You are standing in the blistering heat of the Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo where the sands have guarded their secrets for thousands of years. Then, in 2016, archaeologists start digging near the pyramid of Unas, and they uncover something no one had ever found intact before: an actual ancient Egyptian mummification workshop. Not just tombs or mummies, but the place where the magic happened. Complete with stone beds for preparing bodies, tools, and dozens upon dozens of ceramic jars and bowls.

Many of those vessels still bore clear hieroglyphic and hieratic labels: “To put on his head.” “To wash”, “To make his odour pleasant”, “Dry antiu”, “Sefet”. For the first time, we could peek behind the curtain of one of humanity’s most enduring quests. the fight against decay itself.

For Episode 38, we descend into the sands of Saqqara for the story of the labeled embalming jars, the groundbreaking science that decoded their contents, and the very latest 2026 findings that show just how personalized and sophisticated those ancient recipes truly were.

Sources

Rageot et al. (2023). “Biomolecular analyses enable new insights into ancient Egyptian embalming.” Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05663-4

Science.org / AAAS coverage of the 2023 findings: https://www.science.org/content/article/secrets-mummy-making-revealed-residues-ancient-urns

Los Angeles Times feature with visuals: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-02-01/how-to-make-a-mummy-ancient-egyptian-workshop-has-new-clues

2026 Spanish study coverage (mummy head balms variability): Infobae article summarizing Colmenares-Prado et al. in Journal of Archaeological Science: https://www.infobae.com/america/ciencia-america/2026/06/11/descubren-las-recetas-secretas-de-los-embalsamadores-del-antiguo-egipto-como-este-hallazgo-cambiaria-el-paradigma/

Muy Interesante detailed summary of the 2026 Spanish research: https://muyinteresante.okdiario.com/historia/investigadores-espanoles-descifran-composicion-balsamos-7-momias-egipcias.html