A prehistoric Egyptian mummy: Evidence for an 'embalming recipe' and the evolution of early formative funerary treatments. (December 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jones, Jana; Higham, Thomas F.G.; Chivall, David; Bianucci, Raffaella; Kay, Gemma L.; Pallen, Mark J.; Oldfield, Ron; Ugliano, Federica; Buckley, Stephen A.
• Is Part Of: Journal of archaeological science. Volume 100(2018)
• Page Start: 191
• Page End: 200
• Publication Date: 2018-12
• Subjects: Mummification -- Prehistoric Egypt -- Embalming chemistry -- GC-MS -- Radiocarbon dating; Archaeology -- Periodicals; Archéologie -- Périodiques; 930.1
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2018.07.011
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-4403

Abstract

Abstract: Interdisciplinary scientific investigations utilising chemical analysis, shotgun metagenomics, textile analysis and radiocarbon dating have been applied to the study of an intact prehistoric Egyptian mummy, allowing insights into when this individual lived and died, and the funerary treatments employed in the preparation of the body. Here we present the first evidence for an extant prehistoric mummy that has undergone treatment with notably similar formative complex 'balms' that would later constitute the classic embalming recipes employed at the height of pharaonic mummification some 2500 years later. Making the informed assumption that the provenance of the Turin body was Gebelein, Qena or Luxor (Thebes), the findings offer the first indication that this type of funerary recipe was likely to have been employed over a wider geographical area at a time when the concept of a pan-Egyptian identity was supposedly still developing. Highlights: First extant prehistoric Egyptian mummy unequivocally treated with 'embalming agents'. 'Balm' includes components (e.g. conifer resin) with antibacterial and preservative properties. Reveals a spacio-temporal trend in funerary treatments that continued for millennia.