Ancient Perfumery Found in Cyprus

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Ancient Perfumery Found in Cyprus

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

 

 

— What may be the world's oldest known perfumery, set atop a Cyprus hillside with sweeping views of the Mediterranean, has just been excavated by a team of archaeologists from the Italian Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage, according to recent news reports.

 

 

Maria Rosario Belgiorno, director of the excavation, said she believed the perfumery was 4,000 years old and represented the oldest known perfumery.

 

An ancient earthquake buried much of the site, but the disaster turned out to be fortuitous for researchers as the burial preserved some of the artifacts. So far, Belgiorno and her colleagues have identified fragrances of cinnamon, laurel, myrtle, anise, citrus bergamot and pine.

 

Stephan Kanlian, chairperson of the Master's Degree Program in Cosmetics & Fragrance Marketing and Management at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, expressed interest in the Cyprus find, but he doubts that it is the world's oldest perfumery.

 

"It could be the oldest found in this good of a condition," Kanlian told Discovery News.

 

He said some Egyptian mummies, which could predate the Cyprus factory, actually retained the odor of perfume when scientists first examined them. Many of these mummies were found with scent bottles.

 

Lisa Fong, former Executive Director of the Artisan Natural Perfumers Guild and the maker of Artemisia Natural Perfumes, added that evidence for the manufacture of perfume also has been found in what is now Pakistan.

 

Fong told Discovery News, "A professor from Italy, Paolo Rovesti, discovered a terra-cotta distillation apparatus used in making fragrances (at the Indus River area) originating in around 3000 B.C."

 

Textual evidence, however, does support the fact that Cyprus was an early center for perfume making.

 

In his "Natural History, Volume XIII," Roman historian Pliny (23-79 A.D.) wrote, "As to perfume of cyprus, that from the island of Cyprus was at first preferred, and then that of Egypt; when all on a sudden the unguents of Mendes and metopium rose into esteem. In later times Phoenicia eclipsed Egypt in the manufacture of these last two, but left to that country the repute of producing the best unguent of cyprus."

 

Given the proximity of the olive press to the Cyprus perfumery, it is likely that olive oil was included in the perfume-making process.

 

Kenneth Peterson, who goes by the business name of "The Cosmetic Chemist," supplies raw materials and fragrances to many of today's manufacturers and retailers. A former pharmacist, Peterson is credited as being one of the first individuals to use familiar herbal, fruit and vegetable smells, such as vanilla and cucumber, in American soaps and perfumes.

 

Peterson said the Cyprus find was "very intriguing." He believes the ancient Greeks probably used olive oil as a solvent to extract fragrances.

 

"Later on, the French used lard instead of oil," Peterson told Discovery News. "They used to spread lard on a glass plate. Aromatic ingredients, such as jasmine flowers, were then placed on top of the fat. After a while, they pulled the flowers off and repeated the process many times until the lard became saturated with scent.

 

"It was scraped off and mixed with alcohol. Through a distilling process, the alcohol was evaporated and recaptured, leaving the maker with an intensely aromatic perfume."

 

Peterson added that lard and olive oil, which tends to go rancid and "smells a bit funny," are not used much by perfumers today.

 

As for today, both men and women in the ancient world wanted to smell nice.

 

"I think everyone wore fragrance," Fong told Discovery News. "Socrates said regarding his disapproval of perfume, 'There is the same smell in a slave and a gentleman, when both are perfumed.' In ancient Egypt, people walked around with fragrant waxy cones on their heads, which would gradually melt and scent and moisturize them."

 

Fong, who also is an instructor on perfume at San Francisco's The Learning Annex, agrees with Belgiorno that many of the ingredients found at the Cyprus site still are in use today, although she said most perfumes made since World War II contain laboratory-created chemicals. Fong favors natural scents and uses them exclusively in her products.

 

Excavation work continues at Pyrgos-Mavroraki, where archaeologists also have found a textile weaving and dying shop, a winery and a copper smelting works.