Scents of the afterlife: Identifying embalming recipes by 'sniffing' the air around Egyptian mummies

If you have ever stood close to an ancient Egyptian mummy, you may remember a distinctive, lingering odor. For a long time, ...

Museums incorporate “scent of the afterlife” into Egyptian exhibits

As previously reported, Egyptian embalming is thought to have begun in the Predynastic Period or earlier, when people noticed that the arid desert heat tended to dry and preserve bodies buried in the ...
Ancient Origins

Scents of Ancient Egypt: Air Tests Reveal Mummy Balm Recipes

The headline takeaway is scale and sensitivity: the team reported identifying 81 distinct VOCs. Those compounds clustered into four main ingredient groups linked to ancient embalming practice - fats ...
Greek Reporter

The Smell of Eternity: How Mummy Scents Are Unlocking Ancient Egyptian Secrets

A new study shows how ancient Egyptian mummy scent contains chemical clues that uncover embalming methods used thousands of ...