Scientific Breakthroughs in Understanding Mummification.
The groups research centered on the mummification compounds used to embalm the worthy woman Senetnay in the 18th dynasty, circa 1450 BCE. The researchers utilized innovative analytical methods– including Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, High-Temperature Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, and Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry– to rebuild the substances that helped to scent and maintain Senetnay for eternity.
Dammar resin, a component in embalming, beside a bottle of the ancient scent recreated by perfumer Carole Calvez based upon clinical analyses. Credit: Barbara Huber.
” We examined balm residues discovered in 2 canopic containers from the mummification equipment of Senetnay that were excavated over a century ago by Howard Carter from Tomb KV42 in the Valley of the Kings,” says Huber. Today, the jars are housed in the Museum August Kestner in Hannover, Germany. The group found that the balms consisted of a mix of beeswax, plant oil, fats, bitumen, Pinaceae resins (more than likely larch resin), a balsamic compound, and dammar or Pistacia tree resin.
Historic Insights and Trade Implications.
” These complex and varied ingredients, special to this early period, provide an unique understanding of the advanced mummification practices and Egypts far-reaching trade routes,” says Christian E. Loeben, Egyptologist and manager at the Museum August Kestner.
” Our approaches were likewise able to offer crucial insights into balm components for which there is limited information in contemporary ancient Egyptian textual sources,” observes Huber.
Perfumer Carole Calvez in the procedure of recreating the fragrance of eternity. Credit: Carole Calvez.
The work likewise highlights the trade connections of the Egyptians in the 2nd millennium BCE. “The ingredients in the balm make it clear that the ancient Egyptians were sourcing products from beyond their world from an early date,” says Prof. Nicole Boivin, senior researcher on the project. “The number of imported components in her balm likewise highlights Senetnays significance as a crucial member of the pharaohs inner circle.”.
Among those imported ingredients were larch tree resin, which likely came from the northern Mediterranean, and potentially dammars, which come specifically from trees in Southeast Asian tropical forests. If the existence of dammar resin is validated, as in balms just recently determined from Saqqara dating to the 1st millennium BCE, it would recommend that the ancient Egyptians had access to this Southeast Asian resin through long-distant trade practically a millennium earlier than previously understood.
Recreating and Exhibiting the Scent.
Working carefully with the French perfumer Carole Calvez and the sensory museologist Sofia Collette Ehrich, the team diligently recreated the fragrance based on their analytical findings.
” The fragrance of eternity represents more than just the aroma of the mummification process,” notes Huber. “It embodies the abundant cultural, historic, and spiritual significance of Ancient Egyptian mortuary practices.”.
In creating this odor for museum display, the team wants to help supply an immersive, multisensory experience to visitors, enabling them to link with the past in a distinctively olfactory method, while bringing the mystique of Ancient Egyptian mummification to the contemporary. Their innovative approach not just bridges a deep temporal divide, however likewise enables visually impaired individuals to take part more totally in the exhibition of Egypts past, making new research study results on ancient mummification accessible to a more comprehensive audience.
For more on this research study, see The Scent of the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Mummification Balm Ingredients.
Reference: “Biomolecular characterization of 3500-year-old ancient Egyptian mummification balms from the Valley of the Kings” by B. Huber, S. Hammann, C. E. Loeben, D. K. Jha, D. G. Vassão, T. Larsen, R. N. Spengler, D. Q. Fuller, P. Roberts, T. Devièse and N. Boivin, 31 August 2023, Scientific Reports.DOI: 10.1038/ s41598-023-39393-y.
Limestone Canopic Jar of the Egyptian girl Senetnay (c. 1450 BCE); Museum August Kestner, Hannover (Inv.-No. Credit: Museum August Kestner, Hannover; Photo: Christian Tepper (museum professional photographer).
Today, the jars are housed in the Museum August Kestner in Hannover, Germany. The scent of eternity represents more than simply the scent of the mummification process,” keeps in mind Huber. “It embodies the rich cultural, historic, and spiritual significance of Ancient Egyptian mortuary practices.”.
Limestone Canopic Jar of the Egyptian girl Senetnay (c. 1450 BCE); Museum August Kestner, Hannover (Inv.-No. 1935.200.1018). Credit: Museum August Kestner, Hannover; Photo: Christian Tepper (museum photographer).
Researchers recreated an ancient Egyptian mummification scent from 3500 years back, revealing insights into historical mummification practices and trade networks. Set to be exhibited at the Moesgaard Museum, this scent aims to transfer visitors back in time.
In an ingenious endeavor to create a sensory bridge to the ancient past, a group of researchers led by Barbara Huber of limit Planck Institute of Geoanthropology has recreated among the fragrances used in the mummification of an essential Egyptian lady more than 3500 years ago.
Created “the aroma of the eternity,” the ancient fragrance will exist at the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark in an approaching exhibit, using visitors a special sensory experience: to encounter firsthand an ambient smell from antiquity– and capture a whiff of the ancient Egyptian process of mummification.
