Many centuries later, Roman-era embalmers in the Egyptian desert took those same verses and tucked them inside the gut of a ...

The mummy had been buried during the Roman period in Oxyrhynchus about 1,600 years ago. It is the first time a Greek literary ...

The Egyptians carefully removed organs such as the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines during the mummification process to prevent bacterial growth and better preserve the body. Egyptians believed in ...

Archaeologists have found a papyrus copy of Homer’s Iliad in the gut of an ancient Egyptian mummy, the first time ever that a ...

The funerary practices of the ancient Egyptians can still reveal surprising information. In a recent analysis of the 3,500-year-old remains of the noblewoman Senetnay, found in jars in the Valley of ...

In a recent study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, Wanyue Zhao and her colleagues used volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to analyze the composition of scents given off by mummies ...

In 2023, scientists identified the compounds in the balms used to mummify the organs of an ancient Egyptian noblewoman, suggesting that the recipes were unusually complex and used ingredients not ...

Unknown artist, “Mesu Smelling a Lotus” (c. 1525–1504 BCE), New Kingdom, Thebes, Egypt (image via Metropolitan Museum of Art) What did ancient mummies smell like? What types of scents, perfumes, and ...

Archaeologists have found a copy of Homer’s Iliad stuffed inside an ancient Egyptian mummy buried in a 1,600-year-old tomb.