UNIVERSITY researchers have made a breakthrough discovery in the mummy embalming techniques used by ancient Egyptians.

The team from York and Macquarie universities found that the ancient Egyptians developed sophisticated embalming treatments far earlier and across a wider geographical area than had been previously known.

This conclusion was reached after forensic tests on the well-known Turin mummy.

It is the first time that extensive tests have been conducted on an intact prehistoric mummy, consolidating the researchers’ previous findings that embalming was taking place 1,500 years earlier than previously accepted.

Dating from c.3700-3500 BC, the mummy has been housed in the Egyptian Museum in Turin since 1901 and has never undergone any conservation treatments.

This means it provides a unique opportunity for accurate scientific analysis.

Like its famous counterpart Gebelein Man A in the British Museum, the Turin mummy was previously assumed to have been naturally mummified by the hot, dry desert sand.

Using chemical analysis, the scientific team led by the universities of York and Macquarie uncovered evidence that the mummy had in fact undergone an embalming process, with a plant oil, heated conifer resin, an aromatic plant extract and a plant gum/sugar.

This ‘recipe’ contained antibacterial agents, used in similar proportions to those employed by the Egyptian embalmers some 2,500 years later.

Archaeological chemist and mummification expert, Dr Stephen Buckley, from the University of York, said: “Having identified very similar embalming recipes in our previous research on prehistoric burials, this latest study provides both the first evidence for the wider geographical use of these balms and the first ever unequivocal scientific evidence for the use of embalming on an intact, prehistoric Egyptian mummy.

“Moreover, this preservative treatment contained antibacterial constituents in the same proportions as those used in later ‘true’ mummification.”

He said the findings represent the literal embodiment of the forerunners of classic mummification, which would become one of the central and iconic pillars of ancient Egyptian culture.