Ancient Perfume
The ancient Etruscans left some wonderful tombs decorated with colourful and often symbolic frescoes, yet very little is known of their day-to-day life. A discovery made four years ago, has shed some light on one particular aspect of Etruscan life - luxury.
Just outside the town of Chiusi is a large Etruscan necropolis and four years ago the Italian archaeologists working there discovered an intact tomb, the entrance to which was covered by a large terracotta slab. Such tombs are rare, for between ancient tomb robbers and the modern ones, there is little left for the archaeologist to find.
To their delight they found an inscription painted on the wall of the tomb in purple and red which gave the name of the tomb's occupant, a lady called Thana Presnti Plecunia Umranalisa. According to the report of the archaeologists, "From the formula of the name, we learn that Thana Plecunia was the daughter of a lady named Umranei, a member of one of the most important aristocratic families of Chiusi."
Thana had been cremated and her ashes were preserved in a small urn made of travertine, a soft stone that is easy to work, as shown by the rich carvings on the urn which included leaves and other foliage and the head of a goddess, poddibly the Etruscan earth goddess Cel Ati. Nearby, and buried beneath a layer of clay that had seeped into the tomb, stood a cosmetics case made of bone, ivory, tin and bronze, whose feet were carved to represent sirens and thus imply the irresistable-ness of the lucky woman who used the contents of the case.
It is those contents that have caused the delay in announcing the discovery, for when the archaeologists opened the case they found a couple of bronze rings, a pair of tweezers, a couple of combs and an Egyptian alabaster perfume jar. Although the jar had lost its lid - or perhaps the lid had been deliberately removed to allow the scent to perfume the tomb - the clay had preserved some of the contents, a pale yellow paste that was almost solid.
The archaeologists sent the stuff off for analysis but forgot to mark the envelope "Urgent", with the result that it has taken the dilatory lab technicians four years to come up with the answer. The result, however, has been worth the delay, for the paste was 2,000 year-old moringa oil.
Also known as "myrobalan", moringa is mentioned by Pliny in his "Natural History" as the source of an oil much favoured by the kings of Parthia as a perfume. His description of the various varieties of the plant is quite interesting.
In the country of the Troglodytes, the Thebais, and the parts of Arabia which separate Judea from Egypt, myrobalanum is commonly found; it is provided by Nature for unguents, as from its very name would appear. From its name, also, it is evident that it is the nut of a tree, with a leaf similar to that of the heliotrope, which we shall have to mention when speaking of the herbs. The fruit of this tree is about the size of a filbert. The kind that grows in Arabia is known as Syriaca, and is white, while, on the other hand, that which grows in the Thebais is black: the former is preferred for the quality of the oil extracted from it, though that which is produced in the Thebais yields it in larger quantities.
Among these various kinds, that which is sent from the country of the Troglodytes is the worst of all. There are some persons who prefer that of Ethiopia to all of these, the nut of which is black, and not oleaginous; it has only a very small kernel, but the liquid which is extracted from it is more odoriferous than that of the other kinds; it grows, too, in a flat, open country. It is said that the Egyptian nut is even more oleaginous, being of a reddish colour with a thicker shell, and that the plant, although it grows in wet, marshy spots, is shorter and drier than the other kinds. The Arabian nut, again, is said to be of a green colour and of smaller size, but harder and more compact, from the circumstance that it grows in mountainous districts. The best of all, however, is that of Petra, which comes from a city mentioned on a previous occasion; it has a black shell, but the kernel is white. The perfumers, however, only extract the juices from the shells; but medical men pound the kernels, pouring warm water on them, little by little, as they do it.
Pliny, Natural History chap 46
However whatever smell the moringa oil has naturally was not sufficient for Thana, for her perfume contained in addition pine and mastic resins. Probably the whole lot was imported from Egypt - as shown by the alabaster jar - and is an indication of Thana's social standing, for such perfume cannot have been cheap. Even so, the beautifully decorated box, highly valuable in its own right, and the elaborate contents may well have been a wedding present to Thana (or been given to her on some other significant social event such as the birth of an heir).
Whatever the reason, we can be grateful for the fancy of the grieving relatives who put the box into the tomb - and to the quirk of fate which ensured that an air-tight layer of clay should be deposited over the box, sealing it and preserving the perfume from oxidation.
© Kendall K. Down 2009
