Dead sea asphalt in ancient egyptian mummies-why?

Abstract

The asphalt from the Dead Sea was an important item of trade in antiquity. Among its many uses,
the most widespread was its export to Egypt for use in the mummification process, albeit at
a relatively late date; that is, post 1000 BC. Its use became particularly important in the
Ptolemaic–Roman period, as demonstrated by a war in the fourth century BC specifically to gain
commercial control of this product. Although the reasons why the Egyptians wanted Dead
Sea asphalt at this specific time are nowhere specified, the answer may lie in its increasing
availability as a (partial) replacement for the plant resins used previously. A review of the
historical literature shows that Dead Sea asphalt was used for at least two millennia as a
biocidal agent in agricultural practices. It is proposed that the reasons for using Dead Sea
asphalt in the mummification process are due to its dual role; first, as an external mechanical
shield, when smeared on the exterior of mummy wrapping, to prevent ingress by insects, fungi,
bacteria and moisture; and, second, as a biocidal agent (perhaps due to its high sulphur
content), which prevented the flesh from decaying, the prime concern for the ancient Egyptians.

Full text

DEAD SEA ASPHALT IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
MUMMIES—WHY?*
A. NISSENBAUM†
Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
and S. BUCKLEY
Department of Archaeology, University of York, The King’s Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK
The asphalt from the Dead Sea was an important item of trade in antiquity. Among its many uses,
the most widespread was its export to Egypt for use in the mummification process, albeit at
a relatively late date; that is, post 1000 BC. Its use became particularly important in the
Ptolemaic–Roman period, as demonstrated by a war in the fourth century BC specifically to gain
commercial control of this product. Although the reasons why the Egyptians wanted Dead
Sea asphalt at this specific time are nowhere specified, the answer may lie in its increasing
availability as a (partial) replacement for the plant resins used previously. A review of the
historical literature shows that Dead Sea asphalt was used for at least two millennia as a
biocidal agent in agricultural practices. It is proposed that the reasons for using Dead Sea
asphalt in the mummification process are due to its dual role; first, as an external mechanical
shield, when smeared on the exterior of mummy wrapping, to prevent ingress by insects, fungi,
bacteria and moisture; and, second, as a biocidal agent (perhaps due to its high sulphur
content), which prevented the flesh from decaying, the prime concern for the ancient Egyptians.
KEYWORDS: ASPHALT, DEAD SEA, MUMMIES
INTRODUCTION
Although the funerary practices of ancient Egypt have been the subject of a very large number of
investigations over many years, some of these have been of very variable quality, with meaningful
understanding remaining relatively deficient.
One of the main areas of investigation has been the techniques that the ancient Egyptians
employed in order to facilitate the bodily preservation of both humans and animals. The process
of mummification basically involved removing the internal organs from the body, drying the
cadaver thoroughly and wrapping it with linen that had been anointed with ‘resins’(balms) to aid
the moulding of the contours of the body (Taylor 2001). Even though anthropogenic mummifi-
cation is currently believed to have been practised in Egypt for nearly 3500 years, from c. 2600
bc (early Fourth Dynasty) to the Christian period, the practice perhaps only ending with the Arab
conquest of Egypt in the seven century ad, some details remain unclear. Indeed, ancient Egyptian
sources provide no comprehensive description of the materials and processes used in mummifi-
cation, the only detailed reports on the techniques and materials utilized being provided by two
Greek sources, Herodotus in the fifth century bc and Diodorus of Sicily in the first century bc.Yet
even these two descriptions are somewhat different from one another in the way in which they
*Received 19 December 2011; accepted 1 March 2012
†Corresponding author: email arie.nissenbaum@weizmann.ac.il
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Archaeometry 55, 3 (2013) 563–568 doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2012.00713.x
© University of Oxford, 2012

depict the materials used in the embalming process. Although the word mumia, derived from
Latin, is borrowed from the Persian word for bitumen, there has been controversy in the
archaeological literature as to whether bitumen was in fact used in the process (e.g., Lucas 1962).
This was resolved when modern GC/MS techniques were applied to analysing samples from
mummies (Rullkotter and Nissenbaum 1988), revealing that Dead Sea asphalt (bitumen) was
indeed used by the ancient Egyptians. This was corroborated by later studies.
Although the listing of materials used in the embalming process is relatively detailed, the
reasons for utilizing a particular ingredient are not given in the above-mentioned Greek texts.
Recent authors have nonetheless suggested the reasons for the utilization of some of those
ingredients (e.g., Proefke and Rinehart 1992; Colombini et al. 2000; Buckley and Evershed 2001;
Maurer et al. 2002), and it is proposed here that, perhaps by trial and error, the particular recipe
employed was the one that resulted in the optimum preservation of bodies.
SOURCES OF INGREDIENTS USED IN MUMMIFICATION
A listing of the components used in Egyptian embalming, according to Herodotus and Diodorus,
is given in Table 1. Several of these ingredients can probably be identified reasonably accurately,
and hence their sources can be traced. Cedar oil produced from trees was probably imported from
Lebanon or Cyprus, and the myrrh from Yemen or EastAfrica. The fact that the cassia/cinnamon
was produced from plants of the Lauraceae family, which are common in tropical and subtropical
areas such as India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia, might mean that an extensive trade existed
between Egypt and the Far East for very long time. While there is no conclusive evidence for such
trade at present, there is tentative scientific evidence for the presence of cinnamon in mummies
(Buckley et al. 2004). It is also possible that the references are to the East African camphor tree
(Serpico and White 2000 and references therein), despite a current lack of chemical evidence for
the use of this material in such a context.
Particular attention has been devoted to the study of asphalt in mummies. Since the studies
of Rullkotter and Nissenbaum (1988), Connan and Dessort (1989) and Buckley and Evershed
(2001), the presence of bitumen from the Dead Sea in Egyptian mummies has been demonstrated.
Subsequent studies have also shown that the Dead Sea was not the sole source of bitumen, some
of which was produced locally in Egypt, in Gebel Zeit on the Red Sea coast (Harrel and Lewan
2002; Barakat et al. 2005).
The reasons for the use of bitumen in mummification have not been discussed in detail. In a
recent detailed study of the ingredients employed in Egyptian embalming practices, Connan
Table 1 Components used in Egyptian embalming
Herodotus (fifth century BC) Diodorus Siculus
(first century BC)
Myrrh Myrrh
Cassia Cinnamon
Cedar oil Cedar oil
Gum Spices
Aromatic spices Dead Sea bitumen (asphalt)
Natron
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© University of Oxford, 2012, Archaeometry 55, 3 (2013) 563–568

(2005) proposed that the bitumen was used to blacken the mummies, since this colour is
associated with the god Osiris and the cult of fertility and rebirth. After c. 600 bc, this would also
correspond to the introduction of new and highly symbolic aspects of the mummification process
(and other areas of ancient Egyptian culture; e.g., art) where, quite unlike earlier historical
periods, a less life-like appearance seems to have been the aim.
The question of why some of the ingredients—and in particular the cedar oil—were used was
investigated by Koller et al. (2005), who showed that dry distillation of cedar tree wood produced
creosote-like phenolic compounds, particularly guaiacol, that were effective in inhibiting alkaline
phosphatase and hence the decomposition of flesh. Their antibacterial properties would also have
aided bodily preservation. Koller et al. (2005) also claimed that bitumen is biologically func-
tionally inert, yet this is in conflict with the evidence that Dead Sea asphalt was widely used in
the ancient world for medicinal purposes (Nissenbaum 1999).
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE FOR DEAD SEA ASPHALT AS A BIOCIDE
Asphalt was extensively utilized in the ancient world for agricultural purposes. The two major
uses were to protect tree trunks and roots (particularly those of date palms and vines) against
insect infestations, and in veterinary medicine. For example, Strabo (first century bc) quotes
Poseidonius, who describes the mining of the asphalt used as a cure for infested vines by
smearing them with a blend of asphalt and olive oil.According to Strabo (Geography, 7.5.8), this
mixture ‘kills the insects before they can mount the sprouts of the roots’ (see Strabo 1924).
Marcus Cato (first century bc) provides a detailed description of the preparation of an effective
insecticide made from bitumen, amorca (olive mill waste boiled in copper kettles and mixed with
salt) and sulphur (see Cato 1934). In the Geoponica (‘Agricultural pursuits’, ascribed—probably
wrongly—to Cassianus Bassus, English translation by Thomas Owen, 1805–6), a 20-book
encyclopaedia of agricultural knowledge compiled in 10th-century Constantinople for the
Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, a discussion of diseased vines states that
one of the ways to fight insect infestation is to rub them with boiled oil and ‘asphaltos’. The
smearing of bitumen and sulphur on fruit tree trunks above the soil level is still practised today;
called ‘grease banding’, it prevents moth caterpillars and other climbing pests from reaching the
fruit-bearing branches.
Asphalt was also used to treat skin disease of domestic animals, a specific reference for the use
of Dead Sea asphalt in veterinary medicine found in the Mulomedicina Chironis (‘Mule-therapy’
by Chiron). A compilation of veterinary medicinal practices written in the second half of the
fourth century ad, it says that cattle should be fumigated with a mixture of Judean bitumen and
plant material such as sulphurwort, castor, panax and marjoram (Stern 1976). There is also
extensive historical documentation for the application of Dead Sea asphalt as a protective agent
against biological attack on crop plants. El-Tamimi, a 10th-century ad physician from Jerusalem,
described in great detail how the inhabitants of Palestine dissolved the asphalt in oil and smeared
it on the trunks and branches of the vines in order to prevent damage by worms (Amar and Serri
2004).
A very detailed description of the use of Dead Sea asphalt as a pesticide is also given by Abd
Al-Latif al-Baghdadi (1810), who visited Saladin in Jerusalem in ad 1192 and lived there for
several years. Al-Latif wrote that bitumen of Judea is used by the inhabitants by dissolving it in
oil and smearing this mixture on the vine branches in order to prevent the worms from consuming
the vines (Abd Al-Latif al-Baghdadi 1810). Fettelus wrote in ad 1130 that Dead Sea asphalt was
used for rubbing vines in order drive away the worms that consumed them (Fettelus 1896).
Dead Sea asphalt in ancient Egyptian mummies—why? 565
© University of Oxford, 2012, Archaeometry 55, 3 (2013) 563–568

In the 11th century, the Persian traveller Abu¯ M. Nâsir-i-Khusrau provided a detailed descrip-
tion of the Dead Sea and says of its asphalt that if it is smeared on the lower part of a tree, no
worm will ever do the tree harm. In the Dead Sea region, asphalt protects the roots of the trees
and guards against damage by worms and things that crawl beneath the soil. He also wrote that
the preservative power of the asphalt was known to the druggists, who bought asphalt to protect
their drugs from attack by the ‘Nukatah’ worm (Nâsir-i-Khusrau 1893). In 1321, Abu Al-Fida
wrote that Dead Sea asphalt was used to smear vines and fig trees (Abu Al-Fida 1988).
In the 16th century, the Russian pilgrimVassily Posniakov, messenger ofTsar Ivan the Terrible,
who visited the Holy Land in ad 1560 or 1561, wrote that black tar was emitted from the Lake
of Sodom (the Dead Sea) and used to smear vines in order to kill off caterpillars (in Raba 1986).
The use of asphalt as a pesticide continued well into the 19th century. The asphalt quarried
in Hasbeya, in southern Lebanon, which belongs to the same geochemical family as the Dead
Sea asphalt and is practically indistinguishable from it, was exported to Europe for this purpose
(Connan and Nissenbaum 2004). U. J. Seetzen, the first European traveller to the area in the 19th
century, visited Hasbeya in 1807 and wrote that the asphalt mine had been worked for two
centuries, and that the asphalt was mostly exported to Europe to ‘secure the vines from insects’
(Seetzen 1810). Although this asphalt continued to be exported to Europe and the United States
during the 19th century, there are no indications for its usage during this period other than for the
production of varnishes and in painting (Languri et al. 2002).
During the second half of the 19th century, infestation by the aphid-like insect Phylloxera
practically devastated the vineyards of Europe and SouthAfrica. Many preparations were sought
to end this blight, one of them being the Dead Sea asphalt. Several kilograms of this material were
sent to France and were subjected to chemical tests, including distillation and reactions with nitric
and sulphuric acids. The results of the chemical analyses were reported by Delachanal (1883), but
without reference to biological applications.
The chemical basis of the biocidal activity of the asphalt has not been investigated. It has
been suggested (Nissenbaum 1999) that the high sulphur content of Dead Sea asphalt (~10 wt%)
may play a major role. Oxidation of the asphalt when exposed to the atmosphere produces SO2,
which is known to be a strong disinfectant and fumigant. It is also quite possible that some of
the volatile compounds in the asphalt, such as benzothiophenes and naphthalenes (Nissenbaum
unpublished data) may also play a fungicidal role similar to the utilization of thiophene deriva-
tives in agriculture.
In addition to its important inherent preservative properties, the asphalt is also likely to
have been important as a mechanical binder for aromatic oils such as cedar oil. Asphalt is highly
malleable and becomes viscous at low temperatures; at 40–50°C it resembles thick honey, and at
temperatures close to 90–100°C it flows quite freely. This would facilitate the very easy smearing
of the wrapping materials used in mummification—that is, the linen—while the pouring of hot
asphalt over the mummies or the wooden coffins that contained them would have produced a
mechanical barrier, preventing the introduction of organisms from the environment and hence the
decay of the mummies.
SUMMARY
In the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, the Dead Sea asphalt, imported into Egypt from an area
frequently subject to wars and commercial disruptions, was employed in Egyptian mummifica-
tion at least partly to preserve the embalmed bodies against biological decay. The asphalt,
beeswax and resins used to smear the linen coverings of the body are likely to have acted as
566 A. Nissenbaum and S. Buckley
© University of Oxford, 2012, Archaeometry 55, 3 (2013) 563–568

an external shield against insects, worms and bacteria, as well as protecting the natural fibre
wrappings from decay. The use of asphalt within the body cavities of mummified corpses could
also be due to its disinfectant qualities together with its strong biocidal properties, the long-term
physical preservation of the body being of fundamental importance in ancient Egyptian religion.
The importance of asphalt exports from the Dead Sea to Egypt was so great as to be the casus
beli in 312 bc, when the Macedonian king Antigonus I ‘Monophtalmus’ of Phrygia, one of the
successors of Alexander the Great, attacked the Nabateans of the Dead Sea area in the hope
of obtaining control of the asphalt trade (Diodorus Siculus 1947). Antigonus was defeated in a
naval battle on the Dead Sea, in what might be considered the first oil war in the Middle East
(Nissenbaum 1978). The key sentence is provided by Diodorus Siculus in the first century bc
when describing the collection of asphalt in the Dead Sea by the Nabateans: ‘The barbarians who
enjoy this source of income take it to Egypt and sell it for the embalming of the dead; for unless
this is mixed with the other aromatic ingredients, the preservation of the bodies cannot be
permanent’ (Diodorus Siculus 1947).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Professor Z. Amar (Bar Ilan University, Israel), Professor A. Aufderheide (University of Minne-
sota) and Professor E. Lev (Haifa University) are thanked for valuable comments. We are
particularly indebted to Dr Joann Fletcher (University of York) for her improvements to the
manuscript and for sharing with us her extensive knowledge of Egyptian funerary practices.
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