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Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

blog.britishmuseum.org

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Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#11

Post by abellerose »

Jon_Lowtek wrote: post #10
abellerose wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do people know it was taboo for them?

Why is it not taboo any more?

I'm confused here. I asked the question of how people know it was taboo for ancient Egyptians. I didn't expect a question instead of an answer because I'm not proposing any side.

Maybe people are just going off assumptions and commenting on that basis but I'm generally curious what proof people have. Specifically, when it comes to such a culture finding the energy of attempting at storing the body and for their view on the afterlife requiring it as a necessity. I have no reason to assume such a culture wouldn't find inspecting graves to some degree as taboo and for any benefits of continuing the process they seemed to care about.

Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#12

Post by exDM69 »

I guessed quite a few of these ingredients because I work with beeswax, tree resins and plant oils in the wood shop, particularly when doing instruments.

I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story (floating blobs in the dead sea). That stuff looks like bitumen but I did not expect that they had petroleum products so long ago.

I use lots of materials in my craft that were once used by the ancient Egyptians. Beeswax, linseed oil, hide glue, propolis were all used for at least 4000 years successfully. It breaks my heart to know that we abandoned these traditional materials less than a hundred years ago and replaced it with plastic crap, which seems unlikely to stand the test of time.

Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#13

Post by brailsafe »

exDM69 wrote: post #12

I guessed quite a few of these ingredients because I work with beeswax, tree resins and plant oils in the wood shop, particularly when doing instruments. I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story (floating blobs in the dead sea). That stuff looks like bitumen but I did not expect that they had petroleum products so long ago. I use lots of materials in my craft that were once used by the ancient Egyptians…

Don't those materials basically amount to plastic? The products we have now are definitely crap, but they sure as hell last a long time.

Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#14

Post by ginko »

exDM69 wrote: post #12

I guessed quite a few of these ingredients because I work with beeswax, tree resins and plant oils in the wood shop, particularly when doing instruments. I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story (floating blobs in the dead sea). That stuff looks like bitumen but I did not expect that they had petroleum products so long ago. I use lots of materials in my craft that were once used by the ancient Egyptians…

> I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story

Interesting, bitumen was the first (and only) thing I thought of.

Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#16

Post by TheGallopedHigh »

ggm wrote: post #7

If they had said mastic I would have been there like a shot. Mastic and gum-arabic were used extensively in the ancient world.

Mastica(sp?) is still chewed today in Greece as some kind of chewing gum. I wonder if the word “masticate” zcomes from this ie vice versa

Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#17

Post by exDM69 »

brailsafe wrote: post #13
exDM69 wrote: post #12

I guessed quite a few of these ingredients because I work with beeswax, tree resins and plant oils in the wood shop, particularly when doing instruments. I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story (floating blobs in the dead sea). That stuff looks like bitumen but I did not expect that they had petroleum products so long ago. I use lots of materials in my craft that were once used by the ancient Egyptians…

Don't those materials basically amount to plastic? The products we have now are definitely crap, but they sure as hell last a long time.

No, beeswax, linseed oils, pine resin are not plastic. They can be used instead of plastic in many applications but they're still renewable and bio-degradable materials.

Bitumen is a crude oil product, and quite nasty material indeed. But it's not really what I was referring to here.

Plastic is very durable but it's quite brittle. A plastic bucket for example can break quite easily and needs to be disposed of responsibly or it'll stay around forever ruining the environment.

Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#18

Post by [deleted] »

brailsafe wrote: post #13
exDM69 wrote: post #12

I guessed quite a few of these ingredients because I work with beeswax, tree resins and plant oils in the wood shop, particularly when doing instruments. I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story (floating blobs in the dead sea). That stuff looks like bitumen but I did not expect that they had petroleum products so long ago. I use lots of materials in my craft that were once used by the ancient Egyptians…

Don't those materials basically amount to plastic? The products we have now are definitely crap, but they sure as hell last a long time.

[deleted]

Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#19

Post by exDM69 »

ginko wrote: post #14
exDM69 wrote: post #12

I guessed quite a few of these ingredients because I work with beeswax, tree resins and plant oils in the wood shop, particularly when doing instruments. I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story (floating blobs in the dead sea). That stuff looks like bitumen but I did not expect that they had petroleum products so long ago. I use lots of materials in my craft that were once used by the ancient Egyptians…

> I was surprised about the bitumen and its origin story Interesting, bitumen was the first (and only) thing I thought of.

Well yeah, seeing that photo I thought that it looks exactly like bitumen but it can't possibly be it.

Re: Ancient Egyptian coffins and mystery of ‘black goo’

#20

Post by dogma1138 »

exDM69 wrote: post #17
brailsafe wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't those materials basically amount to plastic? The products we have now are definitely crap, but they sure as hell last a long time.

No, beeswax, linseed oils, pine resin are not plastic. They can be used instead of plastic in many applications but they're still renewable and bio-degradable materials. Bitumen is a crude oil product, and quite nasty material indeed. But it's not really what I was referring to here. Plastic is very durable but it's quite brittle. A plastic bucket for example can break quite easily and needs to be disposed of respons…

Plastics just means a specific set of properties not what it’s specifically made from or can it be biodegradable.

Depending on the exact chemical reaction makeup these could very well be considered plastics.

Plastics date back around 3500 years with the earliest plastics being made form egg proteins and other animal sources, Shellac which can and is formed into plastic materials has been used for at least 3000 years and in Middle Ages Europe plastics were made by treating horns and making translucent and transparent plastics form them:

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/queenslib.wordpress.com/2017/...

One of the first modern plastics was cellulose nitrate which was used as an ivory replacement and was made by dissolving cotton in nitric acid and mixing it with vegetable oil, the solution can then be poured into molds to create the final shape or made into billets that could be machined or carved.

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