Southeast Asia Becomes Source of Mummy Balm in Ancient Egypt
- Pixabay
"We have known the names of many of these embalming ingredients since ancient Egyptian writings were deciphered, “Egyptologist Susanne Beck said in a statement from Tuebingen University.
"But until now, we could only guess at what substances were behind each name," she said.
Embalming and Globalization
The discovery shows that the ancient Egyptians had built up "enormous knowledge that was accumulated during the embalming process that lasted for centuries," says Philipp Stockhammer of Germany's Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology.
For example, they knew that if natron salts were taken from the body, it would soon be "colonized by microbes that would eat the skin," he says.
The diversity of substances "shows us that the embalming industry" is driving momentum for "globalization," Stockhammer said.
It also shows that "Egyptian embalmers were keen to experiment and gain access to other resins and tar with interesting properties," he adds.
Embalmers are believed to have taken advantage of trade routes that came to Egypt through Indonesia, India, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea around 2000 BC.
The Saqqara excavation was led by Ramadan Hussein, an archaeologist at the University of Tuebingen, who died last year before the research was published in the journal Nature.
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