{"id":275052,"date":"2026-02-05T08:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/275052\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T08:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:08:13","slug":"scientists-want-you-to-smell-ancient-egyptian-mummies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/275052\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists want you to smell ancient Egyptian mummies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visiting a museum could soon be a truly multisensory experience\u2014smells included. Thanks to recent advances in the field of biomolecular archeology<\/a>, scientists can now detect traces of molecular fingerprints<\/a> on ancient artifacts. From these tiny particles, scientists can determine how the objects may have smelled<\/a>. And smell can lead to better understanding of medicine, rituals, and daily lives in general from thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n

A new paper published today in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology<\/a> shows how museums can harness the power of molecular evidence and tap into the sensory world of the past. Based on actual molecular findings from ancient artifacts, the team built portable scent cards and scent diffusers to accompany Egyptian mummification<\/a> exhibits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis research represents a significant shift in how scientific results can be shared beyond academic publications,\u201d Barbara Huber<\/a>, a study co-author and an archaeo-chemist from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of T\u00fcbingen in Germany, said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Huber worked with Sofia Collette Ehrich<\/a>, an art historian and expert in scent-based storytelling\u00a0 to bring together the worlds of ancient chemistry and the study of how perfume can communicate through smells.<\/p>\n

\"three<\/p>\n

Visitors sniffing the Scent of the Afterlife card during a guided tour at the Museum August Kestner, in Hannover, Germany. Image: Photo by Ulrike Dubiel, Museum August Kestner. Copyright: Ehrich SC, Calvez C, Loeben CE, Dubiel U, Terp Laursen S and Huber B (QRQS) From biomolecular traces to multisensory experiences: bringing scent reproductions to museums and cultural heritage. Front. Environ. Archaeol. V:WXYSZX[. doi:WR.YYZ\\\/fearc.QRQ[.WXYSZX[<\/p>\n

Perfumer and pharmacist Carole Calvez<\/a> then used ancient chemical signatures from Huber\u2019s research to create a scent for a potential exhibit. Importantly, Calvez says that this process is not a simple act of replication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real challenge lies in imagining the scent as a whole,\u201d Calvez explained in a statement. \u201cBiomolecular data provide essential clues, but the perfumer must translate chemical information into a complete and coherent olfactory experience that evokes the complexity of the original material, rather than just its individual components.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team then developed two ways to present ancient scents to the public. Alongside the artifacts that inspired this project, the team recreated the aromas of mummification in ancient Egypt. A portable scented card and a fixed scent diffusion station were worked into an exhibition at the Museum August Kestner in Hanover, Germany.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The Scent of the Afterlife scented card. The essence of the reproduced scent is inserted into the paper via scent printing. Image: Ehrich SC, Calvez C, Loeben CE, Dubiel U, Terp Laursen S and Huber B (2026) From biomolecular traces to multisensory experiences: bringing scent reproductions to museums and cultural heritage. Front. Environ. Archaeol. 4:1736875. doi: 10.3389\/fearc.2025.1736875.<\/p>\n

\u201cScent provides a new approach to mummification, moving away from the scare factor and horror movie clich\u00e9s towards an appreciation of the motivations behind the actions and the desired results,\u201d curators Christian E. Loeben and Ulrike Dubiel reported.<\/p>\n

The fixed scent station format was also installed in the exhibition at the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scent station transformed how visitors understood embalming,\u201d said curator Steffen Terp Laursen. \u201cSmell added an emotional and sensory depth that text labels alone could never provide.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the team<\/a>, this shows how molecular traces of the past can be made into meaningful cultural experiences in the present.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope to offer museums compelling new tools for bringing visitors closer to past environments and practices via sensory interpretation and engagement,\u201d Ehrich concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visiting a museum could soon be a truly multisensory experience\u2014smells included. Thanks to recent advances in the field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[142408,44398,142409,85,46,142414,142411,142410,141,142412,142413],"class_list":{"0":"post-275052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ancient-artifacts","9":"tag-ancient-egypt","10":"tag-egyptian-mummification","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-molecular-evidence","14":"tag-multisensory-experience","15":"tag-scent-diffusers","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-sensory-world","18":"tag-sofia-collette-ehrich"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}