#ancient perfume

[ancientstuff]

Smell like a god: Ancient sculptures were scented, Danish study shows

Science has already proven that sculptures from ancient Greece and Rome were often painted in warm colors, and now a Danish study has reveal

The Egyptians did this, but I didn't realise the Greeks did, too. I wonder if any residue has been left of the scents.

[ancientstuff]

Resurrecting the Scents of Ancient Cyprus

An experimental archaeology park lets visitors get a whiff of the island's aromatic past.

Road trip!

[historical-kitten]

Okay it's time to geek with me again, moots! Soon I get to teach a class about ancient perfume making in Egypt, Greece, and Rome at my library. (And everyone gets to make their own ancient style perfumed oil to take home and finish.)

(Glass mosaic perfume bottle, Roman, 1st half of 1st century CE. The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

I'm so excited. And... overenthusiastic. I have like 42 slides... I may miss being a TA and GA a little too much.😂 I am timing myself tomorrow with reading through them.

So have a poll.

If you had to smell like one of these ancient people, who would you choose?

Julius Caesar (fenugreek, calamus, yellow melilot flowers, marjoram)

Cleopatra VII (frankincense, myrhh, cinnamon, pine resin)

Nero & Elagabalus (Roses)

Martial (Balsam & Cinnamon)

Cato (None)

Voting ended onMay 9, 2024

Please reblog if you don't mind, I'm curious what people will choose.

I will probably post some resources and more nerding about this if anyone is interested.

One source was:

Donato, Giyseppe, et al. The Fragrant Past: Perfumes of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar.‎ Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1989.

[honorthegods]

From the original scholarly article about this research (link in the article above):

The discovery in 2019 of an ointment jar (unguentarium) made of rock crystal (quartz) that was sealed with a stopper and contained a solid mass in a Roman tomb in Carmona (Seville, Spain) was a rather unusual finding. This paper reports the results of an archaeometric study of the unguentarium stopper and its contents. Based on them, and on comparisons with commercially available patchouli and nard oil standards, the perfume held in the unguentarium was probably patchouli. To our knowledge, this may be the first time a perfume from Roman times has been identified, which is a major advance in this field. 

[honorthegods]

The Perfume Makers by Rudolf Ernst (1854-1932) This painting is in a private collection.

Interested in creating your own ancient-style perfume? Free instructions from the Getty Museum here! Additional information on the history of perfumes and making your own fragrances here!