Human Remains in Ancient Jar a Mystery

Jan. 23, 2007 — For over 100 years, four blue-glazed jars bearing the nametag of Rameses II (1302-1213 B.C.) were believed to contain the Egyptian pharaoh's bodily organs. But analysis of organic residues scraped from the jars has determined one actually contained an aromatic salve, while a second jar held the organs of an entirely different person who lived around 760 years later.

Now the question is, who was this individual?

"We do believe that the unknown person was of importance for at least two reasons," said Jacques Connan, one of the study’s authors. "First, he or she had access to the famous jars and secondly, his or her organs were embalmed with pure Pistacia resin, which is uncommon according to our present chemical knowledge on balms of Egyptian mummies, especially during the Roman period."

The mystery concerning the jars began in 1905, when they were brought to Paris’ Louvre Museum, where they are still housed. Shortly after that time, researchers cut into a packet inside one of the jars and plucked out a piece of heart. The packet is now lost, but from that point on, the containers were labeled as "the canopic jars of Rameses II."

Connan, a professor in the bio-organic geochemistry laboratory at Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, and his colleagues questioned the description, especially as the heart of Rameses II was later found inside his mummy. The scientists recently radiocarbon dated residue from two of the four jars and used molecular biomarkers to identify the contents.

A paper on the findings has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

The aromatic salve was determined to contain animal fat — probably from a pig —  which was mixed with coniferous oil, such as cedar, juniper or pine. This concoction dates close to the pharaoh’s lifetime. Connan and his team now think the jars originally held sacred cosmetics in the Temple of Rameses II.

"Unguent (perfumed salve) cones were worn on top of heads by women in banquets, but likely also during ceremonies to honor gods in temples," he told Discovery News, adding that the mixture may have also been applied to objects. Texts on the jars link them to the gods Amun-Ra and Mut, and not Osiris, the god of death.

The researchers believe the containers were then reused hundreds of years later as canopic jars —  to hold the remains unknown individual — since one originally held the Pistacia embalming substance on linen and contained the now-missing organ packet.

Geneviève Pierrat-Bonnefois, curator in chief of the Louvre’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities, told Discovery News that she agrees with the findings "because they largely rectify our vision of the jars, which were for a long time suspected by the department conservators as not being (Rameses II) canopic jars."

Pierrat-Bonnefois said the Louvre has responded by changing the museum’s label for the objects, as well as writing a detailed, corrected history of them, now on the Louvre’s website, www.louvre.fr.

Connan said he hopes to analyze other museum objects and materials in the future, since many more could be mislabeled.

"Sometimes the scientific cross-checking was not carried out, or it was done a long time ago with inappropriate methods," he explained.

Paint, tar and other remains on sarcophagi and statues, as well as embalming materials for mummified animals, such as crocodiles, cats and ibis at the British Museum, interest the scientists and could form the basis of their upcoming projects.

Unless further information surfaces, the VIP who was once partially interred in the ancient Egyptian jars may never be identified.