Reading Distant Connections in a 3,500-Year-Old Aromatic Balm

An ancient jar may look empty, its contents long gone. Yet a thin film left on its inner surface can reveal materials used 3,500 years ago and connections between people.

A 2023 study analyzed residues of preservation balms from two jars that once held the organs of an ancient Egyptian woman named Senetnay. The combination of beeswax, oils and fats, bitumen, and aromatic resins revealed a formulation that was complex for its time.

A preservative prepared for a royal wet nurse

Senetnay lived around 1450 BCE and served as wet nurse to the future pharaoh Amenhotep II. After her death, her organs were mummified and placed in four canopic jars.

Howard Carter discovered the jars in tomb KV42 in the Valley of the Kings in 1900. The present study examined the two limestone jars that had held her lungs and liver. They are now in the Museum August Kestner in Hanover, Germany.

The organs themselves were gone, but thin layers of balm remained on the bases and walls, with some having soaked into the porous limestone. Balm was a mixture used in treating bodies and organs to preserve them for the afterlife.

Although ancient texts mention mummification procedures, they do not adequately record detailed material recipes. The researchers sought to fill that gap using molecules in the residues and to consider material procurement, technology, and Senetnay’s social standing.

Six samples from two jars, examined with three analytical methods

One sample was taken from the base and two from the inner walls of each jar, making six samples in total. Molecules were better preserved in the basal residues than in the thin deposits on the walls.

The extracted samples were examined using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, a high-temperature version of that technique, and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. The combination captured molecules with differing properties, including fatty acids, waxes, and resin components.

Original ingredients do not necessarily remain unchanged in an ancient mixture. The researchers inferred what had been present by comparing molecules, including oxidation and degradation products, with reference substances and known chemical signatures. Rather than simply reading the name of a single peak, they used patterns formed by multiple components.

Beeswax, oils and fats, and bitumen reveal the balm’s base

Several signatures of beeswax were found in both jars. A combination of long-chain wax esters, fatty acids, alcohols, and hydrocarbons supported beeswax as one of the major ingredients.

The researchers also found hopanes and steranes, compounds characteristic of natural petroleum, confirming the presence of bitumen. Bitumen is a natural asphalt-like material. Its identification relied on chemical markers, not simply an assumption based on dark residues.

The fatty-acid distributions suggested a mixture of plant oils and degraded fats. For the fats, however, the researchers could not distinguish animal-derived material added as a preservative from material originating in Senetnay’s own tissues.

Aromatic plant-derived ingredients appear to have been added to this base of oils and fats, beeswax, and bitumen.

Conifer resin and another aromatic ingredient

Resin compounds including abietic acid and its oxidation products indicated the use of materials from conifers in the pine family. Even as the original resin changed over time, some molecules retained its characteristic signatures.

Larixol was also detected in the lung jar, providing a clue that led the researchers to consider larch resin. This inference needs caution because it rests on a single marker, and a mixture with other pine-family resins is also possible.

The same jar contained dammarane-type compounds and other indicators of an additional resin. Candidates were dammar resin or resin from the genus Pistacia. Shared compounds and products that can form during aging prevented an unambiguous distinction in this analysis.

Molecules associated with aromatic plant materials, including benzoic acid and coumarin, were also detected. Coumarin has a vanilla-like scent, but it occurs in many kinds of plants and therefore does not identify a particular species.

Vanillic acid was found as well, but the authors consider wood degradation a likely source in this context. Rather than inferring ancient vanilla use from the name, it is important to consider the materials’ history, including degradation.

Where did the ingredients come from?

Because pine-family conifers are not native to Egypt, their resins were probably brought in from elsewhere. Candidate sources include conifers distributed around the Mediterranean and in western Asia.

For Pistacia, the Mediterranean coast through the Levant would be a potential source region; for dammar resin, the main candidates would be tropical forests in Southeast Asia. Confirmation of the latter would indicate connections with very distant lands.

However, the paper’s main text regards Pistacia as the more parsimonious explanation at present. Since the identification of dammar resin itself remains uncertain, the jars cannot be said to establish a trade route with Southeast Asia.

Nevertheless, a recipe combining several non-local ingredients provides tangible evidence for considering how Egypt procured plant materials from surrounding regions. Aromatic resins were materials connecting ritual with resources from distant places.

Differences between the jars and an exceptional recipe

The lung jar contained additional resin compounds and larixol that were not found in the liver jar. The recipes may have differed between organs.

Differences could also arise, however, if degradation proceeded differently over approximately 3,500 years or if the ingredients were unevenly mixed from the outset. The researchers treat the findings as evidence supporting the possibility of organ-specific recipes, not definitive proof.

Compared with previous analyses of mummification materials, Senetnay’s balms were exceptionally complex for their period. In particular, recipes containing ingredients such as beeswax and bitumen appear to anticipate treatments that became more widespread later. However, analytical methods and preservation conditions can also affect the number of ingredients detected, placing limits on comparisons across periods.

Together with her burial in the Valley of the Kings and her titles, the researchers interpret this elaborate treatment as one indication of how highly she was valued in the royal circle.

Summary

Senetnay’s two organ-preservation jars retained traces of complex balms combining oils and fats, beeswax, bitumen, and conifer resins. Some aromatic ingredients were probably brought from outside Egypt, revealing connections between ritual, technology, and material procurement.

The types and origins of certain resins, and the complete original aroma, remain uncertain. Even so, it is a significant achievement that museum objects excavated more than a century ago retained molecular information that new analysis could use to revisit history. Jars that look empty still had a past to tell.

The research and publication received support from the Max Planck Society and others, and one author received fellowship support from the Joachim Herz Foundation. The authors declared no competing interests.

References

Huber B, et al. (2023). Biomolecular characterization of 3500-year-old ancient Egyptian mummification balms from the Valley of the Kings. Scientific Reports, 13, 12477. Original article and open-access full text