Archaeology
Secrets of Ancient Egyptian mummification materials revealed
A new study, published in the journal Nature, has revealed the types of materials used in Ancient Egyptian mummification.
Back in 2016, archaeologists discovered an embalming workshop at the Saqqara Necropolis, located in the Giza Governorate, Egypt.
Saqqara contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, numerous pyramids, including the Pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb, and a number of mastaba tombs.
The workshop, which dates from 664 to 525 BC during the Late Period of Ancient Egypt, contained 2,500-year-old labelled pots, used for storing plant and animal extracts that were used in the mummification process.
A chemical analysis by researchers from the University of Tübingen, working in collaboration with the National Research Centre laboratory in Giza, has identified botanical resins within the pots, some of which originate from as far away as Southeast Asia.
They used gas chromatography–mass spectrometry which has revealed the pot extracts, including juniper bushes, cypress trees, cedar trees, all of which grows in the eastern Mediterranean region. The study also found extracts of bitumen from the Dead Sea, and animal fats and beeswax which was likely sourced locally.
Interestingly, the team found traces of a resin called elemi which is sourced from Canarium trees that grow in rainforests in Asia and Africa, and dammar from the Shorea trees found in southern India, Sri Lanka and southeast Asia.
Carl Heron, an archaeological scientist at the British Museum told Nature: “Egypt was resource poor in terms of many resinous substances, so many were procured or traded from distant lands.”
The process in which these materials were applied is yet to be determined, and the study has led to new questions about the ancient trade routes that connected Ancient Egypt to the locations where the resins where sourced.
Ancient Egyptian embalmers had a sophisticated understanding of the raw materials’ properties, the authors say. Pots contained complex mixtures of ingredients that, in some cases, had been carefully heated or distilled. Many of the resins had antimicrobial properties — one bowl containing elemi and animal fat was inscribed “to make his odour pleasant” — or characteristics that promoted preservation.
Header Image Credit : Shutterstock
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
A study of a Roman shipwreck off the coast of Mallorca has identified a new type of amphora.
The shipwreck, known as the shipwreck of Ses Fontanelles, was discovered 65 metres from the coast of a tourist beach near Mallorca’s capital of Palma.
According to a paper published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, the ship dates from the 4th century and likely departed from Cartagena in southeastern Spain while navigating the trade routes of the western Mediterranean.
Archaeologists found in the hold a cargo packaged in amphorae, some of which have painted inscriptions (tituli picti) on the exterior. The inscriptions provide information such as the origin, destination, type of product, and the owner of the goods – identified as “Alunnius et Ausonius.”
The amphorae have been classified into four main group types. The most abundant is the Almagro 51c type amphorae, for which the tituli picti indicate a contents of fish sauce which derives almost exclusively from a single species: the European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus)
The other groups consist of the flat-bottomed amphorae, the Keay XIX type, and a new type of amphora named Ses Fontanelles I, which is larger and heavier than most other amphorae types and was used for carrying plant oil.
According to the study authors: “All the analytical data suggest that Alunnius et Ausonius prepared a trade enterprise fleeting, a merchant ship with a cargo composed mainly of fish sauce (Liquaminis flos), in Almagro 51c amphora, oil transported in Ses Fontanelles I amphorae (probably an imitation of Dressel 23 type), and grape derivates or fruits preserved in those substances in flat-bottomed amphorae.”
Header Image Credit : Arqueomallornauta – Consell de Mallorca
Sources : Cau-Ontiveros, M.Á., Bernal-Casasola, D., Pecci, A. et al. Multianalytical approach to the exceptional Late Roman shipwreck of Ses Fontanelles (Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain). Archaeol Anthropol Sci 16, 58 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-01952-3
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
A new study published in the journal Antiquity has revealed hundreds of previously unrecorded monuments at Baltinglass in County Wicklow, Ireland.
The Baltinglass area (known as ‘Ireland’s Hillfort Capital’) has a high density of Early Neolithic and Late Bronze Age monuments, however, very little evidence has been recorded that dates from the Middle Neolithic period.
According to Dr James O’Driscoll from the University of Aberdeen, the ancient landscape around Baltinglass was incredibly important to the Early Neolithic people, however, the lack of Middle Neolithic evidence suggests that this importance was lost until the Late Bronze Age.
Using advanced LiDAR technology, archaeologists have created detailed three-dimensional models, revealing hundreds of ancient sites that that been destroyed by thousands of years of ploughing.
Image Credit : Antiquity
Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), is a method of remote sensing using light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. The differences in the laser return times and wavelengths can be used to compile a 3-D digital map of the landscape.
The most significant discovery from the survey is a cluster of five cursus monuments, the largest example found in both Britain and Ireland. The purpose of such monuments are speculative, but some theories propose that they were used in rituals connected with ancestor veneration, that they follow astronomical alignments, or that they served as buffer zones between ceremonial and occupation landscapes.
Image Credit : Antiquity
According to the study authors: “These five cursus monuments are clearly aligned with burial monuments in the landscape, as well as the rising and setting sun during major solar events such as the solstice.”
“This may have symbolised the ascent of the dead into the heavens and their perceived rebirth, with the cursus physically setting out the final route of the dead, where they left the land of the living and joined the ancestors beyond the visible horizon,” said Dr O’Driscoll.
Header Image Credit : Antiquity
Sources : Antiquity | Exploring the Baltinglass cursus complex: routes for the dead? – James O’Driscoll. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.39
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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