Recipe was similar to those used 3,000 years later to embalm

Ancient Egyptians were mummifying their dead 1,500 years earlier than previously thought.

Traces of complex embalming agents were found in linen used to wrap bodies that were placed in tombs in one of the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian cemeteries.

The formula used to treat the cloth predates the earliest scientific evidence of embalming in the area of northern Egypt by more than a millennium.

Traces of complex embalming agents were found in linen used to wrap bodies that were placed in tombs in one of the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian cemeteries, showing the the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead 1,500 years earlier than thought. Grave 408 in the cemetery at Mostagedda is pictured

Experts identified a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a plant gum, a natural petroleum source and a plant oil or animal fat in the funerary wrappings in unopened tombs at Mostagedda, in the region of Upper Egypt.

The embalming agents that were found make up a similar recipe to those used at the zenith of Pharaonic mummification around 3,000 years later.

The textile sample is held in the British museum and was collected in the 1930s, according to the study published in Plos One.

Academics say that the 11-year study, which also involved Macquarie Universit y in Australia, rewrites our understanding of the ancient civilisation.

Traditional theories on ancient Egyptian mummification suggest that in prehistory - the Late Neolithic and Predynastic periods between around 4,500 and 3,100 BC - bodies dried naturally through the action of the hot, dry desert sand.

The formula used to treat the cloth predates the earliest scientific evidence of embalming in the area by more than a millennium. The embalming agents make up a similar recipe to those used at the zenith of Pharaonic mummification around 3,000 years later. This ancient flax is heavily impregnated with resin

Experts identified a pine resin, an aromatic plant extract, a plant gum, a natural petroleum source and a plant oil or animal fat in the funerary wrappings in unopened tombs at Mostagedda. This cloth has been treated with multiple layers of resin

EMBALMING IN ANCIENT EGYPT Embalming was practiced for over 2,000 years and was an important after life ritual. Religious ceremonies accompanied the preparation of the body for the afterlife. Priests wrapped the mummy with linen strips containing resin, placed the internal organs in the specially prepared canopic jars and blessed the entrance of the mummy’s tomb at the funeral. The mummified remains remain in good condition because the process successfully removed moisture from the body to slow down the process of decay. The Ancient Egyptians believed the body was the house of the soul so even after death the spirit could only live on if the body was preserved forever. If the body decayed, so too did the soul. In Ancient Egyptian religion, the soul was made of the ka, which remained in the tomb, the ba, which was free to fly outside the tomb and the akh which travelled to the underworld for judgement. Advertisement

Early use of resins in artificial mummification has, until now, been limited to isolated occurrences during the late Old Kingdom in around 2,200 BC.

The practice became more popular during the Middle Kingdom between 2,000 and 1,600 BC.

Dr Stephen Buckley, a Research Fellow at the University of York, conducted the chemical analyses of the balm.

‘The antibacterial properties of some of these ingredients and the localised soft-tissue preservation that they would have afforded lead us to conclude that these represent the very beginnings of experimentation that would evolve into the mummification practice of the Pharaonic period,’ he said.

‘Having previously led research on embalming agents employed in mummification during Egypt’s Pharaonic period it was notable that the relative abundances of the constituents are typical of those used in mummification throughout much of ancient Egypt’s 3,000 year Pharaonic history.

‘These resinous recipes applied to the prehistoric linen wrapped bodies contained antibacterial agents, used in the same proportions employed by the Egyptian embalmers when their skill was at its peak, some 2,500 to 3,000 years later.’

Professor Thomas Higham, who was responsible for dating the burials at the University of Oxford, said: ‘This work demonstrates the huge potential of material in museum collections to allow researchers to unearth new information about the archaeological past.

‘Using modern scientific tools our work has helped to illuminate a key aspect of the early history of ancient Egypt.’

The linen was wrapped around bodies laid to rest at at ancient city of Mostagedda (marked on the map) in the region of Upper Egypt, which is home to one of the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian cemeteries