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World’s oldest perfumes discovered.
The world’s oldest known perfumes have been found on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus in 2003 by a team of archaeologists. The perfumes date back more than 4,000 years. Remnants of the perfumes were found inside an ancient 3,230-square-foot (300-square-meter) factory that was part of a larger industrial complex at Pyrgos.
The buildings were destroyed during an earthquake in 1850 B.C., but perfume bottles, mixing jugs, and stills were preserved under the collapsed walls. The artifacts are currently on display at the Capitolini Museum in Rome, along with modern reproductions of the centuries-old scents.
“It’s a rare chance to smell the scent of ancient history — typically a mix of natural spices and olive oil — thanks to an exhibit in Rome featuring fragrances from the world’s oldest known perfume factory.
Clay jugs used to make and store ancient perfumes lie at an excavation site on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The 4,000-year-old fragrances—the world’s oldest known perfumes—were re-created by an experimental archaeology center and are now on display at an Italian museum. Photograph courtesy Maria Rosaria Belgiorno
The buildings also housed an olive press, a winery and a copper smelting works. The scale of the site, and the presence of huge 500-litre oil-storage jars, suggests it was once the centre of a prosperous export business.
Belgiorn and a team of scientists analyzed the remants found in the mixing jugs and clay perfume bottles, and were able to identify extracts of laurel, cinnamon and myrtle, among other ingredients. They also discovered a number of fragrance recipes that had been created with the ingredients. Plants and herbs were ground up and mixed with olive oil in clay jugs, then distilled in a clay apparatus, Belgiorno explained.
The smell of the perfumes is “a nice experience that re-creates in our mind a sort of ancestral reminder,” Belgiorn said in an email interview.
The archaeologist added that she doesn’t know why the people of Cyprus started making and wearing perfumes 4,000 years ago. In ancient Egypt, perfumes were used for cosmetic and pharmaceutical purposes as well as religious ceremonies.