How to Make a Mummy: Ancient Egyptian Workshop Has New Clues

This photo provided by the Saqqara Saite Tombs Project in January 2023 shows vessels from an embalming workshop in Saqqara, Egypt. (Saqqara Saite Tombs Project, University of Tübingen via AP)

For thousands of years, ancient Egyptians mummified their dead in the search for eternal life. Now, researchers have used chemistry and an unusual collection of jars to figure out how they did it.

Their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is based on a rare archaeological find: An embalming workshop with a trove of pottery around 2,500 years old. Many jars from the site were still inscribed with instructions like “to wash” or “to put on his head.”