Oldest Perfumes Found on Aphrodites Island

January 9, 2017

ITALIAN archaeologists have found the world's oldest perfumes on Cyprus.

The perfumes were scented with extracts of lavender, bay, rosemary, pine or coriander and kept in tiny translucent alabaster bottles.

The remaining traces found at Pyrgos, in the south of the island, are more than 4000 years old.

They were discovered inside what archaeologists believe was an 3995-square-metre perfume-making factory.

"We were astonished at how big the place was," the leader of the archaeological team, Maria Rosa Belgiorno, said. "Perfumes must have been produced on an industrial scale."

At least 60 stills, mixing bowls, funnels and perfume bottles were perfectly preserved at the site, which had been blanketed in earth after a violent earthquake about 1850BC.

The abundance of perfumes fits well with Cyprus' mythological status as the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.

"The goddess' myth was strongly linked to the perfume she used to get what she wanted," the head of Cyprus' antiquities department, Pavlos Flourentzos, said.

The finds are now on display at the Capitoline Museum in Rome.

Four of the perfumes have been re-created from residues found at the site.

An Italian foundation, which aims to re-create antique traditions, distilled them according to techniques described by Pliny the Elder, by grinding the herbs, adding them to oil and water, and burying them in a long-necked jug over hot embers for 12 hours.

"It smells good, but strong," museum visitor Alessia Affinata, 30, said. "I can smell the pine especially," said Giulia Occhi Villavecchia, 23.

Neither was sure they would actually wear them.