Thanks to science, museums with ancient artifacts could someday come with immersive smells. Researchers determined that vessels from an Egyptian tomb contain beeswax, fruit, dried fish, and maybe even beer. And they did so without even opening the amphorae (storage jars). Curators at the Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) in Turin, Italy, noticed odors in the display cases for years. Now they know the source of those smells.
As reported by Boing Boing, analytical chemists and archaeologists teamed up for this project. They placed a bag around a selection of sealed and unsealed vessels. After a few days, they analyzed the air inside each bag and identified chemicals associated with certain smells. And they did so on-site, without risking the transportation of any artifacts.
The peer-reviewed Journal of Archaeological Science published the article. Mass spectrometry, the technique used, can also analyze human breath for certain diseases and cancers. Something dogs and other animals with an excellent sense of smell are capable of.
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