A photo from open sources A new study has hit the conventional wisdom the idea that the ancient Egyptians began to study mummification only in the era of the pharaohs. Experiments with the first attempts to embalm corpses in Egypt are recorded in the fifth or fourth millennium BC. Traditionally believed that in the fifth and fourth millennia BC the ancient Egyptians not yet mastered the technology of mummification, writes the Australian Researcher Jana Jones from Sydney Macquarie University. A few years ago a female Egyptologist drew attention to one note relating to 1920s, in which archaeologists described a certain mummy, hands which were wrapped in thick scraps soaked in resins tissues. It was known that the body was mummified 4500 years before Nativity of Christ. Scientists knew very well at this time the Egyptians still did not know how to embalm their dead, preferring to bury them in hot sand to dehydrate the body in a natural way. The first experiments on mummification belonged to a period not earlier than 3,500 years BC. Together with his British counterpart Stephen Buckley (Stephen Buckley) from York University Jones held biochemical study of mummies from the oldest Egyptian cemetery Mostagedda in northern Egypt, the results of which reported on the pages of the journal PLOS ONE. Despite the fact that Egyptian mummies are pretty well studied long ago, they are still keep many secrets left unexplored by past generations scientists. Increasingly, new material for research. In particular, in April this year, archaeologists in the Valley the kings came across a still unknown burial place where there were 50 mummies and mummified remains. And in June on At a depth of 13 meters underground, nine mummies were discovered in Aswan. IN According to archaeologists, it’s not the princes who rest in this burial place and princesses, and “ordinary people.” For embalming the ancient Egyptians used pine and other resins, gum, var and tar, natron, animal fats, incense from extracts of aromatic plants. The specialists only had to find all these components in the remains and linen sheets covering mummies from earlier eras. In one of the abandoned crypts of Mexico discovered мумии Для анализа Стивен Баклиused a combination of two well-known methods. Via thermal desorption (removal of atoms, molecules and radicals from the surface solid when it is heated) check at what temperatures the components are separated from the substance, and at the same time more accurately determine its composition. The second method, gas chromatography, allows you to observe how molecules move in mixtures. As Buckley says, “the combination of both processes allows identification of a wider range molecules. “The exact age of the mummies from Mostageddah scientists were determined by help radiocarbon method. Composition of resins and plant extracts turned out to be identical to the famous embalming technique. Behind except that the mummification was carried out in much more a simplified version than in subsequent millennia. First embalmers still left internal organs in the body. Research Leader Stephen Buckley said in a press release: “Antibacterial properties of individual substances and preserved soft tissues allowed us to conclude that before us are the initial attempts at mummification experiments that finally reached excellence during the reign of the pharaohs. “In European languages the word “mummy” first appears around the year 1000. It comes from Arabic word meaning “bitumen,” or “asphalt,” because of the dark body coloring of the deceased. In ancient Egyptian language for designation the embalmed corpse also used the word sah. “Separate burial of the body and organs is documented with approximately 2800 BC, “says Welt-online Robert Kuhn, Researcher at the Egyptian Museum in Berlin The embalmers have ascertained the fact that mummies are better persist if soft tissue is removed. Unlike the heart (receptacles of the soul), the brain did not play such a big role for the Egyptians, it was removed. All internal organs, with the exception of the heart, processed and laid in canopical vessels. After double flushing internal cavity of the body, after extraction of internal organs, its filled with incense, and the body itself was placed in natron. Igor Booker
Egypt Mummies Plants Pharaohs
