The ancient Egyptians believed in the existence of another life that begins after death, which prompted them to build tombs that contain all the tools and foods they need to help them provide for their journey to that hidden world.

These tombs were not the preserve of the Pharaohs’ kings and their families only, but the construction of the tomb was an integral part of the ancient Egyptians’ belief in their different social classes.

Last March, the Journal of Archaeological Science published a study carried out by a large team of researchers as part of a project launched by the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy in 2017, known as the TT8 project.

The study aims to analyze the volatile organic compounds emanating from the contents of the Kha and Merit tomb in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, through the technique of selected-ion flow-tube mass spectrometry or "SIFT-Ms".

The technique helps to identify the original materials that inhabited the pots and other tools in the tomb, which are materials that have evaporated over thousands of years and resulted in aromatic materials.

The tomb of Kha - a foreman - and his wife Merit, the most famous complete tomb of non-kings discovered in 1906 (Egyptian Museum in Turin)

Project "TT8"

The tomb of Kha - who once worked as a foreman - and his wife Merit is one of the most famous complete tombs for non-kings, discovered by the Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1906 in the area of ​​Deir, the city near the Egyptian city of Luxor, and it is the tomb whose contents were transferred to the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy It was called TT8.

The museum launched the "TT8" research project in cooperation with many archaeologists, analytical chemists and Egyptologists, with the aim of publishing digital data for the study of the tomb, which includes cultural, historical and archaeological data.

Within the framework of that project, 12 researchers studied the various categories of objects in the tomb, and determined the characteristics of their contents and constituent materials.

During the study, the researchers used a non-destructive protocol based on the aforementioned mass spectrometry technique, which is highly effective;

The researchers were able to analyze nearly 50 elements of the tomb inside the museum building without damaging any of the artifacts.

Archaeologists had previously resorted to more than one chemical technique for the purpose of analyzing artifacts and their components, including chromatography, but it was difficult to exploit these techniques in analyzing objects of different shapes and dimensions due to the possibility of damage to artifacts.

Researchers put artifacts inside plastic bags to collect volatile particles (Journal of Archaeological Science)

Discover secrets by analyzing scents

According to the report published on the “Nature” website on March 31, the analytical chemist of the Italian University of Pisa Ilaria Digano, speaking about the tomb’s artifacts, said, “I spoke with the museum curators, who confirmed to me the presence of aromatic odors inside the display boxes of the artifacts. ".

The researchers placed some of the tomb components, including closed pots and open cups with spoiled food remains, inside plastic bags for several days in order to collect the volatile particles released by those bodies.

The next step in the protocol is the use of a mass spectrometer to determine the aromatic components of each sample.

These analyzes resulted in the discovery of some of the contents of the artifacts;

The researchers found aldehydes and long-chain hydrocarbons, which are chemicals that indicate the presence of beeswax. The analysis also resulted in the discovery of trimethylamine associated with dried fish, and they also found more substances indicating the presence of fruits.

Regarding the results of the study, Digano explains, "We got good results from analyzing two-thirds of the analyzed pieces, which is a very nice surprise."

In a previous study, volatile particles were extracted from the linen used in shrouding bodies (Shutterstock)

A new branch of archeology

Researchers had previously conducted a similar experiment in 2014, during which they extracted volatile particles from some linen bandages used to shroud bodies in one of the oldest Egyptian tombs.

These particles confirmed the presence of embalming materials with antibacterial properties, which proved that the Egyptians embalmed the bodies of their dead 1,500 years before the time that scientists had previously set for the date of the start of mummification.

“Scent analysis is still an undiscovered branch of archaeology,” says Stephen Buckley, an archaeologist and analytical chemist at the University of York, UK, who was involved in the previous experiment.

"If you want to understand the ancient Egyptians, you have to delve into the world of smells," Buckley adds.

In addition to a deeper understanding of ancient civilizations, researchers aspire to improve the experience of museum visitors by adding scents, a process that is not easy at all, but it may add a lot of emotionality and privacy to those visitors during their wanderings in museums.