Egyptian mummification method resurrected in the UK

Jo Marchant, consultant

(Image: Channel 4: Mummifying Alan: Egypt's last secret)

If you're at all squeamish, please look away now. A pair of British scientists - closely followed by a film crew - have tested their theories on ancient Egyptian mummification by making a human mummy of their own.

The volunteer was Alan Billis, a taxi driver from Torquay, UK, who donated his body to the project after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He died in January.

(Image: Channel 4: Mummifying Alan: Egypt's last secret)

Stephen Buckley, a chemist at the University of York, UK, has been studying ancient Egyptian mummification practices for the last two decades. Working with archaeologist Jo Fletcher, also at the University of York, he has analysed tissue samples from mummies using techniques such as gas chromatography mass spectrometry to identify the materials used, including salt, beeswax, oils and resins.

The pair have also experimented with hundreds of pigs' legs (apparently a close substitute for human tissue) in a shed equipped with a heater and dehumidifer to recreate the hot, dry conditions of Egypt.

Just how the ancient Egyptians preserved bodies so well has always been a bit of a mystery. They never wrote down how they did it, but the Greek historian Herodotus described the process in 450 BC. He said that the key ingredient was natron - a form of natural salt found in Egypt.

(Image: Channel 4: Mummifying Alan: Egypt's last secret)

Historians had assumed that dry salt was used to draw water out of the corpse, but Buckley and Fletcher have another theory, that the body was placed in a bath of liquid natron solution, before being dried out afterwards.

They've tested their idea on Billis, in a mummification process that took three months. Experts in human decomposition seem impressed by how well his body is preserved, with Billis's wife Jan also satisfied with the result. "I'm the only woman in the country who's got a mummy for a husband," she says.

But will he last as well as pharaohs such as Tutankhamun? We'll only have to wait 3300 years to find out.

Mummifying Alan: Egypt's last secret will air on Channel 4 in the UK at 9 pm on Monday 24 October

(Image: Channel 4: Mummifying Alan: Egypt's last secret)

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/195d41ef/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A110C10A0Cegyptian0Emummification0Emethod0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

jeffrey eugenides volcker rule matthew stafford albert pujols rosie o donnell terrell owens terrell owens