Ancient Fragrant Lore (part 1)

In what concerns the use of perfumes and fragrant unguents or fumigation rituals the path of choice lands us firmly on the land of the Pharaohs, the Eastern Mediterranean and the progeny that follows these traditions into the more recent Arab and Florentine technological interventions that account for the first glimpses of modern perfumery. To Egypt then, for starters.

Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847-1928) Cleopatra on the Terraces of Philae

If we all have Cleopatra and her scented barge popping into our minds, thanks to pop culture and Shakespeare, at the mere hint of Egypt in relation to fragrances, we're not to blame. Such was the identification of Egypt with perfume production from time immemorial, despite other ancient civilizations dabbling in perfume making in an equal degree, that during Julius Caesar's Roman triumphs, alabastra (aromatic essence holding vials, the term being alabastron/αλάβαστρον in Greek due to the material used to make them, i.e. alabaster) were tossed to the crowd to demonstrate his mastery over Egypt.

Please read the rest of my article on ancient fragrant practices in the milieu of the Eastern Mediterranean (including the references from the ancient writers) on this link on Fragrantica. Part 2 to follow.

Joan of Arc & Egyptian Mummies: Tied by Scent

Some of the most fascinating scopes of the smell-study do not revolve around commercial fragrances at all. One area which provides us with phenomenal and astounding observations on the role of smell is history & archeology; especially when it has to do with legendary figures.
Dr Philippe Charlier, a paleopathologist (that is, a medical expert on the ailments of prehistoric times) and medicine historian at Lille II and Paris VII universities as well as a forensic scientist at the Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Paris, has come up with an astonishing revelation: That the last remains of Jeanne D'Arc or Joan of Arc, preserved by the church as holy relics, were a hoax: in fact the lot consisted of the remnants of an Egyptian mummy!

The discovery dates to April 2007 actually, but the more impressive point is the way in which he came up to this conclusion: through smell. The scent of the remains and the essences used to embalm the dead in ancient times gave priceless clues.

A group of 20 researchers examined the reputed Joan of Arc remains at Tours (Indre-et-Loire) for months: There was a piece of a human rib ~ blackened on the surface as if charred, minor bone remnants, wood & solid matter and some linen tissue measuring 15cm. The lot surfaced in 1867 in a jar in the attic of a Paris pharmacy. They were labelled "Remains found under the stake of Joan of Arc, virgin of Orleans" and were later officially recognized by the Vatican as being authentic. What put the team of researchers into the right track nevertheless were some smart observations.

First, the remains did not appear burnt but rather embalmed. Microscopic examination revealed several pine pollen stigmata (of a type not inherent in Normandy) which are a common occurence in the resin used for embalming in Egypt. The linen tissue was chronologised via the Carbon-14 method (a destructive method, said in passing, hence its use only on the piece of linen) to the Upper Egyptian epoch of 3rd to 6th centuries BC.
Furthermore, one of the bones was actually a cat's femur. Now cats were sacrified in the pyre alongside witches during the times of witch-hunting, but they were also embalmed alongside their owners during the Egyptian times! Another clue was the labeling itself: it recalled the style and syntax patterns of the 19th century, not the 15th century when Jeanne's remains would have been amassed and preserved after her cremation at Rouen in 1431. This coincided historically with the rediscovery of the myth of Joan of Arc which happened around 1867; up till that point she had been neither canonised nor were she acknoledged as a national emblem. The supposed discovery of her remains gave substance to the legend in an era of fervent French nationalism.
The objects could have been amassed easily indeed within the inventory of a Parisian doctor or apothecary of the 1860s. Powdered mummies were routinely prescribed ever since the Middle-Ages for all sort of ailments, from stomach aches to pain due to menstruation. Even the king François 1er was known to be carrying a bit of the powder in a locket around his neck for emergencies. The cat's femur could have been a fraud on its own: an apothecary trying to pass an embalmed cat as part of an Egyptian human mummy worth its weight in gold!

Therefore, the seed of the idea that the lot was actually a major historical hoax was firmly planted. It remained to be amply justified and proven.
To that end a novel approach was opted for: "We wanted a professional nose to confirm the smell [of the relics] and identify what molecules [the smells] might be," Charlier said. Fragrance experts Sylvaine Delacourte, of Guerlain, and Jean-Michel Duriez, of Jean Patou, were called for, seperately*, to determine by smell what were the essences used and to compare and contrast with known substances at the laboratory of Dr Philippe Charlier.
According to Sylvaine Delacourte, who publicized this magnificent adventure on her blog in French, the adventure was originally aimed for something completely different: Smelling the embalmed hearts of French kings at the Basilique de Saint Denis so as to determine the essences used, but when permission was not granted for that, the mission turned to other relics to which access had been granted: Those of Jeanne D'Arc! According to mme Delacourte, the specimens smelled for cross-comparing purposes for this mission were: *Ashes of Agnès Sorel (smelling of vanilla) *hair lock from a necropolis at Ica in Peru (which smelled of licorice!) *hair lock from a woman of a Beauvais convent *remains of an Egyptian mummy and *the supposed remains of Jeanne D’Arc/Joan of Arc.

Both Sylvaine and Duriez identified soft, balsamic odours emitting from the remains. Specifically there was clearly identifiable vanilla and burnt plaster (made of sulfate of calcium), both of which coincided with the hypothesis of Dr.Charlier. Vanillin (a constituent of vanilla) is a common smell produced by corpse decomposition ~hence the "sweet smell of death"!~ and is routinely witnessed in Egyptian mummies, but it is never a product occuring in victims of pyres. The burnt plaster on the other hand seems to have been a deliberate "planting": Joan of Arc was reputed to have been cremated tied not to a piece of wood, as was the custom, but on a piece of plaster so as to prolong the agony...But it was the vanilla that didn't fit!
Anastasia Tsaliki, an expert in ancient diseases at Britain's University of Durham, said she was impressed with Charlier's detective work: "It is a fascinating project and shows how forensic methods can be combined with tools used in archaeometry [the study of archaeological materials] and archaeobotany [the study of ancient plants] and osteology [the study of bones]," she told the journal Nature. [source] And archeo-sniffing I might add. Sometimes smell really is a forgotten sense!

What is even more promising is that mme Delacourte was invited on another such expedition, this time involving headspace technology, which she promises to recount to us soon. Can't reveal more, but it is sure to amaze just as this one!

*According to the article on Future Sciences recounting the results, while according to Sylvaine herself she had the idea of inviting Duriez because they're friends and she trusts his expertise.

Part of the info comes from Jean Etienne's article, appearing on Future Sciences. Translation by Elena Vosnaki @ Perfume Shrine.

Painting Joan of Arc in Prayer by John Everett Millet. Jean d'Arc remains via Futura Sciences. Egyptian mummy via the Smithsonian blogs

The Mystery of Egyptian Elixirs & The Story of Sacred Kyphi Perfume

Stakte, Susinum, Cyprinum, the Mendesian, Kyphi...Ancient Egyptians used various unguents, essences and aromatic fumigations as a means of well-being and communication with the divine or the dead. Such was the identification of Egypt with perfume production, despite other ancient civilizations dabbling in perfume making, that during Julius Caesar's Roman triumphs, alabastra (essence vials, the term being alabastron/αλάβαστρον in Greek due to the material used, alabaster) were tossed to the crowd to demonstrate his mastery over Egypt!
Although aromatic substances were abundant in Egypt, accesible even to humble labourers, manufactured pefume was a rare commodity reserved for sacred rites, the rich or for export. Images of lotuses being worn and sniffed pose an embarrasment of riches in ancient Egyptian iconography and yet this indigenous and common at the time blossom does not feature in perfume formulae. On the contrary, imports like myrrh, frankincense, cinnamon and cassia were favoured, suggesting that either the extraction methodology was lacking or that tastes ran to the exotic (much like now!) opting for the essences of Arabia Felix (happy Arabia).

The perfumes for personal use had more or less a standard way of composition, resulting in an expected response from the consumer, much like today's customer knows what to expect from a specific commercial perfume: Susinum was based upon the aroma of lilies with myrrh and cinnamon in balanos oil. The Mendesian featured myrrh, cassia and assorted gums and resins steeped in oil and was named from the ancient city of Mendes (production soon went outside the borders of the city). Cyprinum was not named after Cyprus, the Greek island in the east Mediterranean, but based upon the scent of henna (Lawsonia inermis) along with cardamom, cinnamon, myrrh and southernwood. But who were the innovators who first thought about them? Egyptian perfumers from Canopus or olfactory artists from Ashkelon, Cyprus or Sidon? Pliny and Dioscorides regarded the Egyptian product to be superior over all others at any rate. Mendesian is named after the ancient city of Mendes, although eventually that perfume would be created elsewhere, even outside Egyptian borders. The Mendesian featured myrrh, cassia and assorted gums and resins steeped in oil. Stakte contained an even stronger aroma of myrrh ~the formula demanded bruised myrrh itself, or the resin added to balanos oil.


Sacred perfumes were forbidden to use by common folks. The infamous Kyphi (depicted above, recreated by Sandrine Videault) which is documented from Greek authors of antiquity ~indeed the word kyphi is Greek in itself~ such as Dioscorides, Plutarch (in Isis and Osiris) and Galen with slight variations is perhaps the best known. Unfortunately for us the Egyptian priest Manetho's treatise Preparation of Kyphi is lost. Recreations have been attempted by various perfumers, including Sandrine Videault (interviewed on these pages). But kyphi is not the only sacred one.


Another sacred perfume has been discovered by archeologists on the walls of the Ptolemaic temple of Edfu, in the valley of the Nile at Louxor. Based on styrax extract, it was reserved for assuaging the ancient deities of Egypt. The long preparation demanded at least 6 months for the ingredients to mature properly!

The formula included:

- 0,575 litre of carob sugar (Ceratonia siliqua)

- 1010 grams of dry frankincense

- 600 grams of styrax

- 25 grammes de aromatic calamus (Acorus calamus L.)*

- 10 grams of lentisque (mastic) resin

- 15 grams of violet grains

- 0,5 litre of mixed wine and water

From all the forms of ancient Egyptian methods of aromatizing (fumigation, incense burning, pomade and fragranced oils) only one seems consistent with what we consider perfume today: aromatic perfume-oils. Vegetable oils were used as a carrier oil for the essences and two were favoured above all others by the ancient perfumers: balanos and ben. The reason was their naturally neutral odour which would minimally interfere with the final fragrance and the fact that they would keep fragrance longest. Balanos oil comes from the fruit of the Balanites aegyptiaca tree although nowadays no oil is commercially produced from it. Ben oil also circulated under the names moringa, behen, baq or horseradish tree oil (Moringa pterygosperma or M. aptera.) and was used in various therapeutic purposes as well.

The flacon containing perfume was as impotant then as it is now. Alabaster, according to Pliny, was the finest material for the safe-keeping of scent due to its non porous nature. Egyptian alabaster is a very fine grained variety of re-crystallized Eocene limestone (calcite,CaCO3) whereas in modern usage alabaster is a fine-grained, massive variety of gypsum (hydrated calcium sulfate, CaSO4.2H2O).
Varied perfume flacons have been excavated in large numbers. One of the most romantic excavations has been the Ulu Barun (at the Turkish coastline), a big galley loaded with fragant materials which dates to the time of Nefertiti. Chronologizing it was possible thanks to the fortunate discovery of a gold signet ring with Nefertiti's cartouche on it, which suggests a royal commission. Along with the fragrant materials, bars of blue glass were unintentionally designated to the depths. One could dreamingly hypothesize that the amazingly similar to modern aromatherapists' vials colour of the glass could be intended for perfume bottles, however no such evidence exists.

*It's interesting to note that although calamus is also referenced in the Bible (Exodus 30,23) as entering the composition of a sacred perfume for God made by Moses, it must be some other fragrant plant, as Moses was in the middle of the desert.

If you have an interest in ancient Egypt and the perfumes adorning its lifestyle, I highly recommend Lise Manniche's Sacred Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt, Cornell University Press, 1999 which contains actual ancient perfume recipes.

Related reading on PerfumeShrine: Ten Monoliths (Kyphi), Djeji by Guerlain, Saffron's history in perfumery, Chypres' origins, Fragrance History articles.

Formula ref: "Parfums de Rêve", Editions Atlas 1997
Pic of the temple of Edfu in Louxor, Egypt coutesy of webshots.com; alabastra drawnings via biblepicturegallery.com; pic of Kyphi recreation by S.Videault copyright Jean François Gaté, used by permission