This mummy, known as “Fred,” confirms that the Egyptians practiced embalming for 1,500 years longer than scientists thought.
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The Turin mummy is approximately 5,600 years old and was initially considered unique in its preservation. Fred was thought to have survived naturally due to the scorching desert heat.
However, the study analyzed the mummy's remains and found that not only was it embalmed by humans, but it was also preserved using a recipe similar to that used 2,500 years later on pharaohs and high-ranking officials like King Tutankhamun during the heyday of mummification in Egypt, Live Science reports.
Study co-author Jana Jones, an Egyptologist at Australia's Macquarie University, had previously examined fragments of fabric from the mummy's burial blankets, which dated to around the same period as Fred but were found elsewhere, and found evidence pointing to the mummy's embalming.
However, this evidence was not enough to convince skeptics that embalming had actually occurred, as they only had textile remains to analyze and no actual bodies. So to confirm their hypothesis, they needed a body – and they turned to Fred for definitive proof.
Sourse: www.allthatsinteresting.com
