More than 3400 years ago, Cha and Merit were buried. As grave goods, the Egyptian spouses received, among other things, vessels with food to feed their eternal souls. What exactly did the amphorae and jugs contain? This is revealed by the scents that still emanate from the containers today, reports a team of analytical chemists and archaeologists in the magazine »Journal of Archaeological Science«. What's more, the study provides clues as to how smell can help solve mysteries of the past and make museum visits even more exciting in the future.
The discovery of the intact tomb of Cha and Merit in the Deir el-Medina necropolis near Luxor in 1906 is still significant today. True, Cha was a high-ranking person during his lifetime, namely a construction manager or an architect. However, he was not a pharaoh, and Merit was not a queen. Her funeral reveals a lot about how people from Cha's estate were treated after death.
"It is an amazing collection," says Ilaria Degano, who works as an analytical chemist at the University of Pisa, Italy. "There are even parts of Chas ancient Egyptian linen underwear under the objects, which is embroidered with its name."
Thanks are due to the archaeologist who discovered the tomb. Unusually for the time, he resisted the temptation to unpack the mummies or peek into the sealed amphorae, jars and jugs, even after they had been transferred to the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy. The contents of many vessels are still a mystery, although there are some clues, Degano says. "From conversations with the curators, we knew that there were some fruity aromas in the showcases," she continues.
An excellent resource for odor analysis is old things in bags.
Degano and her colleagues put various artifacts in plastic bags for several days to collect some of the fleeting molecules that exude them, including sealed glasses and open cups, which contained rotten remnants of antique food. Then use the team with the support of the Italian company SRA Instruments S.P.A. A mass spectrometer to identify the aroma components of the individual samples. It found trimethylamine, which is associated with dried fish, aldehyde and long -chain hydrocarbons that indicate beeswax, as well as other aldehyde that occur in fruits. "Two thirds of the objects provided results," says Degano. "It was a nice surprise."
The data flows into a larger project. It is planned to re-analyze the contents of the tomb to obtain a more complete picture of the burial customs for non-royal people that existed at the time of Cha and Merit's deaths. That was about 70 years before Tutankhamun ascended the throne.
Not for the first time, fragrances thus provide important information about ancient Egypt. In 2014, researchers extracted volatile molecules from linen bandages, which are between 6300 and 5000 years old and were used to wrap corpses in some of the earliest known Egyptian burial sites. Accordingly, the embalming agents had antibacterial properties. It also turned out that the Egyptians were experimenting with mummification about 1500 years earlier than previously assumed.
The odor analysis is still a little researched area of archeology, says Stephen Buckley, archaeologist and analytical chemist at the University of York, Great Britain, which was involved in the 2014 study. "Archaeologists ignored fleeting fabrics because they assumed that they would disappear from the artifacts," he explains. But "if you want to understand the ancient Egyptians, you have to go into the world of smells".
For example, sweet-smelling incense was essential; it was obtained from aromatic resins. "Frankincense was necessary for temple ceremonies and some burial rituals," says Kathryn Bard, an archaeologist at Boston University in Massachusetts. Since no resin-producing trees grew in Egypt, one had to travel far to receive supplies.
Into ancient Egypt by smell
Aside from revealing more about past civilizations, ancient smells could add another dimension to the visitor experience in museums. "Smells are a relatively unexplored gateway to the past," says Cecilia Bembibre of University College London. "They have the potential to let us experience the story in a more emotional, personal way."
However, according to Bembibre, it is difficult to reconstruct old smells. Decomposition and putrefaction can be a smelly affair, so the smells of an artifact at present do not necessarily coincide with what she calls the "original olfactory landscape" of a tomb.
With more knowledge and understanding, it should be possible to keep the original grades and weathering apart, says Stephen Buckley. However, whether visitors actually want to perceive the entire and possibly unpleasant odor landscape of an ancient grave is still on debate. According to Buckley, "curators should give visitors the choice of how far they want to drive the odor experience".
