http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3200867/Is-mummy-marinade-Unusual-ingredients-including-plant-gum-fish-oil-used-preserve-ancient-Egyptian-architect.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Is it for a mummy or a marinade? Unusual ingredients including plant gum and fish oil used to preserve ancient Egyptian architect
- Scientists X-rayed the mummies of Egyptian nobel Kha and his wife Merit
- They found they had been buried with their internal organs still inside
- They also found traces of fish oil, plant gum and cedar oil on the bodies
- These may have prevented bacteria and insects from damaging the bodies
As royal architect for three ancient Egyptian pharaohs, he was responsible for building some of the most famous pyramid tombs.
But it appears the burial of Kha and his wife Merit themselves was far from conventional.
Researchers have analysed the 3,500-year-old mummified bodies of the couple, which were discovered inside gilded coffins in a tomb at the Theban Necropolis near Luxor.
The researchers used X-ray analysis of the mummified remains of Kha, a royal architect during the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, and his wife Merit. The pair were richly adorned with jewellery. The X-ray of Kha above reveals a collar of gold disks and earrings. His brain, marked with the arrows, was left inside the skull
They found, unlike the Pharaohs preserved at the Valley of the Kings, Kha and his wife were embalmed using some rather strange ingredients, including fish oil, plant gum, beeswax and plant oils.
Unlike the royals, their internal organs - including their eyeballs and brains - were also left inside their bodies, a practice that is thought to have damaged the mummification process.
However, the mummies were found to be still remarkably well preserved despite this and experts believe it may have been this strange embalming recipe that played a role.
The researchers found that while the bodies had been placed into a natron salt solution, which was typical of mummification in the 18th Dynasty, their wrappings showed presence of the other ingredients.
Kha appeared to have been covered with animal fat, plant oil, balsam, plant gum and cedar resin. His wife's linen wrappings contained high levels of fish oil mixed with small amounts of balsam, conifer resin and beeswax.
The exteriors of their coffins were also covered in a shiny black material that was found to be Pistacia resin, which may have been imported to the region.
The researchers, led by Professor Frank Rühli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the Center for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, said it suggested great care had been taken to preserve the bodies.
He said it contradicted claims that the bodies of lesser nobels were generally poorly mummified, perhaps due to their status below the royal family.
Writing in the journal Public Library of Science, Professor Rühli and his colleagues said: 'Both mummies were richly decorated with jewellery, and Kha additionally wears funerary amulets.
'Both probably also wear clothing. They were mummified with no removal of their internal organs, requiring no need of canopic equipment, including the brain, which remained inside the cranium.
Merit was found buried inside her husband's much larger coffin (shown above) which suggests she died suddenly before her own coffin had been properly finished. Researchers used new X-ray techniques to peer beneath the wrappings to study the mummies and also took samples from the linen shroud
The image above shows the reconstruction of Merit's skeleton together with the jewellery the scientists found around her neck and arms. Her bones are slightly disarticulated inside the shroud as it is thought her body had started to petrify before it could be completely desiccated in the mummification process
'The time and effort undoubtedly employed to embalm both Kha and Merit and the use of imported costly resins, notably Pistacia, do not support the view that the two notables were poorly mummified rather they provide the first evidence of an uncommon thanatological treatment applied to a mid-18th Dynasty wealthy couple.'
Speaking to Discovery News Professor Rühli added the couple's burial show that there was no 'typical' mummification and in fact many different techniques were employed depending who was conducting the process.
He said: 'Generally speaking, this research confirms my own belief that there is no typical mummification, but a lot of variations are present. We still only know about the tip of the iceberg.'
Kha is thought to have died during the reign of Amenhotep III, Tutankhamen's grandfather. His wife is thought to have died around 25 to 35 years before him.
Kha, whose gold covered outer coffin is shown above, was thought to have been the Royal architect for three Pharaohs and oversaw the construction of some of the Pyramids. Analysis on the shroud of Kha's mummy revealed animal fat, balsam, plant gum and cedar resin had been used as part of the mummification process
The X-rays revealed Kha wore a scrab shaped pendant on a necklace (marked H in the image above) while the vertebrae behind it were found to be slightly out of place as if the body had swelled during mummification. This suggests it had filled with gas as the internal organs, which are still inside, began to putrify
Their remains were discovered in 1906 by the Italian Egyptologist Erensto Schiaparelli in the Valley of the Nobels, close to the ancient village of Deir el Medina.
It is still the most intact non-royal tomb to be discovered from the era of the New Kingdom in ancient Egypt. Kha is thought to have overseen the construction of some of the pyramids.
This statue of Kha was found within the tomb, which is one of the most complete and richly decorated of the non-royal ancient Egyptian tombs discovered
Archaeologists discovered more than 500 items in their tomb alongside the two large wooden sarcophagi, including sets of linen clothing, monogrammed underwear and two early copies of the Book of the Dead.
The inner coffin of Kha was noted for being particularly richly decorated, covered in gold leaf, with carefully decorated eyes and eyebrows which were inlaid with quartz and glass.
Professor Rühli and his team used X-ray imaging to peer inside the carefully wrapped bodies and found they were both richly decorated with jewellery and funerary amulets.
They also found Kha's mummy appears to have been inflated as gases built up inside as the body decayed before it was desiccated by the mummification process – possibly because the internal organs were left inside.
Merit's mummy also has disarticulated bones within the wrappings, which may also be due to some limited putrefaction of the internal organs, the researchers said.
The team also analysed tiny samples of the linen used to wrap the bodies and found traces of the natron salt – sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulphate.
This was traditionally used to dry out bodies in the mummification process.
However, the researchers say the other more unusual ingredients may have played a role.
They said: 'Elucidated "recipes", whose components had anti-bacterial and anti-insecticidal properties, were used to treat their bodies.
'Despite a lack of evisceration, the approach clearly allowed their in situ preservation as well as affording a fairly successful mummification.'
The shrunken remains of Merit's brain and her rich collar can be seen in the X-ray images above
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