Researchers Find Ancient Perfume Factory That May Have Supplied Scents To Cleopatra
Though we know a lot about the exploits, both heroic and villainous, of history’s most powerful rulers, there’s one question that’s almost never easy to answer: How did they smell? But when it comes to Cleopatra herself, we may now have some answers
Researchers Robert Littman and Jay Silverstein of the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa have investigated ancient perfumes for years now. Their main focus has been Cleopatra, focusing their efforts on the archaeological site of Tell Timai in the Nile Delta region.
The excavation project in the Egyptian city of Thmuis, which was founded in 4500 B.C., has yielded invaluable discoveries. Home to production facilities for two of the most popular perfumes in the ancient world, Mendesian and Metopian, archaeologists at the site have uncovered kilns dating to the third century B.C.
The manufacturers at Thmuis used clay and glass to produce bottles called amphorae, a tall ancient Greek or Roman jar with two handles and a slender neck. The findings included 2,000-year-old residue of the ingredients these ancients craftsmen used to make perfume — potentially even the scents used by Cleopatra.
Since the amphorae didn’t retain the residue’s scent after two millennia, researchers conducted a chemical analysis that revealed key ingredients. They then used ancient Greek texts on perfume making to recreate the perfumes.
The results used olive oil, cinnamon, cardamom, and a base of myrrha, which is a resin originating from a tree indigenous to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The product was much thicker than modern-day perfumes, but reportedly smelled pleasant, musky, and spicy.
Littman himself dubbed it “the Chanel No. 5 of ancient Egypt,” adding, “What a thrill it is to smell a perfume that no one has smelled for 2,000 years and one which Cleopatra might have worn.”
