19th March 2024
A mummy that was long thought to have been naturally preserved showed traces of compounds that were commonly used in Egyptian mummification thousands of years later.

A mummy that was long thought to have been naturally preserved showed traces of compounds that were commonly used in Egyptian mummification thousands of years later.

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This Ancient old mummy is older than the pharaohs:

The mummy – a grown man who curled up in a fetal posture on the left side – is about 6,000 years old.

It was once believed that it was naturally preserved by the desert conditions where it was buried.

But the very first tests carried out on the remains showed that the mummy was embalmed, making it the earliest known example of Egyptian mummification, analysts reported in a new study.

Further examination revealed that the ancient embalmers used multiple constituents to preserve the corpse, using a similar recipe to those used 2500 years later, when mummification achieved its peak in Egypt.

More than a century ago, the mummy was Found in Egypt. The exact location is unknown, although it is believed that it comes from the old southern city of Gebelein am Nil and represents a man who was about 20 to 30 years old after his death, the researchers reported.

The mummy was purchased in 1901 by the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, and dated to 3700 BC. until 3500 BC According to the investigation.

Neither the merchant who sold the mummy nor the museum it showed ever used any kind of preservative treatment for the fragile remains, “so it offers a unique opportunity for analysis,” the researchers wrote.

Previously, the analysts had analyzed fragments of mummy funerals that came from another place and originated around the same time as the Turin mummy.

They discovered traces of compounds that suggested embalming procedures. But the Turin mummy gave researchers a rare chance to hunt for similar evidence on a preserved body, said lead author Jana Jones, an analyst at the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, at a press conference.

Specialists sampled linen fragments from the mummy’s torso and right wrist, as well as a woven basket buried next to the remains.

Vegetable oils and animal fats traversed the ancient material and the researchers synthesized from the compounds found an embalming recipe containing sugar or gum, coniferous resin, aromatic plant extracts, and antibacterial agents.

These ingredients were in a similar ratio to those in balsams used amid the dynastic period, according to the study.

The Turin mummy is so old that it even precedes the written language (the earliest known proof of writing dates back to around 3400 BC).

So it is likely that the instructions for embalming were passed on orally and passed down through generations, “Jones said at the briefing.

Not exclusively, did the mummy confirm that prehistoric Egyptians were embalming their dead, but it also put the intervention in more than one place.

The burial shrouds the scientists described in 2014 were found some 200 kilometers from where Turin becomes a mummy probably buried, Jones said.

Pushing back the beginnings of Egyptian preserving for more than a millennium, the new findings provide tantalizing evidence of social behavior, religious beliefs, and scientific expertise in the region’s prehistoric communities, according to Jones.

“They had a well-developed belief in life after death – they wanted their bodies to be preserved,” she explained. “And they had a knowledge of the science that was invested in preserving the body.”

After embalming, the remains were wrapped in linen, placed in a shallow grave and surrounded with funerary objects.

After embalming, the remains were wrapped in linen, placed in a shallow grave and surrounded with funerary objects.

Source:  Archy Worldys.