Prehistoric UV Cream Discovered On Mom Makes Him By Far The Oldest Embalmed Egyptian

Remains of the oldest Egyptian in the world, Egyptian Museum of Turin, Italy. ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )

This particular list of ingredients is talked about so much because it is the oldest known Egyptian embalming ointment. However, it is remarkably similar to later salves used on deceased nobles and their perceived journeys to the afterlife. Speaking of this observation, the components of the paste, Jones said, “not only resemble those used thousands of years later in Egypt, but also bear a striking similarity to the chemistry of the ointment that the researchers had identified in the envelopes of prehistoric mummies”.

Stuart Tyson Smith, an archaeologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not part of the study team, told reporters: “It’s really interesting to see these connections and it gives us a good piece of the puzzle that we didn’t have before.”

Previously, mummification of the oldest mummies was thought to occur naturally due to the dry climate and sand. But we now know that even the oldest Egyptian dead had a little human nudge to slow down the aging process.

The material for chemical analysis was extracted from the packaging. (Image: © Fotolia)

Jones first looked at the wrappings under a microscope nearly 10 years ago and was “surprised” to find that “the tissues appeared to contain traces of an embalming resin, a compound commonly seen in later mummies.” “It was an incredible feeling,” he said. Yet to prove that the Egyptians embalmed their dead thousands of years earlier than previously thought, almost a decade of projects focused on chemistry were undertaken.

According to a PHYS.org article “By combining chemical analysis and visual examination of the body, genetic investigations, radiocarbon dating, and microscopic analysis of the linen wrappings, we have confirmed that this ritual process of mummification took place around the 3600 BC in a man, between the ages of 20 and 30. death,” Jones said.

Professor Tom Higham, Deputy Director of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, said:

“There are very few mummies of this ‘natural’ type available for analysis. Our radiocarbon dating shows that it dates to the early Naqada phase of Egyptian prehistory, well before the classical pharaonic period, and this young age tells us that it offers a Unrivaled insight into funeral treatment before the rise of the state.

The findings will significantly change our understanding of the development of mummification in ancient Egypt and, Higham added, “the use of embalming agents and will demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary science to understand the past.”

The mummy dates from Egyptian prehistory, before the classical pharaonic period. (Image: © Fotolia)

How was embalming paste used?

Jones said: “The balm would have formed a kind of sticky brown paste” and would have been used as a dip for the bandages before they were wrapped, or perhaps the paste would have been smeared directly onto the body by the embalmer. After the body was fully wrapped, the mummy was taken to a chosen location in the scorching desert. Evidently the embalmers had calculated the effects of the sun’s prolonged heat on their embalming paste and had succeeded in creating a substance that they believed would keep the body as intact as possible.

Prehistoric “anti-uv” and “antibacterial” balms developed over time as the mummification process became increasingly ritualized and later classical mummies were buried in tombs far below the earth’s surface, as far away from direct sunlight as possible. For this reason, archaeologist chemist and mummification expert Dr. Stephen Buckley, from the University of York, explains that “the embalmers had to take additional measures, such as removing the brain and other organs, as well as drying the body with a type of salt called natron”. ,” according to the PHYS.org item.

And trying to answer “how” the ancient Egyptians discovered the recipe for embalming so long ago, Buckley speculated: “Some of these ingredients may well have initially had symbolic meaning… But they later realized they had a conservative advantage. archeology and chemistry are currently investigating “sites of early experimentation with embalming ingredients,” Buckley says, and those findings will no doubt be published in a future article.