Credit: Associated Press
A solid-phase microextraction fiber collects a sample of air within an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus in February 2025. This noninvasive technique may open new avenues for researching old and delicate organic materials.
Most people probably aren’t itching to take a whiff of the mummified remains of the long dead. But doing so can unlock new pieces of the past, according to a new study.
“Many people have sniffed mummies, of course,” says MatijaStrlič, a professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Ljubljana and a professor of heritage science at University College London. For instance, their odor can help conservators discern different levels of decay.
But Strlič and his coauthors wanted to find out whether mummified people’s volatile emissions could reveal what materials were used in their preservation, both in the embalming process and during centuries of storage in museums and other facilities.
“We just collect molecules from the vicinity of the object, and we can say what materials they’re made of, how they’re conserved, and all the contextual information that’s important to conservators,” says Strlič, senior author of the study, published this February in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c15769). “You don’t even need to touch the object.”
Scientists sample air from an Egyptian sarcophagus.
Credit: Associated Press
Scientists Emma Paolin of the University of Ljubljana and Abdelrazek Elnaggar of the University of Ljubljana and Ain Shams University, sample air within a sarcophagus housed at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum in February 2025.
‘Absolutely flabbergasted’
For the research, scientists identified nine mummified people from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. Some of the remains dated back to the New Kingdom, which spanned the 16th to the 11th centuries BCE and included the reigns of well-known pharaohs such as Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III, and Tutankhamun. Others were from the Late Period, which ended when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BCE.
Next, the team recruited eight human “supersniffers”—people with acute senses of smell who have undergone extensive training on categorizing and quantifying complex smells—to develop odor profiles of the remains This was supplemented by gas chromatography-olfactometry-mass spectrometry analysis. Three prominent descriptors emerged: woody, spicy, and sweet.
This makes a lot of sense, Strlič says, given that most ancient Egyptian mummified remains are housed in sarcophagi, which are made from wood.
Decaying plant materials often smell sweet, like hay, he says, and the spiciness seems to originate from the various resins used in the embalming process. (By the way, “spicy” here refers to spices, such as anise, rather than spiciness, as in chili pepper.)
“What I was absolutely flabbergasted at was that each of the nine mummified people smell differently,” he says.
“There were similarities, but there were also huge differences among them, not just in terms of intensity but also in terms of the aroma notes.”
What I was absolutely flabbergasted at was that each of the nine mummies smell differently.
Matija Strlič, study lead author, University of Ljubljana
Investigating the past without destroying it
Chemical analysis also revealed the presence of pesticides, which museum staff have historically used to protect stored remains from insect damage. Such substances can present a safety hazard to staff, and several of the team’s supersniffers opted out of participating in the study after pesticides were detected.
The toxin levels were still well below acceptable health standards, Strlič notes.
Though the scientists would have liked access to more mummified samples, they stressed that their study shows the potential to learn about important historical and cultural artifacts without damaging them.
“Being able to obtain this sort of information in a completely noninvasive way has extreme value,” says Ian Bull, an analytical chemist at the University of Bristol who was not involved in the research.
“They’ve got some quite interesting chemistry, but at the same time, by linking it with all the smells and everything, they've created something which makes it very accessible to the layperson,” Bull says. “In terms of the public engagement and outreach component, it’s brilliant.”
Smells like ancient Egypt
While it’s not the primary goal of the research, Strlič says he could envision a day when smellscapes are used to enhance museum exhibits. Many ancient Egyptian remains are protected behind thick glass, cutting off any ability to smell them.
“If smell or sound is included in museum presentations, it turns out that people remember such presentations much, much more—and for a longer period of time as well,” Strlič says. “So there is a huge scientific argument why you would want to develop multisensory museums.”
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