On the Potential of THz Time-Domain Spectroscopy to Identify Typical Ancient Egyptian Embalming Materials
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On the Potential of THz Time-Domain Spectroscopy to Identify Typical Ancient Egyptian Embalming Materials E. Stübling 1 & L. Öhrström 2 & P. Eppenberger 2 & M. Habicht 2 & F. Rühli 2 & M. Koch 1 Received: 21 January 2019 / Accepted: 27 May 2019 / Published online: 11 June 2019 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract We investigated the dielectric properties of typical embalming materials used in ancient Egypt in the THz frequency range. In addition, we evaluated the potential to identify these materials based on a principal component analysis of the spectroscopic data. Based on this, we estimated the composition of two unknown ancient bandages of mummified bodies. Keywords THz spectroscopy . Identification potential . Principal component analysis . Embalming materials . THz database In ancient Egypt, it was customary to ensure eternal life of the deceased by embalming their body and often also certain previously removed internal organs. The application of a variety of organic embalming agents was one of the key points in the mummification process. The exact nature of the used embalming agents, however, remains unknown, since only scarce secondary textual evidence about the ancient Egyptian mummification process is available, e.g., Herodotus (484–430 BC) and Diodorus Siculus (first half of the first century BC) [1, 2]. In the anthropological, archeological, and paleopathological context, the nature and use of particular substances may provide insight into the rites, lifestyles, environments, and health of a particular population. By the mid-twentieth century, scientists began using organic residue analysis to decipher the composition of these embalming agents at a chemical level, but available analytical techniques initially limited these efforts to identifying very common organic components [3]. The most commonly used technique in current literature for characterizing organic compounds in samples from ancient Egyptian mummies is the coupling of a gas chromatograph (GC) to a mass spectrometer (MS) or a tandem mass spectrometer (MS/ MS), but the use of more specific techniques is also reported, e.g., the use of sequential thermal * E. Stübling [email protected]
1
Department of Physics and Material Sciences Center, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Renthof 5, 35032 Marburg, Germany
2
Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (2019) 40:763–769
desorption GC-MS or pyrolysis GC-MS [3–11] or by spectroscopic methods such as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy [12]. Consequently, such studies were mostly based on invasive methods, by taking small samples from the studied objects in order to identify their composition, but they allowed establishing a list of typical ancient Egyptian embalming materials. A mixture of oils, fats, waxes, resins, rubbers, salts, bitumen, and various bark and spices can be assumed to be the main constituents of such balms.
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