CLEOPATRA'S PERFUME

CLEOPATRA'S PERFUME ~ THE CHANEL No5 OF EGYPT

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After centuries’ worth of paintings and sculptures, we have a pretty good idea of what Cleopatra looked like.

But now, we may also know what she smelled like too.

Cleopatra's perfume was so legendary, that reportedly Marc Antony 'could smell the queen from miles away'

Legend has it that Cleopatra would pour so much of her personalized perfume on the sails of her boats, that Marc Antony could smell her coming from miles away, even before she arrived at the shores of Tarsus.

After years of excavations and study, a group of researchers believe they’ve solved this mystery, and actually recreated Cleopatra’s perfume.

Robert Littman and Jay Silverstein of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, have been investigating the perfumes of the ancient world for years, focusing in particular on what scent Cleopatra herself might have worn.

Their journey began with the discoveries at the Tell Timai excavation project, at the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Thmuis which was founded around 4,500 B.C.

This city was home to production facilities for two of the most well-known perfumes in the ancient world: Mendesian and Metopian.

Excavation at the site revealed that large compounds with kilns dating from the third century B.C. used imported clay as well as glass to produce perfume bottles during both the pre-Roman period, as well as the Roman occupation period.

Some of the containers, called amphorae, showed residue of the 2,000-plus-year-old ingredients once used to make perfume at the site.

After such a long time, the amphorae no longer retained the smell of the liquid residue inside them.

However, researchers did a chemical analysis of the residue which revealed a few key ingredients in the liquid mix.

Taking the ingredients found in the ancient residue, and folding in information found in ancient Greek texts on the subject, the researchers were able to recreate the formulas for perfumes of the era.

Given the age and discovery location of the residue, researchers infer that this could be Cleopatra’s perfume.

The ancient perfume formulas that the researchers cooked up used a base of myrrha ~ a resin originating from a tree native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula ~ along with several other ingredients that you might very well have in your kitchen cupboard today, like olive oil, cinnamon, and cardamom.

The result was a formula that was a lot thicker and stickier than the more watery perfumes of today.

Still, the ancient perfume reportedly gave off a nice musky, spicy scent that would last longer than most modern perfumes would.

While researchers were successful in recreating the scents of ancient Egypt, the question still remains whether or not this was actually Cleopatra’s perfume.

As royalty, it would make sense for Cleopatra to concoct her own signature scents rather than wear what the public would be wearing, and it is believed that Cleopatra did actually have her own perfume-making facility.

Researchers aren’t toyally sure this recreation is Cleopatra's signature scent.... and may never be certain.

Nevertheless, this extraordinary new creation is now on display as part of the upcoming "Queens of Egypt" exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C.

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https://allthatsinteresting.com/cleopatra-perfume...

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https://ko-fi.com/thetudorintruders

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Marc Anthony meeting Cleopatra~Sir Lawrence Alma~Tadema, 1885