“Unlocking the Secrets of the Afterlife: What Ancient Egyptian Mummies Reveal About Their Enigmatic Fragrances”
Though they initially planned only to capture odors from mummy display cases, curators at the Cairo museum permitted them to take scent samples from the sarcophagi directly, enabling them to draw more in-depth comparisons between the scents. What they found was that, depending on the era and specific recipe used by embalmers, the scents were shockingly varied.
Emma PaolinPassive sampling of the air within a sarcophagus using a solid phase microextraction fiber.
Unfortunately, this also made it difficult for the team to pinpoint the original sources for many of the scents. The presence of a compound called nonanal, for example, which smells like a mix of wax and orange peel, could have been the result of the original mummification process or a product of biodegradation.
Still, the research proved that this process could be effective for the conservation of mummies, allowing scientists to “practically intervene” and identify the best methods for storing and wrapping the bodies. And for the public, it offers a unique opportunity to explore history through smell.
“Odors are a valuable part of cultural heritage,” Strlič says. “We want to be able to communicate the experience of those odors to the public.”
After reading about this research regarding the scents of Egyptian mummies, learn all about nine of the world’s most famous mummies. Then, for more ancient Egyptian history, read about how the pyramids were built.
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