Hatshepsut's Perfume - Part 2 {Fragrant Reading}
The uncovered perfume bottle of Hatshepsut
The other day we posted about the archeological project under way of resurrecting Hatshepsut's perfume, a 3,500 vintage whose only dessicated remains still exist. Is it more dream or reality, you decide. I somehow feel that nothing really new is going to come out of this venture, like an unknown ingredient in the palette of perfumes of the Ancient Egyptians. Somehow, I imagine the perfume of a pharaoh to be quite codified especially in a funerary context, but maybe there was more room for individuality than we assume...
The dried remains of the very ancient perfume
The National Geographic has an article with great pictures (check also the pictures of Hatshepsut. According to one source I read elsewhere, one of the many honorific names that she bore and which were inscribed on her famous beetles was: "The one who is soft of perfume and pleasing to the noses of the gods of Thebes."
"The thin neck "allows a very economical dosing of the valuable content," according to Michael Höveler-Müller, curator of Bonn University's Egyptian Museum. A small clay stopper would have kept the oil from spilling.
"In every case our research will touch new grounds and will maybe enable us to put our noses back into a time more than 3,500 years [ago]," Höveler-Müller said
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