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posted by mrpg on Tuesday August 21 2018, @06:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the look-mummy-no-resins dept.

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

The earliest mummies are typically associated with the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, but as an intensive examination of a 5,600-year-old mummy confirms, the methods used for this iconic funeral practice date back to well before the age of pharaohs.

The practice of mummification and the techniques used for embalming (such as the use of resins) were thought to have originated in ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom (also known as the "Pyramid Age") around 2500 BC. But this interpretation was challenged by a 2014 analysis of funeral textiles found at the southern Egyptian site of Mostagedda, which pushed back the origin of Egyptian mummification by over 1,500 years.

[...] Indeed, this embalming technique dates back to the Naqada stage of Egyptian prehistory, which is substantially earlier that the Pharaonic Period. But the analysis also revealed the use of an antibacterial conifer resin that isn't native to Egypt. This compound must have been imported, therefore, likely from the Near East in what is now Israel/Palestine.

Source: https://gizmodo.com/ancient-egyptians-mastered-mummification-long-before-th-1828360911


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @03:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 21 2018, @03:05PM (#724196)

    "Naqada stage"

    For use as a nuclear power plant style battery or explosive?