Scientists for the first time determined the composition of the spirits used in ancient Rome (6 photos)

Researchers from the University of Córdoba in Spain succeeded in reveal the composition of ancient perfumes over two thousand years old.





It all started in 2019, when a building in municipality of Carmona in Seville. Quite by accident, the workers found 2000-year-old mausoleum with eight niches. He was in excellent condition as it has never been looted.



The remains of six members of a wealthy family were buried in the mausoleum. family, and in one of the niches (where a woman about 40 years old was buried years) found a quartz vessel with a certain "solid mass" inside.





This quartz bottle wrapped in a cloth bag (or rather, its remains), was sent to the laboratory for analysis.

First of all, the researchers noted that it was made of quartz, a rare and expensive material in those days. Therefore, this was a luxury item.



It was very lucky that the bottle was tightly sealed and inside remains of solid matter. Turned out to be nothing else as a perfume based on vegetable (apparently, olive) oil and patchouli essential essence, which is widely known in perfume industry today.



Research group FQM346 from the University of Cordoba under under the guidance of Professor of Organic Chemistry José Rafael Ruiz Arrebol in in collaboration with the city of Carmona chemically described the components of the perfume, dating from the first century AD.

To determine the composition of perfumes, various instrumental methods such as X-ray diffraction and gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry.

Ruiz Arrebola emphasizes that the use of dolomite, varieties of carbon, as cork and bitumen used for its sealing was the key to the excellent preservation of the product and its content.



Detail of a perfume stopper. Photo: University of Cordoba

The results are published in the Swiss scientific journal Heritage.