Perfumery in Ptolemaic Egypt and Tell Timai. An Experimental Approach

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985955%3A_____%2F23%3A00582844" target="_blank" >RIV/67985955:_____/23:00582844 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Perfumery in Ptolemaic Egypt and Tell Timai. An Experimental Approach

Original language description

In this paper, we present preliminary results of an interdisciplinary effort to study aromatic oils (‘perfumes’) of the Ptolemaic period. The project is a cooperation between the Alchemies of Scent Project and the Tell Timai Archaeological Project. Its goal is to better characterize the techniques of perfumery as they were practiced in Ptolemaic Egypt, particularly as they relate to recent findings of the Tell Timai Project. The Tell Timai Project recently discovered what may be a perfume factory at Tell Timai. This would be a breakthrough in the history of perfumery. If confirmed, it would be one of the few perfume industries discovered that is also attested in written sources and perhaps the only one for which a complete recipe is preserved in Greek and Latin sources: the Mendesian perfume, named for the city of Mendes (close to the site). This paper explores the perfume factory hypothesis. To do so, the Alchemies of Scent project takes an experimental approach: we present results from controlled experiments using different interpretations of the archaeological and textual data, and we compare those results to the objective and subjective characteristics of the end products as described by our sources (scent, taste, colour, viscosity, etc.). The impact is twofold: substantively, we offer new interpretations of materials and methods of perfumery in Ptolemaic Egypt, methodologically, we offer a novel method of botanical identifications, identification of artefacts, interpretation of written procedures, and comparison of Egyptian and Greek / Latin sources.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GM21-30494M" target="_blank" >GM21-30494M: Alchemies of Scent. Reconstructing the Practices of Ancient Greco-Egyptian Perfumery: An Experimental Approach to the History of Science</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů