Archaeologists in Egypt unearthed a sealed packet of the epic poem resting atop a Roman-era mummy, suggesting they may have been used as a magical ward for the afterlife.

Animal mummification in ancient Egypt was a carefully organized practice that connected spiritual beliefs with economic activity. This wasn’t a rare or occasional ritual but a large, sustained ...

Unknown artist, “Mesu Smelling a Lotus” (c. 1525–1504 BCE), New Kingdom, Thebes, Egypt (image via Metropolitan Museum of Art) What did ancient mummies smell like? What types of scents, perfumes, and ...

Scientists have unearthed what they believe to be the oldest known evidence of human mummification in Southeast Asia. The findings, estimated to be around 12,000 years old, set a new record for the ...

Few visitors wandering through the mummy galleries at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo have the opportunity—or perhaps the inclination—to smell the aromas wafting off the gilded sarcophagi and elaborately ...

Here’s a question you’ve probably never thought of: What do Egyptian mummies smell like? An international team of researchers has a surprising answer: woody, spicy, and sweet (but if you’re ...

A research team from the University of Ljubljana and the Egyptian Museum of Cairo is a winner of the 2025 Gizmodo Science Fair for reproducing the smell of mummies, offering a new window into Ancient ...

Archaeologists have found a papyrus copy of Homer’s Iliad in the gut of an ancient Egyptian mummy, the first time ever that a Greek literary text has been found incorporated into the preservation ...