A research team from the University of Cordoba (UCO) has identified for the first time the composition of a Roman perfume with "patchouli smell" with more than 2,000 years old from the discovery of a small ointment in Carmona (Seville).

The University of Cordoba has explained that 2,000 years ago in the Roman city of Carmo, the current Carmona, someone put an "ointment in a funerary urn" and now, twenty centuries later, the research team, led by Professor of Organic Chemistry José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola, in collaboration with the City Council of Carmona, has been able to chemically describe the real components of a perfume of the first century AD.

The remains of the perfume, found in 2019 during an archaeological intervention in a mausoleum located in the construction of a house on Seville Street, had been preserved solidified inside a container carved in quartz, which was still kept perfectly sealed.

According to the municipal archaeologist of Carmona, Juan Manuel Román, it was a collective tomb, possibly belonging to a family of high purchasing power, in which, in addition to numerous objects related to funeral rituals, the cinerary urns of six adult individuals, three women and three men, were found.

An ointment in rock crystal

In one of the urns, made of glass, on the cremated skeletal remains of the deceased, in this case a woman between 30 and 40 years old, a cloth bag containing three amber beads and a small jar or ointment of rock crystal (hyaline quartz) carved in the form of an amphora had been deposited.

Usually, perfume containers used to be made of blown glass and, on very few occasions, specimens made of this material have been found that, due to their characteristics and difficulty for carving due to their hardness, made them highly valued and extremely expensive.

In addition to the uniqueness of the container, the really extraordinary fact was that it was perfectly sealed and that inside the solid residues of the perfume had been preserved, which has allowed this research to be carried out.

Professor Ruiz Arrebola stresses that the use of dolomite, a type of carbon, as a stopper and the bitumen that was used to seal it were the key to the magnificent state of conservation of the piece and its contents.

To find out what the perfume was made of, different instrumental techniques have been used, such as X-ray diffraction and the gas chromatography technique coupled to mass spectrometry, among others.

According to Ruiz, from the analyzes it has been possible to determine that the small cylindrical plug was manufactured in dolomite (limestone) and that for its perfect fit and hermetic sealing bitumen was used.

Olive oil and patchouli

Regarding perfume, two components have been identified, such as a vegetable base or binder, possibly olive oil, and the essence itself.

In this sense, according to the results of the chemical analyzes carried out by the University of Córdoba, Rome "smelled of patchouli", since this essential oil was obtained from a plant of Indian origin, the Pogostemon cablin, widely used in the current perfumery and whose use was not known for Roman times.

On the other hand, the monumental characteristics of the tomb where it was found and, above all, the material in which the container containing it was made, suggest that it was a product of high value.

This research is a milestone for the field of perfumery of Roman times and the use of patchouli as an essential oil, while more studies are currently being carried out on other unique materials preserved in the Carmonense mausoleum and on which it is expected to obtain results soon.

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