The mummy — an adult male curled on its left side in a fetal pose — is about 6,000 years old. Though it now rests in a museum in Turin, Italy, it assumed its vulnerable pose thousands of years ago in Egypt, baked in the searing sands near the banks of the Nile. Ancient Egypt 101 The Ancient Egyptian civilization, famous for its pyramids, pharaohs, mummies, and tombs, flourished for thousands of years. Further examination showed that the ancient embalmers used multiple ingredients to preserve the corpse, employing a similar recipe to the ones used 2,500 years later, when mummification in Egypt was at its peak. “It gives us a nice piece of the puzzle that we didn't have before.” 
 
 “An Incredible Feeling” 
 
 The study, published today in the Journal of Archaeological Science, comes after decades of meticulous work with prehistoric mummies. Dr Jana Jones, Egyptologist and expert on ancient Egyptian burial practices from Macquarie University in Sydney, said: "The examination of the Turin body makes a momentous contribution to our limited knowledge of the prehistoric period and the expansion of early mummification practices as well as providing vital, new information on this particular mummy. Jones peered at the wrappings under a microscope and was astounded: The cloths appeared to contain remnants of an embalming resin, a compound commonly seen in later mummies. Embalming was just one step in the careful process of preserving a body. But microscopic evidence wasn't enough to say Egyptians embalmed their dead thousands of years earlier than previously thought. "By combining chemical analysis with visual examination of the body, genetic investigations, radiocarbon dating and microscopic analysis of the linen wrappings, we confirmed that this ritual mummification process took place around 3,600 BC on a male, aged between 20 and 30 years when he died." A battery of forensic chemical tests carried out on a mummy that dated from 3,700-3,500 BC revealed the recipe and confirmed that it was developed far earlier and used more widely than previously thought. So the basic recipe was: 
 
 a plant oil - possibly sesame oil; 
 
 a "balsam-type" plant or root extract that may have come from bullrushes; 
 
 a plant-based gum - a natural sugar that may have been extracted from acacia; 
 
 crucially, a conifer tree resin, which was probably pine resin 
 
 When mixed into the oil, that resin would have given it antibacterial properties, protecting the body from decay. The key steps of mummification were: 
 
 Removal of the brain - possibly using a "whisking" process to cause the brain to liquefy 
 
 Removal of the internal organs 
 
 Putting the body into a natural salt to dry it out 
 
 Coating the body in the embalming recipe to kill bacteria and to seal it 
 
 Wrapping the body in linen 
 
 "It was the drying and the embalming recipe that were key to preservation," explained Dr Buckley. Not only did the mummy confirm that prehistoric Egyptians embalmed their dead, but it also placed the procedure in more than one location: The funeral wrappings that the scientists described in 2014 were found about about 124 miles (200 kilometers) away from the spot where the Turin mummy was likely buried, Jones said. So how did ancient Egyptians figure out the recipe so long ago?
– He was probably in his 20s and died nearly 6,000 years ago in Egypt. Beyond that, not much is known about the mystery man—except that he has helped scientists rewrite the book on mummification. Chemical analysis reveals that whoever buried him also embalmed him, and that pushes back the start of the mummification practice about 1,500 years, reports Live Science. What's more, the "recipe" used to preserve the man is similar to the one that was in use about 2,500 years later, when the likes of King Tut and other pharaohs were laid to rest, reports National Geographic. The basic recipe, per the BBC: a plant oil such as sesame oil; a balsam-type plant or root extract; a plant-based gum, or sugar; and tree resin, which helped ward off bacteria. "Until now, we've not had a prehistoric mummy that has actually demonstrated—so perfectly through the chemistry—the origins of what would become the iconic mummification that we know all about," says archaeologist Stephen Buckley of the University of York. The mummy was discovered about a century ago and has been in the Egyptian Museum of Turin. It proved to be a perfect specimen to test because, crucially, no conservation efforts were ever used on it over the years. Live Science notes one interesting aspect of the dates involved: The man's death predated writing, meaning the formula for embalming had likely been passed down verbally from generation to generation. (Ever see a mummy tattoo?)