Rethinking the Process of Animal Mummification in Ancient Egypt: Molecular Characterization of Embalming Material and the Use of Brassicaceae Seed Oil in the Mummification of Gazelle Mummies from Kom Mereh, Egypt

The study of animal mummification in ancient Egypt has recently received increasing
attention from a number of modern scholars given the fact that this part of ancient Egyptian funerary
and religious history is a practice yet to be fully understood. In this study, nine samples of embalming
matter were extracted from six gazelle mummies from the archaeological site of Kom Mereh (modern
village of Komir), dated to the Roman period of dominance in ancient Egypt. All samples were
analyzed for the presence of inorganic and organic matter applying a multi-analytical approach based
on Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry
(GC-MS). Furthermore, in order to identify more specific compounds such as bitumen and beeswax
in studied balms, each sample was subjected to a solid phase extraction (SPE) and saponification
separation process, respectively. The results of this study revealed that the majority of the analyzed
embalming substances sampled from six gazelle mummies from Kom Mereh were complex mixtures
of plant oils, animal fats, conifer resin, and beeswax. In this regard, this study was able to report a
practice until now unmentioned in the scientific literature, namely, the use of cruciferous oil, derived
from seeds of Brassicaceae plants, in animal mummification.