A team of Franciscan archaeologists digging in the biblical town of Magdala in what is now Israel say they have unearthed vials of perfume similar to those that may have been used by the woman said to have washed Jesus’ feet.
The perfumed ointments were found intact at the bottom of a mud-filled swimming pool, alongside hair and make-up objects, the director of the dig conducted by the group Studium Biblicum Franciscanum told the Terrasanta.net religious website.
— From Perfume vials from Christ’s era unearthed at MSNBC, with many thanks to JanJan for the link. You can read more at Terrasanta (article is in Italian, and includes a slideshow where you can see the location of the dig and images of the terracotta ampoules).
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And I didn't think anything could top the new audience potential of the college fragrances. Acqua Santa Originale, anybody?
Can anyone read Italian? I am dying to know what it smells like after all this time? do they know what it was orignally made from?
Ack.
I don't, but from what I can make out from Babelfish, no, there is no mention of the smell, and they've sent it off to the lab for chemical analysis.
Thank you for posting, Robin– I find this just marvelous! I've been doing a lot of thinking about that moment– the moment when Magdalene pours all those expensive essences over Jesus' feet–and I welcome any little bits of facts or suppositions…
The article is quite interesting, however they say they don't even know for certain yet that what they have found is actually perfume.
They say they have found some “unguentari” – small vessels known to usually have contained perfumes and balms, modern translation probably “perfume bottles” – that are still closed and contain some “greasy substance”. They have sent those to a laboratory in order to see if those substances can be identified.
Talk about finding an unopened flacon of original Jicky on Ebay…
BTW, I'm not quite sure but I think the perfume oil used by that woman in the Bible, who is actually not Mary the Magdalene, was pure nard oil, which was incredibly expensive at that time (and probably still is. someone know any perfume containing nard?)
for those who want to check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nard_(plant)
I want my feet to smell like Jesus' feet!
I am enough of an antiquities nerd that if they could reconstruct a perfume and sell it, I would have to have at least a sample.
I started looking into nard and came across this:
http://www.biblefragrances.net/buy.html
Thanks. I thought it was that the woman in the Bible was not identified at all but was popularly assumed to be Mary? But again my memory probably fails me.
Oh, and perfumes: L'Artisan Jatamansi comes to mind. I'm sure there are others.
Me too, made me smile this morning!
Couldn't hurt!
Oh, me too.
Interesting, thanks! And that reminded me of Virtue, which as it turns out also has spikenard:
http://www.nstperfume.com/blog/_archives/2007/4/3/2855471.html
Just read your review of Jatamansi – sounds just like my thing! definitely on my to try-list for next summer!
And for the lovers of archeological perfumes: The oldest known recipe for a scent is an incense mixture called Kyphi that was used in temples in Egypt and contained sandalwood, cinnamon, honey and mastix among others.
It can be purchased at: http://www.farfalla.ch .
BTW, the same brand offers a marvellous selection of natural essential oils of impeccable quality and all kinds of perfumery raw material, and they have scent bars in their stores where you can sniff everything – several different kinds of rose or jasmine oils, e.g. Not sure whether they ship outside Europe, though, sorry.
Kevin sent me some khyphi earlier this year — it's lovely. Don't know where he gets his though.