What Perfumes Did Ancient Egyptians Use? Researchers Aim To Recreate 3,500-year-old Scent

ScienceDaily ^ | Wednesday, March 18, 2009 | Adapted from materials provided by University of Bonn

[SunkenCiv]

The Ancient Egyptians cherished their fragrant scents, too, as perfume flacons from this period indicate. In its permanent exhibition, Bonn University's Egyptian Museum has a particularly well preserved example on display. Screening this 3,500-year-old flacon with a computer tomograph, scientists at the university detected the desiccated residues of a fluid, which they now want to submit to further analysis. They might even succeed in reconstructing this scent... Pharaoh Hatshepsut... perfume is also presumably a demonstration of her power. "We think it probable that one constituent was frankincense -- the scent of the gods," Michael Höveler-Müller declares. This idea is not so wide of the mark, as it is a known fact that in the course of her regency Haptshepsut undertook an expedition to Punt... Apparently the expedition brought back whole frankincense plants, which Hatshepsut then had planted in the vicinity of her funerary temple.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks to TenthAmendmentChampion for forwarding a dump truck full of great links!

[SunkenCiv]

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[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Whatever they used, send some to Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Pelosi, Ranky Reid, Maxine “Dirty “Waters, Chucky “Stinky” Schumer, Al “we don’t need no stinkin’ recount” Frank, and Sean “Cattle” Penn.

[JoeProBono]

the university detected the desiccated residues of a fluid

[Beowulf9]

Wonder what a frankinsense plant looks like?

Helena Rubenstein or Elizebeth Arden would’ve had a field day marketing that scent back in the 20’s, they were already Egyptian crazy.

[nickcarraway]

This article implies Thutmose III destroyed evidence of her rule.

Today, most experts think Amenhotep II was responsible for this, not Thutmose III.

[Veto!]

Fascinating. I hope we can keep up with them until they complete the analysis. Perfume is a favorite topic for me.

Anyone else who is interested might enjoy the brilliant and witty Luca Turin, a biochemist who works in the fragrance industry and who has written a wonderful user-friendly book,
The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell.

He and his new wife, also a “nose,” wrote Perfumes: The Guide, a review of thousands of perfumes. When he doesn’t like something he has you FOTFL with his scathing critiques. I.E., a famous, expensive Paris perfume smelled “like the inside of a Moscow taxi.”

[Cyber Ninja]

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Thank you in return for all these great posts. You always have fascinating articles and I enjoy reading them.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

I had the privilege of working for the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salon company for a few years. It was a lot of fun and a huge amount of work, almost as if she were still there. She was an amazing woman.

[PUGACHEV]

Well dressed Egyptian are often depicted with strange blunted cylindrical objects on their heads. These are perfume cones made of wax and flower scents. Egyptians of both sexes shaved their heads and wore elaborate wigs; it saved a lot of trouble back in the days before shampoo. To make things more pleasant, they would put perfume cones on top of the wigs and let their body heat slowly melt the wax to release the scent. It must of worked pretty well because you can see different paintings of Egyptians wearing perfume cones over a span of thousands of years. See the link below for an example.

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/life/explore/images/music.jpg

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Courtesy of wikipedia (click on the pic to read more):

[KrisKrinkle]

And when I go to the link the ads at the bottom are for:

Bath & Body Works Oils

Lafco - Claus Porto Soaps

PERFUME- Up to 90% Off

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Perfume is kind of a favorite of mine as well.

I remember reading aloooong time ago that tuberose was all the rage around the WWII (and prior)era, until women discovered that it was used in mortuary science. I think it was Tullulah Bankhead who ‘started’ the run.

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Charlies works well with really, really big hair (or a shemullet). It covers the AquaNet scent.

:)PaMom

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Granny sent me these links via my email address. Thanks Granny!

[Island Girl]

Ahh! Ancient Egypt and perfume - two of my favorite topics!
Maybe we need a Luca Turin ping list. I thought The Secret of Scent was fascinating.

What do you wear? My favorite is L’Heure Bleue. I love the story. Guerlain knew what he was doing.

[Cincinna]

Thanks, Civ.

I love perfume; its’ mystery and history.

The French poet Paul Valery wrote “Une femme qui ne se parfum pas n’a aucun avenir”

Translation: A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.

[Fred Nerks]

Assistants crush dried herbs with pestle and mortar (1,2,3,4). Crushed herbs are added to a bowl of molten fat, stirred (5) and shaped into balls upon cooling (6). Special jars probably containing spiced wine, a useful solvent because of alcohol. Content is siphoned and filtered into a bowl (7). At extreme left an assistant shapes a piece of wood beneath a bowl heaped with unguents (8).

[Veto!]

Great, we have a ping list of three perfume fans. Delighted to discover you two. Have you read The Emperor of Scent? By Chandler Burr, it’s about Luca Turin and a wonderful read.

My current fave is Aromatics Elixir by Clinique. I would never have looked to Clinique for a fragrance, but Turin & Sanchez gave it a “masterpiece” rating in Perfumes: The Guide, and I tried it—along with about a hundred others. They also gave kudos to Estee Lauder for several of their fragrances, notably Knowing and Azuree, oldies but goodies. Since I fall into that category, they suit me too. I dislike some of the books recommendations, however it is such a good read I gave it five stars at Amazon.

They are big Guerlain fans, rating most of their perfumes right at the top.

My father brought wonderful perfumes home from Paris for mom and moi when I was in Jr. High, so I’ve had a lifetime of wonderful scents. My daughter lived in Paris for a year and I had to send her perfume. LOL. She loved Magie Noire, still has a bottle from 15 years ago, a good thing since the formula, like so many others, has been changed.

I hope we can follow this Egyptian story. Yes, please ping me if you find anything.

Veto, the poster formerly known as PoisedWoman