Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies smell ‘woody,’ ‘spicy’ and ‘sweet’, finds a new study led by researchers from University College London and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, revealing new details about mummification practices dating back thousands of years. The research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, is the first time that the smells of mummified bodies have been systematically studied combining a mix of instrumental and sensory techniques, which allowed the researchers to hone in on the chemical constituents of the mummification process that would have produced detectable odors. A Truly Groundbreaking Analysis The team examined nine ancient Egyptian mummified bodies in total, with the oldest coming from New Kingdom days (1,539 to 1,077 BC) and the
