Fragrant essences and perfumes were en vogue thousands of years ago. But which fragrances were popular in Roman times, for example, remained unknown due to a lack of archaeological finds - until now. Because in a 2000-year-old mausoleum in the Spanish city of Carmona, archaeologists have now discovered a perfume bottle that was still tightly sealed, along with the remains of the contents. Chemical analysis revealed that this oil-based ancient perfume must have once smelled of patchouli.
Archaeologists have unearthed many containers and bottles during excavations of ancient sites that probably once contained cosmetics or perfume. But as a rule, the contents of these finds had long since escaped or decomposed, so that little is known about the fragrance that the man or woman of the world wore in Roman times. However, several recipes for flavored oils survive in historical records. Pliny the Elder describes how perfumes and ointments should consist of two essential components: a base of liquid substances and a fragrance of solid or liquid substances. However, which fragrances these were remained rather vague in these descriptions.
Flacon find in ancient mausoleum
Now Daniel Cosano from the University of Cordoba and his colleagues in the Spanish city of Carmona have made a discovery that, for the first time, gives more insight into ancient perfume preferences. During excavations in preparation for the construction of a new house, they came across an underground passage that turned out to be a family mausoleum from Roman times. The cremated remains of six people - three women and three men - were buried in this vault. Their stone or glass urns stood in various niches in the wall of the mausoleum. The painted walls and the design of the urns suggested that it was the burial place of a wealthy ancient family, according to archaeologists.
In one of the urns - an amphora-like container made of glass - the archaeologists discovered the ashes of a woman who died aged 30 to 40, a small cloth bag with organic residues and three amber beads, as well as a small bottle made of rock crystal and sealed with a stopper. In terms of shape and design, this small bottle corresponded to a so-called unguentarium, a container in which ointments or essences were stored in the past. "In Roman times, such quartz containers were very rare luxury items," write Cosano and his colleagues.
Remnants of patchouli essence
"In this respect alone, the unguentarium was an unusual find," say the archaeologists. "But even more unusual was the fact that this vial was still tightly sealed and contained a solid mass." This raised hopes that the quartz crystal vial still contained an analyzable remnant of its original contents. To find out, the scientists subjected the stopper and the contents of the bottle to various spectroscopic analyzes and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). These initially revealed that the bottle had been closed with a stopper made of dolomite rock and bitumen as an adhesive. This combination ensured that the bottle remained securely closed for more than 2000 years.
The material adhering to the inner walls of the bottle turned out to be a mixture of the hydrocarbons in the bitumen, various organic compounds from the sesquiterpene group and residues of a vegetable oil. “Sesquiterpenes are found in the oily essences of many plants. In perfumes, they typically form the volatile fraction and are responsible for the top notes of the fragrance,” explain Cosano and his team. These volatile compounds only survived in the ancient flacon because they were absorbed by the bitumen from the adhesive and thus preserved. Further analysis then revealed that these compounds contained various sesquiterpenes typically found in patchouli. This fragrance comes from tropical plants of the genus Pogestemon and is still used in perfumes today.
The deceased woman from Roman times was given a bottle of patchouli perfume as a grave gift. "The composition of the contents in this unguentarium are consistent with a patchouli extract mixed with a vegetable oil as a base," the archaeologists report. Olive oil may have served as a carrier. "To our knowledge, this may be the first time a Roman-era perfume has been identified - a significant advance in the field," the researchers state.
Source: University of Cordoba; Specialist article: Heritage, doi: 10.3390/heritage6060236