Ancient materials analysis of a pharaonic embalming tar

Details of mummification techniques used in dynastic Egypt have emerged from writings in subsequent ancient texts, in which the application of oils (kedros, cedrium) derived from the cedar tree have been described by Herodotus (490–425 bc)1 and by Pliny the Elder (ad 23/24–79)2. But scholars have since argued that these products were prepared from juniper trees and not from cedar3 — an assertion that is widely accepted by Egyptologists4 but which has never been verified by chemical analysis. Here we use gas chromatography to analyse the constituents of a sample of unused entombed embalming material from 1500 bc at a site in Deir el-Bahari, Egypt, and find that its components probably originated from the cedar tree. We also identify one component, guaiacol, as having notable preservative properties.