New Tech Reveals Origin Of Egyptian Mummies’ Skin Color Just how much can you learn from the color of a person’s skin? Well, in the case of Egyptian mummies, it is now turning out to be quite a lot. Researchers have worked out a non-intrusive way to map the origins of ancient Egyptian embalming materials, and the composition of the substance that causes deep black coloration of many mummies’ skin is now revealing hitherto unknown geographic data. The study does not say whether these Egyptians were or were not dark skinned naturally, that’s another debate, but according to the latest high-tech analysis, many Egyptian mummies’ deep black skin color not only comes from tar but we now know where that tar came from.