2025考研英语同源外刊:闻香识法老
More than 3,400 years after two ancient Egyptians were laid to rest, the jars of food left to nourish their eternal souls still smell sweet. A team of analytical chemists and archaeologists has analysed these scents to help identify the jars’ contents. The study shows how the archaeology of smell can enrich our understanding of the past — and perhaps make museum visits more immersive
在两位古埃及人安息 3400 多年后，用来滋养他们永恒灵魂的食物罐仍然散发着甜美的气息。一组分析化学家和考古学家分析了这些气味，以帮助识别罐子里的东西。该研究表明，气味考古学如何丰富我们对过去的理解——或许还能让参观博物馆更加身临其境。
The 1906 discovery of the intact tomb of Kha and Merit in the Deir el-Medina necropolis near Luxor was a landmark moment in Egyptology. The tomb of Kha — a ‘chief of works’, or an architect — and Merit, his wife, remains the most complete non-royal ancient burial ever found in Egypt, revealing important information about how high-ranking individuals were treated after death.1906 年在卢克索附近的 Deir el-Medina 墓地发现了完整的 Kha 和 Merit 墓，这是埃及学的一个里程碑式的时刻。Kha（一位“工程主管”或建筑师）和他的妻子 Merit 的坟墓仍然是埃及有史以来发现的最完整的非皇室古墓，揭示了有关高级人员死后如何对待的重要信息。
“It’s an amazing collection,” says Ilaria Degano, an analytical chemist at the University of Pisa, Italy. “Among the objects, there are even examples of Kha’s ancient Egyptian linen underwear, embroidered with his name.”
“这是一个惊人的集合，”意大利比萨大学的分析化学家 Ilaria Degano 说。“
在这些物品中，甚至还有Kha的古埃及亚麻内衣的例子，上面绣有他的名字。”
Unusually for the time, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb resisted the temptation to unwrap the mummies or peer inside the sealed amphorae, jars and jugs there, even after they were transferred to the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy. The contents of many of these vessels are still a mystery, although there are some clues, says Degano. “From talking with the curators, we knew there were some fruity aromas in the display cases,” she says.
在当时不同寻常的是，发现这座坟墓的考古学家抵制住了打开木乃伊的诱惑，或者在密封的双耳瓶、罐子和罐子里窥视，即使在它们被转移到意大利都灵的埃及博物馆之后也是如此。Degano 说，尽管有一些线索，但其中许多容器的内容仍然是个谜。“通过与策展人的交谈，我们知道展示柜中有一些水果香气，”她说。
Degano and her colleagues placed various artefacts — including sealed jars and open cups laden with the rotten remains of ancient food — inside plastic bags for several days to collect some of the volatile molecules they still release. Then the team used a mass spectrometer to identify the components of the aromas from each sample. They found aldehydes and long-chain hydrocarbons, indicative of beeswax; trimethylamine, associated with dried fish; and other aldehydes common in fruits. “Two-thirds of the objects gave some results,” Degano says. “It was a very nice surprise.”
德加诺和她的同事将各种人工制品——包括密封的罐子和装满古代食物腐烂残骸的开口杯子——放在塑料袋里几天，以收集它们仍然释放的一些挥发性分子。然后，该团队使用质谱仪来识别每个样品的香气成分。他们发现了醛和长链碳氢化合物，表明蜂蜡；三甲胺，与干鱼有关；和水果中常见的其他醛类。“三分之二的物体给出了一些结果，”德加诺说。“这是一个非常好的惊喜。”
The findings will feed into a larger project to re-analyse the tomb’s contents and produce a more comprehensive picture of burial customs for non-royals that existed when Kha and Merit died, about 70 years before Tutankhamun came to the throne.
这些发现将用于一个更大的项目，以重新分析陵墓的内容，并更全面地了解在图坦卡蒙即位前大约 70 年，Kha 和 Merit 去世时存在的非皇室葬礼习俗。
This isn’t the first time that scent compounds have revealed important information about ancient Egypt. In 2014, researchers extracted volatile molecules from linen bandages that are between 6,300 and 5,000 years old that were used to wrap bodies in some of the earliest known Egyptian cemeteries2. The molecules confirmed the presence of embalming agents with antibacterial properties, showing that Egyptians were experimenting with mummification some 1,500 years earlier than had been thought.
这不是气味化合物第一次揭示有关古埃及的重要信息。2014 年，研究人员从已有 6,300 至 5,000 年历史的亚麻绷带中提取了挥发性分子，这些绷带用于在一些已知最早的埃及墓地中包裹尸体2。这些分子证实了具有抗菌特性的防腐剂的存在，这表明埃及人正在试验木乃伊，比人们想象的要早约 1500 年。
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