Discover the Aromas of Ancient Egyptian Mummies, Orange Peels to Pine to Incense
A first-of-its-kind analysis of the scents of nine mummies detected woody, spicy, herbal and rancid notes, among other odors.
Few visitors wandering through the mummy galleries at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo have the opportunity—or perhaps the inclination—to smell the aromas wafting off the gilded sarcophagi and elaborately wrapped bodies of ancient Egyptian elites on display in glass cases.
For those who are curious, however, a new study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society has captured and analyzed the scents of nine human mummies in the museum’s collections, detecting woody, spicy and herbal notes. Many of the mummies also emanated hints of smoke, mold, flowers and dust, among other odors.
“It was a very special experience—really incredible,” says first author Emma Paolin, a chemist at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
The international research effort is the first systematic odor and chemical analysis of multiple Egyptian mummies from a range of time periods. The remains span the New Kingdom—the height of mummification practice and skill, in the second millennium B.C.E.—to the late Roman period in the third and fourth centuries C.E., when mummification was in decline.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/discover-the-aromas-of-ancient-egyptian-mummies-from-orange-peels-to-pine-to-incense-180986035/