Pharaoh's pots give up their secrets

http://tinyurl.com/3xmoyz (New Scientist)

"For a century, they have been on display in the Louvre museum in Paris, labelled as Canopic jars holding the embalmed innards of the great Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II. But the four pots, covered in hieroglyphs, are not what they seem.
An analysis by French chemists has revealed that the jars in fact contain ordinary cosmetics, produced at a much later date.
The blue jars arrived in the Louvre in 1905. They carry the name of Rameses II, and seemed to contain embalmed organs, including a trace of what appeared to be heart tissue. Yet Rameses's actual mummy still has its heart - the one organ ancient Egyptians left inside mummies so it could be weighed in the afterlife by the god Thoth. 'The jars look like the pots of unguents found in King Tut's tomb, among others, not like other Canopic jars,' says Jacques Connan of the University of Strasbourg, France.
With the Louvre's permission, Connan's team sampled traces of material in the pots, and analysed them using mass spectrometry and chromatography techniques used in the petroleum industry to identify complex organic mixes.They found no evidence of beeswax, bitumen or other materials Connan says were common in Egyptian embalming. Instead, the ratio of non-radioactive isotopes of carbon was typical of animal fats, while the fatty acids matched pig fat. There were also unusual molecules formed from fatty acids joined with aromatic alcohols found in pine or cedar, woods ancient Egypt imported from the Levant.
Connan concludes that the jar probably held scented ointment made by heating aromatic wood in fat, of the type Egyptians used to anoint their heads, and sacred images (Journal of Archaeological Science, vol 34, p 597).
The ratio of radioactive carbon-14 dated the material at 1035 BC, give or take 50 years. Rameses II died in 1213 BC. A yellowish powder, a remnant of the embalmed packages the jars contained in 1905, turned out to be pure mastic tree resin - which is still used in foods and embalming - from 275 BC.
The Louvre now believes the pots were made for a temple to the sun god Amun-Ra. Because Rameses II built the temple, his name is on the jars, but they were probably used to hold ritual ointments, then later recycled as containers for resin-embalmed remains."

Also covered at:

http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2083486,00.html

"One of the star exhibits at the Louvre's egyptology wing, a collection of four jars said to have contained the embalmed organs of Egypt's greatest pharoah, Rameses II, have a sadly less glamorous vintage.
The beautiful turquoise-blue earthenware pots, emblazoned with Rameses' name in hieroglyphs and with incantions to the gods Mut and Amon, are genuine.
But the belief that they held Rameses' preserved innards to help ease the pharoah into the afterlife is false, French investigators say."

And at:

http://tinyurl.com/2nh7b8
"The blue jars which have been in the Louvre Museum in Paris since 19O5 carry the name of the legendary ruler who governed his country from 1279-1213 BC and seemed to contain preserved organs - including a trace of heart tissue.They are covered in hieroglyphs and decorated with the symbolic image - or cartouche - of the pharaoh. Two of the jars had been desecrated and the other two were untouched.It was the custom of the time to store the organs of the body in such 'Canopic' jars - a type of funerary vase made from earthenware ceramic.But Rameses' actual mummy still has its heart – the one organ ancient Egyptians left inside mummies so it could be weighed in the after-life by the god Thoth."

And at:

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/news/science/ancient-egyptian-make-up-uncovered-$1065688.htm

http://tinyurl.com/2jh49h (elperiodico.com) with a photgraph of one of the pots.

The Journal of Archaeological Science website is at:

http://tinyurl.com/3cgbl5

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