This is one perfume you probably wouldn\u2019t want to wear. <\/p>
When Howard Carter excavated Tutankhamun<\/a> over 100 years ago, he also brought out two storage jars from another tomb \u2013 along with the sweet scent of mummification balm that wafted out of them.<\/p> This smell, dubbed \u2018the scent of eternity\u2019, may now be publicly available, thanks to scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany.<\/p> The scientists worked with French perfumers to recreate the smell of a balm used in mummification<\/a>. This is an olfactory replica of the substance used to embalm an important Egyptian woman who lived over 3,500 years ago in the Valley of the Kings.<\/p> A study published in the journal Scientific Reports<\/em> describes the ingredients used to create the balm for a woman, named Senetnay, who died around 1450 BC.<\/p> The scientists analysed the balms found in canopic jars excavated from a tomb over 100 years ago. They discovered that the balms contain a blend of beeswax, plant oils and resins, fats, and bitumen (a naturally occurring material like crude petroleum).<\/p> Some of the compounds detected in the balm, including vanillic acid and coumarin, suggest the balm may smell like vanilla. Coumarin and benzoic acid, which was also found in the samples, often originate from cinnamon plants.<\/p> While this indicates that the balm smells like a delicious bake, the scientists are unable to identify the exact plants these compounds derived from. In fact, the vanillic acid may have come from degrading wood.<\/p> Read more:<\/strong><\/p> In any case, the complex blend of diverse ingredients shows how sophisticated the process of mummification was. It also indicates how important Senetnay was to the 18th Dynasty pharaoh. <\/p> The ingredients of the ‘scent of eternity’ also signify the extensive trade routes of the Ancient Egyptians. One of the resins may be dammar \u2013 a tree resin from Dipterocarpaceae trees, found exclusively in Southeast Asian tropical forests. If tests confirm the presence of dammar, this would signify that the ancient Egyptians had access to Southeast Asia almost 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.<\/p> The scientists used different types of mass spectrometry, and worked with French perfumer Carole Calvez and sensory museologist Sofia Collette Ehrich<\/a>, to reconstruct the scent of these ingredients. They\u2019ve named it \u2018scent Senetnay\u2019.<\/p> The scent will be \u2018on display\u2019 as part of an immersive exhibition at Moesgaard Museum in Denmark. It will give visitors the unique opportunity to smell the ancient past. Or purely the scent of mummification, depending on how you look at it.<\/p> The new way of presenting history, through smell<\/a>, will also be more accessible to visually impaired people.<\/p> \u201c’The scent of eternity\u2019 represents more than just the aroma of the mummification process,\u201d said Barbara Huber<\/a>, who led the research. \u201cIt embodies the rich cultural, historical, and spiritual significance of Ancient Egyptian mortuary practices.\u201d<\/p> Read more:<\/strong><\/p> This is one perfume you probably wouldn\u2019t want to wear. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":32752,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/08\/scientists-capture-egyptian-mummys-scent-of-eternity-and-are-pumping-it-through-a-museum.jpg",1200,801,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/08\/scientists-capture-egyptian-mummys-scent-of-eternity-and-are-pumping-it-through-a-museum-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/08\/scientists-capture-egyptian-mummys-scent-of-eternity-and-are-pumping-it-through-a-museum-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/08\/scientists-capture-egyptian-mummys-scent-of-eternity-and-are-pumping-it-through-a-museum-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/08\/scientists-capture-egyptian-mummys-scent-of-eternity-and-are-pumping-it-through-a-museum-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/08\/scientists-capture-egyptian-mummys-scent-of-eternity-and-are-pumping-it-through-a-museum.jpg",1200,801,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/08\/scientists-capture-egyptian-mummys-scent-of-eternity-and-are-pumping-it-through-a-museum.jpg",1200,801,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This is one perfume you probably wouldn\u2019t want to wear.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/32751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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