A priceless vial of antique Roman perfume from the time of Jesus has been opened, showing what wealthy ancient Romans might have smelt like in those days.
The vial, which is though to date back 2,000 years, was recently examined by University of Cordoba’s Organic Chemistry professor, Rose Rafael Ruiz Arrebola. He has detailed his findings in the journal Heritage.
“To our knowledge, this is possibly the first time a perfume from Roman times has been identified,” said Arrebola.
The vial of perfume was found in 2019 during an archaeological dig in the Spanish town of Carmona, which is close to Seville. The town’s original name, back in Roman times, was Carmo.
The vial was completely sealed inside a quartz vase and placed into a burial urn in a mausoleum.
The dig uncovered several items used in Roman funeral rites as well as the cinerary urns of three women and three men, leading experts to believe that the tomb belonged to a wealthy family. Three amber beads and the tiny quartz flask containing the perfume were found in one of the urns. It belonged to an adult woman thought to be between the ages of 30 and 40.
The aroma survived the passage of time due to how effectively it was sealed.
University of Cordoba researchers employed X-ray diffraction, gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry to discover the perfume’s fragrance.
Their investigation determined that a vegetable oil, perhaps olive oil, served as the perfume’s foundation. Patchouli, an essential oil extracted from a plant, was discovered to be the primary essence.
Patchouli is a common ingredient in modern perfumes, but it wasn’t previously known that the Romans also utilized the fragrance. It is frequently described as having a warm, slightly sweet, earthy, and spicy scent.
They also discovered that the perfume bottle’s stopper was constructed of bitumen aggregate, a mineral rock comparable to asphalt, and dolomite, a type of mineral rock.
