With the success of movies like Coco and The Book of Life, along with the popularity of children’s books like The Dead Family Diaz, it is clear that the English speaking world is more familiar than ever with Día de Muertos (aka Day of the Dead). Overall I think this is a good thing. Latin American…
Tag: Resin
The Perfumed Mummy (Egypt Part IV)
Now we reach the intersection of material culture, belief systems, and death with the physical preparation of the body, which used many aromatic ingredients. The creation of the archetypical Egyptian mummy was a complex evolution that embraced the olfactive elements of the putrid and the divine.
The Fragrance of the Soul: Olfaction & Death in Ancient Egyptian Religion (Egypt Part III)
This post is part of an ongoing series on fragrance in Ancient Egypt. Find out more about the sacred business of Egyptian perfume-making in Part I and how mummies ended up in magic incense in Part II. As a society, we have an anosmic view of history. We don’t think about the way things smelt or…
