This is what a 2000 year old perfume smells like

Creating a perfume is a complex matter. The interplay of different scents has fascinated people for a long time. After all, perfumes are not a modern invention: people have been using fragrance mixtures since ancient times – for religious, medical and cosmetic reasons.

Archaeologists have now discovered for the first time how ancient perfumes smelled. For this, the contents of a bottle were analyzed, which researchers from the University of Córdoba, Spain, found in an underground family mausoleum from Roman times.

Archaeologists estimate that the hermitage, located in the Andalusian town of Carmona, is about 2,000 years old. In one of the urns, the scientists found not only a woman’s ashes, a fabric bag with organic remains and three amber-colored beads, but also a bottle made of rock crystal.

The bottle was still sealed with a stopper and contained a solid mass, the archaeologists reported in “Heritage” magazine. The plug was made of dolomite rock and bonded with bitumen. In this way, the contents of the bottle could be preserved for more than 2000 years.

Analysis of the mass revealed that it was a mixture of bitumen, organic compounds of the sesquiterpene group and vegetable oil residues. As archaeologist Daniel Cosano, who was involved in the study, explains, sesquiterpenes are oily plant extracts responsible for “the top notes of the fragrance.”

These volatile substances actually evaporate quickly, but are absorbed by the bitumen and thus preserved. A more detailed analysis eventually revealed what scent it was: the sesquiterpenes detected in the bottle resemble patchouli extracts.

Patchouli is a highly fragrant essential oil extracted from the leaves of a tropical plant of the genus Pogostemon cablin and is still used in perfumery and to flavor products.

According to the archaeologists, the Roman woman was buried with a bottle of patchouli perfume. “To our knowledge, this may be the first time a Roman era perfume has been identified – a major advancement in the field,” the archaeologists conclude.

Used sources: