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Scientists Ready to Present Pharaonic Fragrance Oil. PHOTO/DAILY
JAKARTA – A team of scientists is ready to recreate the aroma used in the mummification of ancient Egyptian women, more than 3,500 years ago.
READ ALSO – The real face of Pharaoh Tutankhamun revealed, this is what his face looks like
The product, dubbed the ‘fragrance of immortality’, is now being introduced in a new exhibition exploring ancient Egyptians’ obsession with life after death.
Even though thousands of years have passed, there are still many ancient Egyptian mummification practices that are unknown to history. But now, the research team is looking for new clues.
Using modern technology, a team of experts at Germany’s Max Planck Institute has identified and recreated the scent used in the mummification of a female figure in Egypt.
The team’s research centered on substances used to embalm noble women of Senetnay around 1,450 BC. British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the woman’s remains in the Valley of the Kings in 1900. Carter’s fame increased in 1923 when he discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb.
“We only took the remains, fragments and small traces, mummification balm, substances that were applied to the body to face the afterlife. We sampled these canopic jars, then analyzed the mummification balm. “And based on its molecular composition, we can identify the ancient aroma of immortality or life after death,” said the head of the Max Planck research team, Barbara Huber, as reported by VOA.
Examining its molecular composition, the team found that the balm contained a complex mixture of beeswax, vegetable oils, fats, resins, balsamic substances, and more.
According to experts, the mixture of materials not only provides new insight into the mummification process, but also Egypt’s extensive trade routes at that time.
“We found in this case there were plants from Central Europe. We found plants from Southeast Asia. There were also plants from the Mediterranean region. Maybe plants that were in Egypt, something that was available locally, like beeswax. And all of that was mixed in the balm “This mummification. It shows us how big or how connected ancient Egyptian society was in the middle of the second millennium,” continued Huber.
Some of these substances are more difficult to recognize. Huber and his team believe the substance is, among other things, resin from resin trees that only grow in Southeast Asia. If true, this would extend ancient Egyptian influence by 4,000 kilometers.
(wbs)