Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies smell ‘woody, spicy and sweet’, a study has found. It is the first time that the odour of mummified bodies have been systematically explored.The research, led by scientists from University College London and the University of Ljubljana,

Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies smell 'woody,' 'spicy' and 'sweet', finds a new study led by researchers from UCL and the University of Ljubljana, revealing new details about mummification practices.

Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies preserved for 5,000 years smell “woody”, “spicy” and “sweet”, according to scientists who used their own senses and electronic noses to examine them. Human “sniffers” were recited to describe the scent in terms of quality, intensity and pleasantness.

This new data offers clues about the materials used in mummification and how practices and ingredients evolved.

Learn how unpacking olfactory elements helps researchers understand mummy preservation techniques, and how you could one day smell a mummy yourself.

Ancient Egyptian mummification techniques almost always focused on ensuring the best preservation possible. These methods developed over hundreds of years, and reflected different societal factors at those points in time.

After thousands of years in the afterlife you might expect to stink like a moldy old scrotum, but as it turns out, ancient Egyptian mummies are still surprisingly easy on the nose. A credit to their embalmers,

We know what they look like, and even sound like, but there’s one question you might not have pondered: what do ancient Egyptian mummies smell like? Whether you wanted to know or not, scientists have now given us an answer.