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Australian study finds Egyptian mummies may date back to 4,500BC

Egypt’s pyramids and Sphinx, believed to have been constructed as tombs. Photograph: Diana Plater/AAP

The ancient Egyptian practice of mummification might date back 1,500 years earlier than previously thought, an Australian-led study has discovered.

The findings, led by Macquarie University researchers and based on studies of bodies found in ancient Egyptian graves from up to six,000 years ago, is published in the scientific journal PLOS 1.

Preceding analysis suggests that mummification started about 2,200BC, but the new investigation indicates the practice was already happening among four,500BC and three,350BC.

“We’ve located experimentation in preservation was taking place in a tribal, prehistoric society some 1,500 years prior to the practice was often accepted to have begun,” stated Dr Jana Jones, of Macquarie University.

Jones said the artefacts the team studied were excavated from tombs in Badari and Mostagedda in Egypt in the 1920s and 30s, and displayed in Britain’s Bolton Museum.

She visited the museum and discovered that the samples, some dating back to 4,500BC, had not been archaeologically analysed in 80 years.

Jones found indicators of a complex, processed mixture in the funerary linen samples that included aromatic plant extract, a plant gum and a all-natural petroleum supply – a resin frequently used for mummification a lot later on.

“There was no fundamental modify in the embalming mixture employed some three,000 years later,” she stated.

“The differences lay in substitution of an ingredient, but it already contained the empirical science that would become correct mummification.”

Jones was permitted to take 92 samples back to Australia for more analysis.

The bodies have been located in the a lot more extravagant graves, suggesting only the privileged folks in this ancient society have been preserved.

“They have been in graves that had more offerings than other folks,” Jones said. “Such as a child buried with a pet gazelle and a lot of jewellery.

“I believe they were unique members of a society.”

Jones said bodies were not completely mummified in these findings.

“Certain components of the physique such as head or the hands have been treated in this [preservation] mixture,” she stated.

“We’re seeking at a time that was 1,000 years prior to writing, but we’re understanding they really had an understanding of the science.”

Network Front | The Guardian

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