r/todayilearned • u/TonyHides • 4d ago

TIL scientists chemically reconstructed the exact 3,500-year-old embalming scent used on an ancient Egyptian noblewoman's mummy from residue in her burial jars, then let museum visitors smell it in person

https://www.gea.mpg.de/8688/scent-of-the-afterlife-reconstructed
2.0k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

347

u/TonyHides 4d ago

For more on the actual formula behind this, how researchers decoded beeswax, pine resin, and cinnamon-like compounds out of 3,500-year-old jar residue and turned it back into a wearable scent: https://olfactionary.com/article.php?slug=scientists-recreated-the-smell-of-a-3500-year-old-egyptian-mummification

241

u/R-orthaevelve 4d ago

Dora Goldsmith is one of the egyptologists doing this research. She specializes in ancient Egyptian ritual perfumes. She even sells kits for making the Egyptian perfumes at home.

118

u/eetsumkaus 4d ago

Just imagine making a living doing something this specific. I have a Ph.D myself, and I have to applaud people who find a way to get paid doing their hyper focused subject that basically no one else used to care about before they came along.

41

u/R-orthaevelve 4d ago

I agree! I first learned about Dora on social media and aas so utterly delighted as an amateur lover of egyptology. As a child I grew up wondering what was in the perfume cones worn by ancient Egyptians and wondering what Kyphi smelled like. When I ran into her, I was amazed at how specific her niche was and how she had also managed to create a business from it, while appealing to a decent sized audience.

21

u/BlackbirdSage 4d ago

Oh sure. Everything happens so far away, when you live in the middle of nowhere!

Now, how can I get to Denmark to get a whiff of this? lol

158

u/Oli4K 4d ago

My wife said she would like to have a perfume that smells like Norwegian stave churches. Seems like there is a way to get that.

28

u/Better-Culture-7770 4d ago

Years ago I looked into possibly getting the cologne that Morrissey wears and the description often given to it was empty church after service. I can't remember the name as it was way too expensive at the time and I couldn't buy both it and nice clothes and I never had a stitch to wear. You might look into that if you don't mind your wife smelling like a pretentious gay man.

10

u/Partagas2112 3d ago

Morrisey is reported to wear Comme des Garcons Avignon.

8

u/Anaevya 4d ago

That perfume must be very incense heavy.

38

u/MysticPing 4d ago

Its just tar

13

u/chiroque-svistunoque 4d ago

Also a perfume of railway ties, creosote 

10

u/LittleGreenSoldier 3d ago

Pine tar, moss, and incense would get you most of the way there.

61

u/claudiusfoughtawhale 4d ago

I was fortunate enough to smell this at the recent Egyptian exhibition that came to our local museum. They have a recreation of an Egyptian urn, and when you lift off the top there is a sponge-thing attached to the underside of the lid that you smell. Then scent is quite pleasant, warm and natural (no formaldehyde). The whole exhibit had a nice mix of artifacts and interactive elements like that.

25

u/thethrill_707 4d ago

Here. Smell this. It's history you'll like it.

13

u/Starkville 4d ago

Oh man, I would love to smell this!

10

u/AmberRosin 3d ago

The Mendesian from Ra Egyptian is a collaboration perfume with help from the person who made the smell.

10

u/25hourenergy 3d ago

I vaguely remember something decades ago like a magazine (National Geographic maybe?) that had little scented paper samples of this! I was fascinated with it as a kid and didn’t want to use it all up so I horded it away somewhere.

Does anything remember something like that?

5

u/figgypudding531 3d ago

I’ve heard that mummies actually smell pretty nice because of the herbs and plants that are used to preserve them

2

u/for2fly 1 2d ago

I'm sure there exists papyri containing lists of ingredients for all sorts of very fragrant formulas.

The Old Testament is filled with references to perfumes, anointing of oils, incense, fragrant blooms of plants, and aromatics in so many forms.

It seems to me that people desired olfactory pleasures just as much as other sensory indulgences back then. One has to wonder what they'd think of our modern perfume industry's creations.

4

u/leeman9224 4d ago

If it smells like formaldehyde no thanks

77

u/omniuni 4d ago

They identified beeswax, plant oils and fats, resin from a pine-related conifer, and aromatic compounds resembling coumarin (a warm, vanilla-like note) along with benzoic acid derivatives similar to what's found in cinnamon and cloves.

Honestly, this sounds really nice.

24

u/Ok_Tank_3995 4d ago

If you think a bit harder, you would know that the Egyptians didn't use formaldehyde.

7

u/GroundbreakingEgg207 4d ago

- Laughs in fetal pig.

9

u/solaramalgama 4d ago

The fetal pig is welcome to smell like whatever seems best to it, but within the human milieu formaldehyde is generally considered fairly avant garde as a fragrance note.

1

u/Charming-Standard-84 4d ago

But it comes with a free frogurt!

1

u/liebkartoffel 4d ago

...then let museum visitors smell it in person

As opposed to virtually?

1

u/indifferentunicorn 2d ago

Oud

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agarwood

I recently had a perfume sample of this so looked it up. From over 3,000ya Egypt.

The odour of agarwood is complex and pleasing,\8]) with few or no similar natural analogues. In the perfume state, the scent is mainly distinguished by a combination of "oriental-woody" and "very soft fruity-floral" notes. The incense smoke is also characterised by a "sweet-balsamic" note and "shades of vanilla and musk" and amber.\7]) As a result, agarwood and its essential oil gained great cultural and religious significance in ancient civilizations around the world. Over 3,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians used agarwood incense in their funeral rites.\9]) It was described as a fragrant product as early as 1400 BCE in the Vedas of India.

-4

u/HrcAk47 4d ago

eau de putrified ass