

To do this, they collaborated with French perfumer Carole Calvez and sensory museologist Sofia Collette Ehrich, to recreate the scent based on their analytical findings.

That smell called “the scent of eternity”, will be presented at the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark in a forthcoming exhibition that will offer visitors a unique sensory experience: experiencing first-hand an ambient odor of antiquity and perceiving that of ancient Egypt.

this scent “represents more than just the scent of the mummification process”Huber pointed out, for whom that smell “embodies the rich cultural, historical, and spiritual significance of the mortuary practices of the Ancient Egypt”.

The researchers used advanced analytical techniques, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, to reconstruct the substances that helped preserve and perfume Senetnay.

The study also highlights the trade connections of the Egyptians in the second millennium BC, as the balm’s ingredients make it clear that the ancient Egyptians sourced materials from outside their realm from an early date, said Nicole Boivin, a senior researcher at the project.

Among those imported ingredients were larch resin, which probably came from the northern Mediterranean, and possibly dammar, which comes exclusively from trees in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.

Source: EFE