‘Meat mummies’ fed Egyptians after death
By Stephanie Pappas
Published November 19, 2013
LiveScience
Beef rib meat mummy from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuiu (1386-1349 BC). (PNAS)
Beef rib meat mummy from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuiu (1386-1349 BC). (PNAS)
Care for some ribs? The royal mummies of ancient Egypt apparently did, as a new study finds that “meat mummies” left in Egyptian tombs as sustenance for the afterlife were treated with elaborate balms to preserve them.
Mummified cuts of meat are common finds in ancient Egyptian burials, with the oldest dating back to at least 3300 B.C. The tradition extended into the latest periods of mummification in the fourth century A.D. The famous pharaoh King Tutankhamun
went to his final resting place accompanied by 48 cases of beef and poultry.
But meat mummies have been mostly unstudied until now. University of Bristol biogeochemist Richard Evershed and his colleagues were curious…
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