“Eau De Cleopatra: Mendesian Perfume and Tell Timai”, 2021-09-01 ():
A combination of Classics, Egyptology, and experimental archaeology were used to recreate the (in)famous perfume used by Queen Cleopatra VII.
Especially important was the use of classical sources and paleobotany to determine the identity of the Egyptian sacred oils such as camphor and balanos. Excavations at the site of Tell Timai revealed a perfumery that contributed to our ability to recreate the process of perfume manufacture.
…One constellation of variables produced a scent that was extremely pleasant, with a spicy base note of freshly ground myrrh and cinnamon and accompanied by sweetness. It has remained potent for nearly 2 years, a quality associated with Egyptian perfumes already in Theophrastus’s time [On Odours]…Mendesian reproduced (counterclockwise from bottom left): mortar and pestle, myrrh, pine resin, desert date oil, cassia and cinnamon quills, completed perfume.
This ancient “Mendesian” perfume has since been recreated in the lab, exhibited at the Smithsonian, and worn again for the first time in millennia.