Another amazing thing about ancient Egyptian civilization

Not until the time when Egyptian Pharaohs learned to embalm. The recipe for preserving mummies dates back 1,500 years.

Dr. Jana Jones, Ancient History Department, Macquarie University, Australia and colleagues have published the results of a group analysis of a prehistoric Egyptian body.

The mummy, aged between 3,700 and 3,500 BC, is kept in the museum in Turin, Italy, from 1901 to the present and remains in its original state. So far, people still think that by the time of the pharaohs, people would embalm. However, the analysis results provide convincing evidence that the Egyptians had embalmed 1,500 years earlier.

Previously, it was thought that the body of this man was naturally dry due to being buried in dry and hot desert sand, but so far we can confirm that the body has been preserved.

Along with a number of other studies, this information tells us that the ancient Egyptians lived before pharaohs for about 1,500 years or more had knowledge of the process of preserving corpses and conducting interreligious religious ceremonies. concern about beliefs about the next life.

A few old clues

A number of previous studies have also analyzed the phenomenon of corpse before the funeral rite of prehistoric people in some parts of Central Egypt, who lived long before the pharaohs and had known some body preservation techniques .

Reports of these studies indicate that many prehistoric corpses (about 4,500 - 3,350 years BC) were excavated in Badari and Mostagedda, buried with small pockets containing sap from seeds.

The mummy is stored in a museum in Turin, Italy.

This suggests a perception that at that time people used sap as a primitive mummification. The sap here is taken from a number of tree species, namely resin, and is a preservative material, mixed into a mummified mixture.

The old studies did not have all the corpses for experimentation, but only pieces of linen used for embalming and were stored in British museums. Pieces of cloth are gifts of those who excavated and donated them directly to the museum and are the only surviving evidence proving that the corpses have been wrapped.

The team found the sap in the fabric. However, they did not have any specimens to expand the research until today, when they studied the corpses found in Turin.

Prepare for the next life

The principle of basic embalming of the ancient Egyptians is to preserve intact the dead to reincarnate in the next life. If unfortunately the person had a leg of a crocodile, he would be fitted with a wooden prosthesis for all parts.

The clothed bodies in prehistoric locations are often not considered carefully when excavated, because then in the nineteenth century the early twentieth people were only interested in artifacts buried with corpses. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that the Egyptians used the preserved aromatic waxes for the dead.

Like the British, the Italians also conducted excavations to retrieve the exhibit for their Museo Egizio museum. The most famous archaeologist could be Ernesto Schiaparelli, museum director from 1895 to 1928.

Mr. Schiaparelli continued to take some trips to Egypt to excavate and buy mummies and burial goods from people selling antiques, among them the prehistoric mummy that Dr. Jones's team had just have access to research.

Recipe of mummification

In 2014, Dr. Jones' team worked with a group of international experts to study this mummy. They took a small piece of cloth and leather for biochemical analysis, dated carbon radioactivity, analyzed how to weave fabrics and analyzed the DNA of pathogenic bacteria.

Since returning to the museum in 1901, the mummy has no chemical preservation, which means that there is almost no chemical exposure or impact, so this is an ideal specimen for scientific research. . Chemical analysis of shroud samples taken from the body and wrist found vegetable oil or animal fat, rosin and vegetable flavoring.

Rosin and aromatherapy are the two main antimicrobial agents to prevent insects and preserve software. The fabric has been dipped in a melted plastic mixture with the flavoring then used to wrap the body.

Special skills of the Egyptians

Chronological dating of radioactive carbon for shrouded linen samples indicates the date of the mummy is about 3,700 - 3,500 years BC. Fabric fibers are used by traditional linen weaving techniques of Egypt from about 5,000 to 3,600 BC.

Microbiological analysis does not find the DNA causing the disease, probably because the pathogenic bacteria cannot survive in environmental conditions in Egypt or in the museum. So we do not know whether this person died of illness or not. In addition, the extremely weak and fragile state of the mummy does not allow teleportation for X-ray analysis.

Combined with previous studies, the new findings from the mummy are also full of this part to tell us that the prehistoric Egyptians had knowledge of the process of preserving the body as well as the growing belief system. to the extent that there is a theory of reincarnation.

They knew how to find and get pine resin from the Eastern Mediterranean region, indicating that long-distance trade might have developed. Some burial graves 200 km away from the location of this mummy also found similar materials in the fragrant wax.

These materials continued to be used until the pharaohs, when the mummification skill peaked, about 2,500 years later. This really shows that the talent of ancient Egypt was handed down despite the conditions of time and nature.