Mummification technology has a life of nearly 6 millennia

A new study indicates that embalming in Egypt may start 1,500 years earlier than what we previously thought, ie nearly 6,000 years ago.

>>>Learn how to marinate pet carcasses in ancient Egyptian style

The study was conducted by a research team at Macquarie University, Australia; York University and Oxford University, England pushed back knowledge of the time when Egyptian mummification appeared at least a millennium, according to Natureworldnews.

Modern theory shows that humans began to mummify around 2,200 BC, in China from 2000-1600 BC.

Experts are examining the coffin containing the mummy of the king Nekhet-ISET-aru.(Photo: ReutersVivek Prakash)

But according to the new research results, the scientific community discovered that people use a variety of herbs and towels wrapped in the dead in the earliest recorded cemetery in Mostagedda, Upper Egypt region. Pieces of cloth wrapped in mummies were identified in the years 3,700 BC.

'Over the past decade, I have been intrigued by the mystery of embalming and covering bodies in the new stone cemetery in Badari and Mostagedda, Egypt,' said Dr. Jana Jones from Macquarie University, Australia. .

By using mass spectrometry and pyrolysis to analyze compounds in mummy shells, the team found antibacterial agents used to preserve mummies. Raw materials for embalming include turpentine, a plant that produces aroma, wax, vegetable oil or animal fat.

'The antibacterial properties of some components of tissue mummification and preservation lead us to the conclusion that these are the original forms of embalming and later the embalming form of Pharaohs' kings , Dr. Stephen Buckley at York University said.

Buckey designed the experiment and conducted chemical studies on this issue. The research results are published in PLoS ONE magazine.