A selection of the mummified bodies in the exhibition area of the Egyptian museum in Cairo. Credit: Emma PaolinShareMost people know what an ancient Egyptian mummy looks like, but they probably cant tell you about how they smell. You dont have to wait to get up-close-and-personal to one in a museum to find out, though. Researchers at the University College London collaborated with the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to scientifically analyze those very scentsand the answer is a mostly pleasant mix of earthy waxes, oils, and resins.But learning a mummys olfactory details wasnt just for curiositys sakethe teams results, published February 13 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could help preserve the relics.Ancient Egyptian mummification techniques almost always focused on ensuring the best preservation possible. These methods developed over hundreds of years, and reflected different societal factors at those points in time.Active sampling with sorbent tubes of the air surrounding a mummified body from the New Kingdom at the exhibition area of the Egyptian museum in Cairo.Credit: Emma Paolin Mummification was an important mortuary practice aimed at preserving the body and soul for the afterlife through a detailed ritual of embalming of the deceased using oils, waxes and balms, Ali Abdelhalim, director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and study co-author, explained in an accompanying statement on Thursday. The practice evolved over time, and identifying different techniques and materials used offers insights into the era, location and socioeconomic status of the individual being mummified.But apart from preservation itself, scent was also a major part of mummification. Ancient Egyptians associated pleasant odors not only with cleanliness and purity, but the bodies of deities themselves. Much like today, noxious smells were also reminders of bodily decay. This combination of olfactory focus and advanced mummification processes was so strong that, even today, a mummys aromas can recall the past. Get the Popular Science newsletter By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.The smell of mummified bodies has for years attracted significant interest from experts and the general public, but no combined chemical and perceptual scientific study has been conducted until now, added Matija Strli, study lead author and a professor at UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy, and Resources.To catalog these scents, Strli and colleagues visited Egypt to work with Abdelhalim and nine of the museums mummies. Their approach merged both traditional human sensory experience and scientific analysis. In one phase, a panel of trained human sniffers applied their keen olfactory abilities to help describe mummy aromas based on intensity, quality, and pleasantness. In another step, researchers used a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer to identify the origins of each scent.Emma Paolin, PhD researcher at University of Ljubljana (in the back) and Dr. Cecilia Bembibre, lecturer at the University College London (in the front) taking swab samples for the purpose of microbiological analysis at the Krakow University of Economics. Credit: Abdelrazek Elnaggar While some come from the bodies themselves, many other chemical molecules arose from archeological objects like the sarcophaguses and mummification fabric. Others stemmed from more modern additions like pesticides and other conservation products. Once categorized, the team was then able to describe the smell of each mummy in detail.Even around 5,000 years after their embalming, Strli and collaborators described the bodies as smelling pleasant. This is largely thanks to the materials applied to the mummies, which included scented waxes, coniferous resins and oils made from pine, cedar, and juniper, as well as gum resins such as frankincense and myrrh.Strli added that in addition to expanding our knowledge of ancient Egyptian embalming processes, the findings may help improve conservation techniques to guard the mummifies against further deterioration or damage. Looking towards the future, the information may also help with the creation of new museum exhibit opportunities around the world through the use of smellscapes in addition to the millennia-old visual components.