A photo from open sources
The ancient Egyptians were distinguished by the ability to famously embalm the dead, thanks to which the Egyptian mummies are in excellent condition and Today. To understand these ancient methods of body preservation dead people, scientists decided to mummify “fresh” tissue human body that were donated to science for experiments.
Researchers from the University of Thrace (Greece) placed tissue corpse bodies in saline, and the conservation process was measured, using modern methods of microscopy and imaging. The main the goal of scientists was to understand in practice how it was the process of mummification among the ancient Egyptians in the smallest details.
The creation of the mummy
Most of what modern scholars know about ancient Egyptian mummification was described by a Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC First of all, the ancients embalmers seized from the body of the deceased all internal organs, in including the brain, which was pulled in parts through the nasal holes. Then embalmers carefully sterilized chest and abdominal cavities, and then put the body in saline, containing natron (a mixture of soda and sodium bicarbonate). This solution not only depleted bodily fluids, but also prevented the body from decomposition. And finally, after all the above procedures the newly mummy was tightly swaddled with stripes of linen and placed in the tomb.
Some researchers have tried to use these methods to mummify animals and human organs. There were even a few unsuccessful attempts to mummify the human body entirely. However, their fault is that the process Egyptian embalming has never been studied since using modern scientific methods.
A team of Greek scholars approached this process quite Seriously. In her new study for the mummification of the female leg they used Egyptian salt, and to compare the results simultaneously conducted an embalming experiment of the second limb of a corpse with using dry heat, but the attempt failed, and the experience was stopped after a week.
Continuing to work on the Egyptian first leg mummification prescription, the researchers took tissue samples every two to three days, and We also studied the condition of the leg using various methods: visually, microscope, DNA analysis, x-rays.
As a result, mummification was quite successful. Salt solution effectively removed water from the tissues of the leg, which prevented bacteria and fungi worsen her condition. Microscopic analysis showed good preservation of the skin and muscle tissue, however the process itself it took not two months, as Herodotus described, but almost seven (208 days). Scientists suggest that the discrepancy is to blame laboratory conditions with the arid climate of ancient Egypt. therefore they concluded that temperature, acidity and humidity environmental factors are decisive factors in process speed mummification.
DNA Egypt Mummies
