Rethinking the Process of Animal Mummification in Ancient Egypt: Molecular Characterization of Embalming Material and the Use of Brassicaceae Seed Oil in the Mummification of Gazelle Mummies from Kom Mereh, Egypt

Abstract

The study of animal mummification in ancient Egypt has recently received increasing attention from a number of modern scholars given the fact that this part of ancient Egyptian funerary and religious history is a practice yet to be fully understood. In this study, nine samples of embalming matter were extracted from six gazelle mummies from the archaeological site of Kom Mereh (modern village of Komir), dated to the Roman period of dominance in ancient Egypt. All samples were analyzed for the presence of inorganic and organic matter applying a multi-analytical approach based on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Furthermore, in order to identify more specific compounds such as bitumen and beeswax in studied balms, each sample was subjected to a solid phase extraction (SPE) and saponification separation process, respectively. The results of this study revealed that the majority of the analyzed embalming substances sampled from six gazelle mummies from Kom Mereh were complex mixtures of plant oils, animal fats, conifer resin, and beeswax. In this regard, this study was able to report a practice until now unmentioned in the scientific literature, namely, the use of cruciferous oil, derived from seeds of Brassicaceae plants, in animal mummification.

Archaeometric Identification of a Perfume from Roman Times

“…The strong FT-IR band at 1447 cm −1 , together with those at 882 and 732 cm −1 , confirmed the presence of dolomite previously suggested by the XRD and µ-Raman spectra [24]. However, the FT-IR spectrum included several other, much weaker bands that were assigned to bitumen [33,34]. In fact, the bands immediately below 3000 cm −1 were assigned to stretching vibrations of C−H bonds in the CH 3 and CH 2 groups of a hydrocarbon chain.…”

“…On the other hand, the spectrum for the black particles (Figure 7c) included some bands that were very weak in the spectrum for the unguentarium neck. Such bands were assigned to stretching vibrations of organic compounds consistent with those for bitumen [33,34]. In fact, the presence of strong bands for C=C, C−C and =C-H stretching vibrations at 1580−1700 cm −1 , 1400−1500 cm −1 and above 3000 cm −1 , respectively, suggested the presence of aromatic compounds and saturated hydrocarbons.…”