Contacts

Ancient Egypt Magazine

Volume Two Issue Five -- March/April 2002

Netfishing by Hapy  

Last issue we went in search of some pages revealing the range of technological skills of the ancient Egyptians, thanks to some excellent sites provided by Geoffrey Killen, a specialist in the woodworking skills of ancient Egypt, and in furniture making in particular.

This issue, we continue the theme with a look at some of the materials used in mummification, with links once again provided by Geoffrey. To start with, there’s an excellent alphabetical listing of the items used to be found on www.spurlock.uiuc.edulresources/mummification/Pages/materials1.html

This is the web site of a university museum in the US that will be opening its doors to the general public later in 2002. If you have trouble opening the page by the full address, by the way, open the home page www.spurlock.uiuc.edu and follow through to ‘resources’. It’s a well laid out and friendly site.

Amongst the materials listed are those mentioned by ancient writers such as Herodotus, Diodorus and Pliny, and those identified by modern mummy investigations too. The magical properties of beeswax were mentioned frequently in AE’s Nine Measures of Magic series, and here beeswax is listed as used to cover the ears, eyes, nose, mouth and embalming incision in particular. Sweet scented oils such as cedar, and spicy materials such as cassia and cinnamon, and probably myrrh, are also listed. The divine salt natron was fundamental to the process. Palm wine, cited as used in the washing out of the body, was also important.

An identification of the ways in which various products were used was carried out by Richard Evershead and Stephen Buckley of the University of Bristol, and a resume of their resultant article in Nature can be read by visiting www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s399494.htm

For a further investigation into the methods used to track down some of the items, possibly imported, which were used in mummification, try the scholarly www.brad.ac.uk/acad/archsci/depart/resgrp/molarch/egypt.html

Going back to wax, there’s a great piece on beekeeping, honey and wax on www.arab.net/Egypt/culture/et_beekeeping.html This looks like an excellent site for future browsing too, with a good layout for accessing articles on the culture and history of not only Egypt but the whole of the Arab world.

From wax to wine, and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. Here there’s a brief history of the introduction of wine and vines into Egypt, and the technology involved in wine making. There’s also an offer of an interactive quiz and a wine forum (which I didn’t stop to join). The site doesn’t just cover wine making in Egypt but even further back in time, the pages suggest, and trees and tree resins are also discussed.

Finally, here’s the web site address of Geoffrey Killen’s own pages found at: www.geocities.com/gpkillen You might also like to view some of the many pages on ancient Egyptian boats, like www.abc.se/m10354/mar/abydos.htm for boats relating to this ancient sacred site, and, of course, the magnificent Khufu boats at www.waseda.ac.jp/projects/egypt/sites/Khufu-E.html and www.bu.edu/remote-sensing/Research/boat/boat.html.

Back to Ancient Egypt Magazine - Volume 2 Issue 5 contents

Return to Home 

e- mail to: [email protected]

with questions or comments about Ancient Egypt Magazine.

or for sales, subscriptions, back numbers and advertising