What Did Mummies Smell Like?
Although scent and memory are intimately intertwined, it’s not always easy to figure out what the past smelled like. But in the case of Egyptian mummies, historians may actually have an answer, and it’s “surprisingly pleasant.”
Recently, researchers from the University College London collaborated with the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to analyze the scents of nine mummies from a range of time periods in ancient Egyptian history. The resulting study, published in February 2025 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, combined somewhat traditional sensory analysis — a panel of trained human “sniffers” who described their findings — with techniques to pinpoint the chemical compounds the mummies were emitting.
They looked at nine mummies, dating from Egypt’s New Kingdom (roughly 1539 to 1077 BCE) to its Roman period (30 BCE to 642 CE), and the most common olfactory descriptors people noted were “woody,” “spicy,” and “sweet.” Less commonly, the mummies were described as smelling “incense-like” or “stale, rancid.” The human sniffers were also asked to describe the pleasantness of mummy aromas, technically known as their “hedonic tone.” The average hedonic tone was rated as “slightly pleasant” — not bad, 5,000 or so years after death.
Some of the most common odor compounds isolated by the more high-tech analysis were “nonanal” (described as smelling fresh and similar to wax, orange peel, and fat), “furfural” (described as being sweet and reminiscent of wood, almonds, and bread), and terpenoids such as α-pinene, d-limonene, l-verbenone, and borneol. Terpenoids usually suggest the use of plant products such as juniper oil, myrrh, and frankincense, which have all been well documented as part of the mummification process.
Indeed, the smells emitted by the mummies come in large part from the materials used to preserve the corpses. While techniques and materials varied over time, Egyptian mummies were often embalmed with resins from trees such as pine, cedar, juniper, and mastic, as well as gum resins (such as myrrh and frankincense), incense, animal fats, waxes, and various other woods, spices, herbs, and flowers. The preservation process also often involved natron salts — a mix of sodium carbonate, hydrogen carbonate, and small amounts of chloride and sulfate.
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That said, the smells reported in the study didn’t just come from the original mummification materials. The analysis also found aromatic traces coming from plant oils used for more recent conservation; synthetic pesticides (some of which smelled a lot like original mummification materials); and microbiological deterioration products such as mold. Some of the aromatic molecules even came from items such as the sarcophaguses and mummification fabric. That means these mummies might smell somewhat different today than they did when first preserved.
The techniques used to embalm Egyptian mummies changed over time, the study noted, and also varied by region and socioeconomic status. While mummification in Predynastic Egypt (around 5000 BCE) was largely a natural process accomplished by hot, dry desert sand, the Old Kingdom (roughly 2700 to 2200 BCE) saw the use of natron salts, plant resins, gums, and the removal of internal organs. Mummification quality peaked during the New Kingdom (around 1570 to 1069 BCE) and declined during the Ptolemaic and Greco-Roman periods (332 BCE to 395 CE). After the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641 CE, mummification was no longer practiced in the region. Yet it’s fair to say that while the ritual was practiced, it probably produced scents somewhat similar to those noted by the study.
The researchers didn’t just study mummy scents as a curiosity, though. They hope a more detailed understanding of the scents will help preserve the relics, by expanding our understanding of embalming methods and improving conservation techniques that could help protect the mummies from further damage.
Although the study claims to be the first to systematically study the smells of a collection of mummies, one previous study looked at the residues in 3,500-year-old canopic jars (vessels used to store mummified organs) from the tomb of an Egyptian noblewoman named Senetnay. The scientists who scraped the residues from the now-empty jars, found in 1900 by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings, identified traces of beeswax, plant oil, fats, bitumen, and resins from various trees, including pine and cedar.
But this time, the researchers didn’t just present their findings — they actually attempted to recreate them. The scientists who worked on the project, including German archaeologist Barbara Huber, worked with French perfumer Carole Calvez and “sensory museologist” Sofia Collette Ehrich to recreate the scent of the embalming materials found in the jars. Speaking about the results of their recreation, Huber told CBC radio, “The dominant aroma is definitely a woody kind of pine-like scent, but it also has a hint of bitumen, a little bit of beeswax, something sweet, and you might even be able to pick up a fresh, citrusy note of pistachio.”
The aromatic creation was dubbed “Scent of Eternity,” and while it wasn’t for sale, it became part of “an immersive, multisensory experience” at the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark in October 2023. The exhibit, “Ancient Egypt–Obsessed With Life,” used the scent to help tell the story of Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife and the mummification process. It’s part of a recent trend of incorporating scent in museum exhibits and other ways of experiencing history. After all, our ancestors used all five of their senses, and so we should, too.
