r/history • u/Magister_Xehanort • Feb 01 '23
Discovery of embalming workshop reveals how ancient Egyptians mummified the dead Article
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/01/africa/ancient-egypt-mummy-embalming-workshop-scn/index.html389
u/Raudskeggr Feb 02 '23
“They… knew what substances they needed to put on the skin — antibacterial, antifungal substances — to keep the skin best possibly preserved without having any microbiological background, without even knowing about bacteria. This enormous knowledge was accumulated over centuries.”
It's hard for the human mind to conceive of just how old ancient Egypt was. Even when the pyramids were being built, Egypt was already thousands of years old. It really was one of the first "civilizations", in the formal sense of the word.
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u/o_MrBombastic_o Feb 02 '23
Cleopatra lived closer to the time of the Moon Landing than the building of The Pyramids
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u/checkseguy Feb 02 '23
I found it fascinating when I found out that she was lovers with Caesar and then married his second Marc Antony, before the two of them committed suicide. She wouldn’t have such a prominent place in history if it weren’t for that yet I had always assumed as a child that it was a completely different period of events.
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u/JhnWyclf Feb 02 '23
Have you seen the HBO series Rome?
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u/Shivy_Shankinz Feb 02 '23
Got it on my list to watch, any good?
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u/JhnWyclf Feb 02 '23
I really liked it. It came out before had the funds to do epic stories justice. As a result the creators had to jam what was going to be multiple seasons into the final season and speed run the rise Octavius.
The cast is great and I really like how the focal point of the story wasn’t just the “great men” ( Caesar, Pompey, Octavius, Cicero). They use Mckidd’s character to view Rome and the events of the time period through multiple lenses which I really enjoyed.
I wish they could have had the full run but it’s good as-is.
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u/Iohet Feb 02 '23
Rome and Deadwood were Sopranos hangover victims at HBO. Expensive to produce but didn't bring in the subscribers like Tony and co did
At least Deadwood got a finale movie of sorts
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u/drfakz Feb 02 '23
The Deadwood movie isn't great but it ties things up I suppose.
I get why they did it, but I really didn't like the flash backs in the movie. Especially having just watched the show but I recognize they had a huge gap in time. I still think most viewers would have rewatched for a refresher instead of trying to force a movie that could stand on its own.
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u/Remainderking Feb 02 '23
Cleopatra went to Sugar Daddy Julius Caesar because the native Kemetians sided with her brother. Caesar wanted a post in Egypt long before he became Caesar. Caesar was in his youth a member of the priesthood of Apollo, who was identified back then as a version of Ra, the Sun God. He really wanted Egypt. Cleopatra was an added side chick bonus.
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u/minneapolisblows Feb 02 '23
Cleopatra was a potolemy not an actual ancient Egyptian.
First mummified egyptians occurred in 3500 BCE.
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u/capitaine_d Feb 02 '23
My favorite Fun Fact she was technically the last of Hellenic royalty. Of what was the ancient greek world, only influences in Egypt were left after the Romans started doing what Romans do best.
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u/Welshhoppo Waiting for the Roman Empire to reform Feb 02 '23
Not quite the last. There was Ptolemy of Mauretania who was her grandson.
Famously he was killed by Caligula because apparently he turned up one day with a better looking purple cloak and Caligula took offense at it.
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u/Remainderking Feb 02 '23
By some 3x or more, even without disputing the official ages of the Great Pyramids. Egypt/Kemet is just about the longest lasting continuous civilization ever
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u/gnit2 Feb 02 '23
Well, one of the first civilizations thats recent enough to still have relics left standing. There must have been plenty of prehistoric civilizations who used much more temporary materials like wood for most of their structures and they left little to nothing to show for their great achievements.
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u/Raudskeggr Feb 02 '23
Maybe? Like I said, the "Formal" definition of civilization, which is a fairly specific and biased towards western style civilizations; we know virtually nothing of a civilization if it left behind no relics.
Almost any place where human lives will leave behind some traces though, even if at first they are not obvious. Things like pottery last forever; bone fragments and tools are almost ubiquitous. And of course, the hallmark of homo sapiens vs. pre-modern hominins, art. Beads, figurines, musical instruments, and drawings/carvings.
Though there do exist some cases where we have identified ancient human presence due to a lack of something being there; remains of wooden post-holes in neolithic sites at europe suggested wooden henges and large buildings. In stone-age China, we find remarkably few stone tools. It is believed that this is because they were using bamboo instead, which was easier to obtain and to work. But also left behind little in the way of evidence.
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u/Remainderking Feb 02 '23
Facts. Civilizations are supply chains, not the race based structures that Western definitions use to promote Western cultures to the detriment of others. A quick read of Herodotus would show that at the beginning of what we call ‘Western Civilization’, the Greeks learned philosophy and religion from Kemet.
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u/Sensitive_File6582 Feb 02 '23
It’s not just the west. Humans are trible to a somewhat arbitrary degree. It is a struggle for the species not just a society.
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u/WhatsHupp Feb 02 '23
Just read an article about some archaeology on California’s Channel islands, one thing that stood out was their mention of the islands’ lack of burrowing rodents. Over decades and centuries those things can really churn up the soil, making it impossible to find less permanent physical evidence that would otherwise tell us a lot about who used to live there.
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Feb 02 '23
So they really taught themselves about bacteria? I wonder how they found out this research
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u/Raudskeggr Feb 02 '23
They didn't know about bacteria. But they did know "this stuff works better than this stuff to preserve" through many iterations of trial and error.
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u/GammaGoose85 Feb 02 '23
Yeah theres alot of knowledge and ancient wisdom that knew the what but didn't know they why or the right why. Makes u wonder what we think we know now but don't really.
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u/STEELCITY1989 Feb 02 '23
Exactly. They knew it worked but not why in the literal sense with no paradigm of bacteria.
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u/Angdrambor Feb 02 '23
They did have some kind of paradigm. it may not have been as complex or complete as our modern study of microbiology, but it would have at least been isomorphic to the truth.
In much the same way, our modern understanding of microbiology will seem woefully inadequate to the people of the future.
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u/nzdastardly Feb 02 '23
"Can you believe those barbarians used SOAP AND HOT WATER instead of a biofilter in the transporter?" - some smug 24th century person
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u/lt_spaghetti Feb 02 '23
I mean, at the end of the day we made rocks think and information travel through blinky glass strands, electric airwaves and copper wires.
200 000 years of human lifetime is a long time
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u/Angdrambor Feb 02 '23
Pure observation. Even if you don't have a microscope to see the bacteria, you can see(and smell) their work.
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u/jawshoeaw Feb 02 '23
The real trick was salt (technically a mixture of salt and baking soda). After removing the organs and brain you’re like a rack of beef. Then they packed you in salt and all the juices drained away. All that bologna about herbs and spices was for odor control
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u/why_rob_y Feb 02 '23
Getting pretty hungry over here.
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u/jawshoeaw Feb 02 '23
I was just on a sub talking about buying a portion of a cow and now I’m thinking of pastrami mmmm
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u/come_on_seth Feb 02 '23
NYC pastrami….oh the memories of eating in bed and having sex with what’s her name
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u/aknabi Feb 02 '23
Pastrami is the most sensual of the cured meats
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u/come_on_seth Feb 02 '23
Sometimes I wish I could kiss that stupid sob for all the joy he and his cohorts bring. This will have to do 💋
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u/NessieReddit Feb 02 '23
I thought it was bitumen/tar that they used as the main ingredient? Tar/bitumen was called mummia or mummy which is where mummies got their name from.
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u/TatosTatoes Feb 02 '23
The real question is why?
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u/ubermeisters Feb 02 '23
to preserve the body longer so the afterlife is a better experience. your inside have a lot more bacteria than your outsides do. those bacteria rot and bloat your corpse etc etc. so, removal of most of the bacterial load, and further mummification keeps the exterior flesh from rotting away. That's why we can still find the preserve remains.
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u/azlaarlives Feb 02 '23
I thought we already knew this?
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u/CradleRobin Feb 02 '23
In the article it talks about what we used to know and what we recently discovered.
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u/PikeOffBerk Feb 02 '23
Wrong! Mummies had their pores exfoliated by some sort of advanced power tools. Clearly either aliens or some hyper advanced human civilization ten thousand years ago made all mummies, NOT ancient humans. Mainstream archaeodermatology is LYING to you! /s
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u/Professional_Bite725 Feb 02 '23
It's interesting to see how in-depth their research was: