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New trends in the study of antiquity: archaeologists are expanding our understanding of the past – thanks to new research, we can present not only ancient architecture, but also the aromas that breathed the streets of ancient Egypt
Why smells are important
When Ramses VI in 1145 B.C. e. ascended the throne, his first task was to rid the land of the Egyptians of the unpleasant odors of dead fish and birds – the inhabitants of the fetid swamps of the Nile Delta. So, in any case, it is indicated in the hymn to the new pharaoh. Thanks to such finds, which have survived to this day, we know that the inhabitants of ancient Egyptian cities were exposed to a wide range of flavors. Depending on the area, the townspeople inhaled the smells of sweat, disease, cooking meat, incense, trees, and flowers. The hot weather in Egypt increased the demand for scented oils and ointments that wrapped the body in a pleasant scent.
“Written sources show that the ancient Egyptians lived in a rich olfactory world,” says Egyptologist Dora Goldsmith of the Free University of Berlin. She argues that in order to fully understand the ancient Egyptian culture, it is necessary to study its “olfactory landscape”, in particular, how the pharaohs and their subjects perceived life through smells. Such research has begun only recently.
“Previously, ancient cities in Egypt and elsewhere were presented as colorful and monumental, but odorless and sterile,” notes Goldsmith.
However, the situation is changing, new trends are emerging in the study of ancient human habitats: scientists have recreated sounds, and now they are busy with “aromas”. Some archaeologists “sniff out” the smell molecules of artifacts that are stored in museums and come across during excavations. Others pore over ancient texts looking for references to perfume recipes. Scientists have even come up with a fragrance that is as close as possible to the one that Cleopatra supposedly loved.
Molecular odors
Using biomolecular methods, researchers are identifying particles of ancient aromatics that have been preserved in pots, urban garbage pits, in tartar stuck to human teeth, and even in mummified remains.
Archaeologist Barbara Huber of the Max Planck Institute for Human History in Jena, along with colleagues, examined a modest incense burner found in the oasis settlement of Taima in what is now Saudi Arabia.
Scholars suggest that Tayma was a stop on a network of trade routes known as the Incense Route. According to him, frankincense and myrrh (spicy-smelling resins that were mined in the Arabian Peninsula, in northeast Africa and India) were delivered from southern Arabia to the Mediterranean countries about two thousand years ago.
A group led by Huber found that the inhabitants of the desert outpost actively used aromatic plants in their daily lives. Frankincense was found in censers from the residential area of Tayma, myrrh in a grave outside the city wall, and another aromatic substance from Mediterranean mastic trees in a large public building.
Other researchers have begun looking for molecular scents in earthenware that was unearthed more than a century ago and placed in a museum. Analytical chemist Jacopo La Nasa at the University of Pisa in Italy and colleagues used a handheld version of the mass spectrometer to study 46 vessels, jars, cups and pieces of organic material. Their age is about 3600 years. Inside, archaeologists found oil or fat, beeswax and dried fish chemical markers, traces of aromatic resin and barley flour.
But according to Dora Goldsmith, oils, fats, and beeswax could only be the base, odorless ingredients for ancient Egyptian perfumes and ointments. Starting with mixtures of these substances, Egyptian perfumers added fragrant ingredients, including myrrh, resin, styrax and pine bark, juniper berries, frankincense, and walnut grass. When these decoctions were heated, fragrant perfumes were obtained.
Recreating Cleopatra’s Spirits
According to Goldsmith’s research, fragrances and perfumes originated during the first Egyptian royal dynasties, which came to power about 5100 years ago. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and handwritten documents describe recipes for several perfumes, but the exact ingredients and preparation methods remain unknown.
However, Goldsmith and historian of Greco-Roman philosophy and science Sean Coughlin of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague attempted to recreate the famous Egyptian fragrance known as Mendesian perfume. Cleopatra, a fan of perfumery, during her reign from 51 to 30 BC. e., may have used this “fragrant potion”.
During excavations at the site of the city of Mendes, the remains of what was probably a perfume factory from 2300 years ago have been discovered. Archaeologists have found ovens and earthenware containers for perfumes. Scientists turned to ancient scriptures, experimented with ingredients – desert date oil, myrrh, cinnamon and pine resin – and created a fragrance that roughly matches that used by Cleopatra. According to them, it is a strong but pleasantly stable mixture of pungency and sweetness.
The smell of the ancient city
Here is how Goldsmith describes the smell typical of an ancient Egyptian city:
“In the royal palace, the fragrance of the rulers and members of their families interrupted the smell of court officials and servants. This, perhaps, spoke of a special connection of high-ranking officials with God.
In the temples, the priests smeared the images of the gods with ten sacred oils. Their ingredients are mostly unknown, but each substance seems to have had its own pleasant smell and ritual function. In temples, the smells of perfumes, flowers and incense were mixed with fried meat. Written sources describe the smell of fried fatty meat as especially pleasant, as a sign of peace, as well as power over enemies.
In the workshops, sandal makers mixed oak bark acid to soften the skins, and blacksmiths forged metal weapons at the furnaces and also created their characteristic, not very pleasant aromas.
In written records from ancient Egypt, fetid odors are mentioned much less frequently than sweet ones. Goats, sheep and other animals, slaughtered carcasses, open toilets, and rubbish on the streets, for example, are not mentioned in most of the surviving material. “Such texts can only represent the world of the elite — and thus not reveal the whole picture of the smells of the time or how ordinary people perceived it,” says Goldsmith.
Roman cities commonly smelled of human waste, decaying animal carcasses, rubbish, smoke, incense, boiled meat and boiled cabbage, wrote ancient historian Neville Morley of the University of Exeter in England in a 2014 chapter in Smell and Ancient Feelings. This powerful blend “should be the scent of a home for its inhabitants, and perhaps even the scent of civilization,” he says.
Flavors from Isfet to Maat
According to Dora Goldsmith, in Nile societies, the stink of fish and birds best conveyed the meaning of the word “isfet” – the concepts of chaos and evil. Fish, in particular, meant not only stench, but also the danger of unfamiliar places that were not subject to the pharaoh. Meanwhile, in ancient documents, aromatic ointments and perfumes are associated by the ancient Egyptians with “maat”, the grace of civilized cities.
Thus, the Egyptian pharaoh’s first duty was to rid the city of the social and physical stench of Isfet and establish the sweet smell of ma’at, Goldsmith argues. In his welcoming hymn, Ramses VI received a friendly reminder of the need to make Egypt politically strong and olfactory fresh.