Prehistoric mummy reveals ancient Egyptian embalming 'recipe' was around for millennia

EurekAlert! ^ | August 15, 2018 | University of York

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It is the first time that extensive tests have been carried out on an intact prehistoric mummy, consolidating the researchers' previous findings that embalming was taking place 1,500 years earlier than previously accepted. Dating from c.3700-3500 BC, the mummy has been housed in the Egyptian Museum in Turin since 1901, but unlike the majority of other prehistoric mummies in museums, it has never undergone any conservation treatments, providing a unique opportunity for accurate scientific analysis. Like its famous counterpart Gebelein Man A in the British Museum, the Turin mummy was previously assumed to have been naturally mummified by the desiccating action of the hot, dry desert sand. Using chemical analysis, the scientific team led by the Universities of York and Macquarie uncovered evidence that the mummy had in fact undergone an embalming process, with a plant oil, heated conifer resin, an aromatic plant extract and a plant gum/sugar mixed together and used to impregnate the funerary textiles in which the body was wrapped. This 'recipe' contained antibacterial agents, used in similar proportions to those employed by the Egyptian embalmers when their skill was at its peak some 2,500 years later.

[ZULU]

My mummy warned me about this stuff!