It’s certainly true that the ancient Egyptians became skilled in what Marco Beretta, a historian at the University of Bologna in Italy, calls ‘the chemical arts’. But Sydney Aufrere, an Egyptologist from the University of Provence-Aix-Marseille in France, says that although it seems logical, ‘there is nothing conclusive in this hypothesis’. ‘It’s no accident that this was the name a recognition that the Egyptians were the best chemists of the ancient world… even the Greeks reluctantly admitted ,’ says Buckley. The word kemet means ‘black land’, describing the colour of the fertile black soil annually deposited from the Nile. One school of thought even attributes the word chemistry to the Egyptian name for Egypt, handed down via Greek and Arab alchemists. Of all the sciences, chemistry is the one with which ancient Egyptians are most closely associated. The exquisite artefacts excavated from the 3350-year-old tomb have continued to inspire a sense of awe in those who visit them – and raise questions as to the technical skills and scientific abilities of the ancient Egyptian creators. Stephen Buckley, an archaeological chemist and expert in mummification at the University of York, UK, says he has just returned from a symposium at Highclere Castle, organised by Lady Carnarvon, the great granddaughter-in-law of the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, who funded Carter’s expedition back in the 1920s. It’s a busy year for Egyptologists 2022 marks the centenary of the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter.
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