German scientists discover the smell of perfume that Cleopatra rubbed on her skin

Cleopatra one of the key figures in the ancient history of Egypt who generated an imaginary linked to unprecedented sensuality and eroticism, and became an enigma for historians and archaeologists.

Various archaeological excavations traditionally studied the visible objects in Egypt. Research has reconstructed the appearance of ancient buildings from the excavated remains and determined how people lived by analyzing their tools, personal adornments, and other tangible artifacts.

“Written sources show that the ancient Egyptians lived in a rich olfactory world,” says Egyptologist Dora Goldsmith of the Free University of Berlin. That’s why, to fully understand the ancient Egyptian culture “it is necessary to examine thoroughly how the pharaohs and their subjects made sense of their lives through smellHe declared goldsmith.

The olfactory world in ancient Egypt

Some archaeological projects have tried to reconstruct the olfactory landscapes of various places. And, for example, the ancient cities of Egypt have been described as “colorful and monumental, but odorless and sterile,” says Goldsmith.

By studying and reviving the smells of the past, these researchers aim to understand how the ancients lived and interpreted their world through smell.

However,archaeologists began sniffing odor molecules from artifacts found in excavations and stored in museums. Others study thoroughly ancient texts for references to perfume recipesand they even prepared an aroma very similar to what Cleopatra supposedly liked.

The scents of Ancient Egypt

Various biomolecular techniques have made it possible to identify the molecules of ancient aromatic substances preserved in pots. They were also tracked down in the remains of the city’s garbage pits, in the tartar accumulated on human teeth and even in the mummified remains.

For example, finding an old incense burner only indicates that some kind of substance was burned. Therefore, revealing the molecular composition of the residues that adhere to that result “you can determine what exactly was burned and put together if it was the smell of frankincense, myrrh, fragrant woods or blends of different aromas“, observes archaeologist Barbara Huber.

This kind of detective work is exactly what Huber, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena (Germany)), and his colleagues investigated the walled settlement of Tayma Oasis, in what is now Saudi Arabia

The team led by Huber discovered this desert dwellers have purchased aromatic plants for their own uses for much of the settlement’s history.

Chemical and molecular analyzes of the carbonized resins identified myrrh in cone-shaped censers that had been placed in tombs. outside the city walls, and an aromatic substance of the Mediterranean mastic in cups used as censers in a large public building.

In a more recent studypublished on March 28 in Nature Human BehaviorHuber and his colleagues have outlined ways to detect chemical and genetic traces of ancient odors.

What was the perfume Cleopatra used

“A tradition of aromatic remedies and perfumes began when the first Egyptian royal dynasties came to power some 5,100 years ago,” suggests Goldsmith’s research. Hieroglyphic and cursive documents from ancient Egypt describe recipes for various perfumes, but the exact ingredients and preparation methods are unknown.

This did not prevent Goldsmith and Greco-Roman historian of philosophy and science Sean Coughlin of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague from attempting to recreate a famous Egyptian fragrance known as the Mendesian perfume.

Cleopatra, a perfume devotee during her reign between 51 and 30 BC, may have sprayed her skin with this scented potion. The perfume got its name from the city where it was produced, Mendes.

After experimenting with ingredients like desert date oil, myrrh, cinnamon and pine resin, Goldsmith and Coughlin have produced a perfume that comes close to that probably used by Cleopatra. “It is a strong but pleasant and lasting mix of spiciness and sweetness,” say the archaeologists.