So be cautious whenever someone says, “this is how some ancient people did something…full stop.”, because that is rarely the case. While Egyptian culture as a whole venerated the concept of Ma’at (cosmic order) and the stability it provided, customs still evolved. Egypt changed considerably over that huge swath of time ecologically, politically, even demographically. Part VII: Fragrant Tomb Gardens (Coming Soon)įirst, I think it is important to remember that we live closer on the timeline to Cleopatra the 7th than she did to the founding of the 1st Dynasty.

Part VI: The Wax Headcone Controversy (Coming Soon).Part V: The Egyptian God of Scent, Sex, and Rebirth: That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of (Coming Soon).Part III: The Fragrance of the Soul: Olfaction & Death in Ancient Egyptian Religion.This post is part of D/S’s series on Death and Scent in Ancient Egypt. The creation of the archetypical Egyptian mummy was a complex evolution that embraced the olfactive elements of the putrid and the divine. Now we reach the intersection of material culture, belief systems, and death with the physical preparation of the body, which used many aromatic ingredients. In our ongoing series on death, scent, and ancient Egypt we have explored the divine origins of the Egyptian perfume trade and the role that olfaction played in Egyptian myth.

New kingdom mummification natron salt