5,600-Year-Old Mummy Reveals Ancient Egyptian Embalming Recipe Never Found Before

Fred shows that the Egyptians had been using embalming practices for over 1,500 years longer than scientists believed.

An incredibly well-preserved 5,600-year-old mummy is changing much of what we thought we knew about ancient Egyptian embalming.

A new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science shows strong evidence that embalming practices in Ancient Egypt existed more than 1,500 years earlier than previously believed.

A team of researchers came to their conclusions after examining “Fred,” an exceptionally well-preserved mummy discovered more than 100 years ago and housed in the Egyptian Museum in Turin since 1901, according to National Geographic. After originally being brought to the museum, the mummy had not undergone any additional preservation methods, meaning it would be the perfect subject for research in terms of how it was preserved the first time around.

The Turin mummy is believed to be around 5,600 years old and was originally thought to be a preservation anomaly. Fred was believed to have been naturally preserved by the extreme heat of the desert.

However, the study examined the mummy’s remains and found that not only had the mummy been embalmed by humans, but it had also been preserved using a recipe similar to those used 2,500 years later by pharaohs and nobles like King Tut during Egypt’s height of mummification period, according to Live Science.

Study co-author Jana Jones, an Egyptologist at Macau University in Australia, previously examined clothing fragments from mummy burial wrappings from around the same time as Fred, but from a different location, and found evidence that hinted at mummy embalming.

However, those clues weren’t enough to convince skeptics that embalming was actually taking place because they only had clothing to examine and no actual body. So, to prove their theory, they needed a body, and they turned to Fred to help them gather definitive evidence.

Jones and his team used a variety of tests to examine linen fragments from the Turin mummy’s torso and wrist, as well as a woven basket that was buried with its remains, to discover the exact components of the embalming ointment. What they discovered turned out to be a groundbreaking find.

According to National Geographic, the ointment consisted of a vegetable oil base that was then combined with gum or plant sugars, heated conifer resin, and aromatic plant extracts. The components were extremely similar to ointments used thousands of years later, suggesting that ancient Egyptian embalming practices had been established much earlier than previously thought.

“This certainly confirms our previous research,” Jones told National Geographic.

However, the Turin mummy was discovered in a fetal position with all of its organs still inside its body, which is very different from the techniques the ancient Egyptians used on mummies later (which included laying them down and removing their organs). However, the ointment used to embalm the bodies was remarkably similar to those used much later.

The study’s groundbreaking discovery has thus taken a giant step towards unraveling secrets about the mysterious and fascinating history of Ancient Egyptian mummies.