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The Papyrus Carlsberg Collection, University of Copenhagen
Scientists have found an ancient Egyptian instruction manual for embalming the faces of the dead. The evidence was found in a 3,500-year-old medical manuscript known as the Louvre-Carlsberg Papyrus.
According to a statement issued by the University of Copenhagen on Friday, February 26th, written references to Egyptian embalming practices of mummies are extremely rare. There were only two texts known on this subject.
Ida Christensen / University of Copenhagen
The university said, “That is why Egyptologists were surprised to find a brief booklet on embalming in a medical text that mainly deals with herbal medicine and swelling of the skin.”
The newly discovered papyrus precedes previously known texts and delves into new regions with a detailed description of how the faces were embalmed.
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“We get a list of ingredients for a treatment consisting largely of botanical aromatic materials and binders that are cooked in a liquid,” said Sophie Schiwdt, an Egyptologist at the University of Copenhagen, who has been investigating the matter. The face of the deceased was wrapped in a protective aromatic and anti-bacterial cocoon.
The guide also discusses how to schedule embalming procedures at four-day intervals. The whole process took 70 days to complete.
Besides valuable information on the art of mummification, the papyrus “contains the oldest known herbal treatise.”
Part of the papyrus belongs to the Louvre Museum in Paris and another part belongs to the University of Copenhagen, which explains the fact that it is called the Louvre-Carlsberg Papyrus.
The papyrus was partially owned by private groups, and some parts are still missing. The document precedes other known embalming texts by more than a thousand years, as it dates back to around 1450 BC, and the two organizations (the Louvre Museum and the University of Copenhagen) plan to publish the papyrus to the public in 2022.
Source: CNET
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