EGYPT’S Queen Cleopatra showed us how we could woo members of the opposite sex with it, the French may have perfected it, but it is the Cypriots that can now lay claim to the world’s oldest perfumery.
Nestled among overgrown weeds on a Cypriot hillside offering stunning views of the Mediterranean, a pit steeped with circular imprints holding remnants of clay perfume jars is, Italian archaeologists believe, the oldest testament of the humble origins for the multi-billion industry today.
“This is 4,000 years old. Without a doubt, it is the oldest factory for perfume in the world,” Italian archaeologist Maria Rosaria Belgiorno, told Reuters. Belgiorno is team leader for a mission excavating the Pyrgos-Mavroraki site 90km south-west of Nicosia.
Scientists have managed to extract essences of the world’s oldest scents and reconstruct the aromas used by ancestors four millennia ago from fragments of clay perfume bottles.
They have has managed to unlock the aromatic oils blocked in the walls of tiny clay fragments, giving an invaluable insight into what our ancestors splashed themselves with.
And, archaeologists discovered, modern man’s preferences are not too different from those of 4,000 years ago.
“I smelt this one and immediately thought, Pino Silvestre!” said Belgiorno, unblocking the stopper on a strong smelling golden fluid in a small phial, comparing the conifer resin
to the musky aroma of the mass-produced cologne with its unmistakable green bottles shaped like pine cones.
Scientists from the Italian Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage found aromas of cinnamon, laurel, myrtle, anise and citrus bergamot in clay fragments, all indigenous plants growing in the region.
The parfumerie was found in part of a larger industrial unit dating from 2000BC, which included copper smelting works, textile weaving and dyeing, a winery and significantly,
an olive press, producing the essential ingredient for essences.
Further research in the area will start in September.
Queen Cleopatra left her indelible stamp on perfume as a product that can make men or women go weak at the knees… or so today’s producers would like us to think.
Historians say she set off to seduce Mark Antony at their first encounter in Tarsus, modern day Turkey, by sailing in on a barge with perfumed sails and incense oils
wafting in on burners. She succeeded.
Aromatic resins were also used in funeral rites. “One gram of special essence was sometimes worth more than gold,” said Belgiorno.
It was not clear who purchased the perfume from Cyprus, but records from Knossos in Crete show the island selling 576 litres of pure-grade olive oil, something which could
suggest busy trade then, said Belgiorno.
“The Cypriots probably learnt from the Egyptians, we know there were very strong links between the two,” she said.
The find is significant to an element of Cypriot history long erased from local memories, and could explain two mystifying names which appear in a list of 10 fragrance
families, an industry standard.
Only two refer to geographic regions and both pertain to Chypre, French for Cyprus.
