4,000 year-old perfumes

Clay jugs used to make and store ancient perfumes lie at an excavation site on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The 4,000-year-old fragrances—the world's oldest known perfumes—were re-created by an experimental archaeology center and are now on display at an Italian museum.

Photograph courtesy Maria Rosaria Belgiorno

This discovery was made back in 2003 and was reported by BBC News, but I only recently learnt about it and just wanted to share:

Italian archaeologists discovered a collection of perfumes dating back to the Bronze Age on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Excavation leader Maria Rosaria Belgiorn of the National Research Council in Rome believes the perfumes date back more than 4,000 years.

Remnants of the perfumes were found inside an ancient 3,230-square-foot (300-square-meter) factory that was part of a larger industrial complex at Pyrgos. It's believed that this 4,000 year-old factory manufactured fragrances for export across the Eastern Mediterranean. The buildings were destroyed during an earthquake in 1850 B.C., but perfume bottles, mixing jugs, and stills were preserved under the collapsed walls.

The buildings also housed an olive press, a winery and a copper smelting works. The scale of the site, and the presence of huge 500-litre oil-storage jars, suggests it was once the centre of a prosperous export business.

Laurel

Belgiorn and a team of scientists analyzed the remants found in the mixing jugs and clay perfume bottles, and were able to identify extracts of laurel, cinnamon and myrtle (all of which would have  grown in this particular region at that time) among other ingredients.  They also discovered a number of fragrance recipes that had been created with the ingredients. Plants and herbs were ground up and mixed with olive oil in clay jugs, then distilled in a clay apparatus, Belgiorno explained.

The smell of the perfumes is "a nice experience that re-creates in our mind a sort of ancestral reminder," Belgiorn said in an email interview.

The archaeologist added that she doesn't know why the people of Cyprus started making and wearing perfumes 4,000 years ago.

Regardless of how the Cypriot perfumes were used, she believes today's fragrances just don't compare.

"We have lost the real world of natural fragrances," she said, "because most of the perfumes of today are chemical reproductions of the natural fragrances and scents."

(Adapted from BBC News.)

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Creating the scent of tobacco flowers - Part 1.

Late last year I managed to acquire a small bottle of tobacco absolute. Using it as guide, I will finally attempt to recreate the scent of tobacco flowers.

The tobacco absolute came from Bulgaria, and was extracted from the leaves of the nicotiana tabacuum plant. It's a dark brown oil, and quite thick and syrupy. . It has a very rich and strong type of scent, which at first sniff reminded me a little of labdanum, but it definitely has a sweetness to it as well.

Some of the starting materials I will use to re-create the scent  of tobacco flowers are: clary sage oil, rose oil, honey, jasmine, clove oil and ho leaf oil. But a few more materials will probably be added to the formula as I go along.

This is intended to be a fun, learning experiment for myself but I'll post everything in stages here, along with my understanding of the specific essential oils and why they are being used in the experiment, the different types of tobacco flower, and how perfumes bases or accords can be put together. So hopefully you will find it fun and educational as well, and I welcome any comments, suggestions or questions.

 

Here's a photo I took of some dried tobacco leaves on a recent visit to the Caribbean Cigar Company. They are located in Pelican Village, Bridgetown, and create cigars the traditional, hand-crafted way. The cigars are all rolled meticulously by hand, - no automation - and they produce up to 1,000 cigars a day.



The tobacco leaves, seeds, wrappers and binders they use are sourced from Cuba, Ecquador and Cameroon.

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Gullah learning and inspiration

Acquiring knowledge and insight for a Gullah inspired perfume......

Gullah Images: The Art of Jonathan Green


The art and craft of sweetgrass basket weaving.

Sweetgrass Baskets and the Gullah Tradition


Sweetgrass Basket Making, Historic Charleston City Market, Charleston, SC. Photo from The Charleston City Market.

Culinary heritage & culture.

Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon, and Nightby Sallie Ann Robinson.

South Carolina low country coastal culture and environment.

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Orange Blossom gets an upgrade

Source: flickr.com viaAmanda on Pinterest

One thing you come to realize about perfume-making is that the more you learn, the more you realize there is to learn. This is probably true of most disciplines, hobbies or skills that you choose to undertake. As I study the materials used in perfumery more and more, read more books on the subject, gain more knowledge about the individual aroma molecules that make materials smell the way they do, and experiment with blends more and more, my confidence grows and with it my willingess to try new things to make each perfume creation even better and stand out more. Doing this means I will also make more mistakes, but there is always something to learn from those too.

Source: Amanda on Pinterest

Orange Blossom is one of the very first perfumes I made for sale, and I am pleased that it consistently got positive feedback from customers. But now I want to make it even better. So Jasmine sambac and a few other floral compounds have now been added to the formula for my Orange Blossom perfume, and it has definitely made a lovely difference to the overall aroma - it now has more depth and richness. It is still the same green floral which my customers approved  of, but now it seems more intricate and not as simple or straightforward as before.

Source: jekkasherbfarm.com viaAmanda on Pinterest

I am also thinking of adding a tiny bit of either nutmeg or sage leaf to the top notes. The sage oil I recently obtained is a variety from Spain and it has a lovely, fresh, slightly sweet and floral quality  that works well with the orange flower notes in the perfume. It's very mild, and quite different from the strong, camphorous more commonly used sage oil which originates from other parts of Europe; the Spanish variety is definitely more suitable for perfumery.
My reason behind the nutmeg was to see if I could make the perfume sweet and spicy in a subtle way, and even more complex. But I really love the sage oil on its own and think I will leave it at just that for now.

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Medford Mahogany purchases

So here's what I bought from my tour of Medford Mahogany. Their mortar and pestle.....

which will be very useful for crushing herbs and spices.

And also one of their jewellery boxes, in a beautiful matte finish.

But instead of using it for jewellery, I'll be using it to store some of my smaller oils and perfume blends to keep them out of the sun and light.

 

The tour of Medford Craftworks was educational, inspiring, and how nice to come away with something decorative and functional in one.

 







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Medford Mahogany Creations

Medford Craft World is the beautiful woodwork studio situated just outside of Bridgetown, which specializes in fine, one-of-a-kind pieces, handmade entirely from locally sourced Barbados mahogany wood. Owner and founder Reggie Medford has been practicing his craft for thirty-five years, carving sculptural works of art from the indigenous mahogany trees that grow on his compound and throughout the island. While his pieces have an organic quality about them, it's obvious that much intricate skill, time and talented hands are involved in the entire process.

The very first time I toured Medford Craft World was many years ago. Visiting the studio a second time last week, it was wonderful to see that Mr. Medford is still as passionate about his work. Everything from the tranquil, natural surroundings to Mr. Medford and his team of master artisans has a quietly vibrant, "alive" and effortless manner about them.

First we were given a brief history of Barbados mahogany and Medford Craft World, followed by a personalized tour of the workshop by Mr. Medford himself.

And we got to see the mahogany wood in its rawest, and most organic state....

....before skilful hands helped it take on a more refined, but still natural form. Look at those elegant curves and lines.



The mahogany is sanded, carved and shaped into different pieces....

before going through a unique and intricate varnishing process developed by Mr. Medford himself.



The pieces are then sold in their shop as abstract originals, clocks, coffee tables, pen holders and smaller souvenir items.

I'll show you the pieces I purchased in my next post later this week. Here's one of the two resident Medford Mahogany ponies.

Medford Mahogany Creations
medfordcraftworld.com

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