Research discovers ancient Egyptian remains smell nice At first whiff, it sounds repulsive: sniff the essence of an ancient corpse. But researchers who indulged their curiosity in the name of science found that well-preserved Egyptian mummies actually smell pretty good. “In films and books, terrible things happen to those who smell mummified bodies,” said Cecilia Bembibre, director of research at University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage. “We were surprised at the pleasantness of them.” In this undated photo provided by Abdelrazek Elnaggar, Emma Paolin, PhD researcher at University of Ljubljana, background and Dr. Cecilia Bembibre, lecturer at the University College London take swab samples for the purpose of microbiological analysis at the Krakow Universi...
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For thousands of years, ancient Egyptians mummified their dead in the search for eternal life. Now, researchers have used chemistry and an unusual collection of jars to figure out how they did it. Their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is based on a rare archaeological find: An embalming workshop with a trove of pottery around 2,500 years old. Many jars from the site were still inscribed with instructions like “to wash” or “to put on his head.” By matching the writing on the outside of the vessels with the chemical traces inside, researchers uncovered new details about the “recipes” that helped preserve bodies for thousands of years. This illustration provided by Nikola Nevenov in January 2023 depicts an embalming process in an underground chamber in Saqqara, Egy...
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