Pylos Perfume

Perfumes have been used for a variety of things throughout antiquity. The uses of perfume are interesting because they were not only used to scent the body but also for medicinal purposes. While there is ample evidence for the use of them in the different places around the Mediterranean Sea, I decided to focus my experiment on a site in Pylos, Greece. Pylos contains a well excavated Mycenaean palace. My hope with this experiment is to recreate the perfume of Mycenaean Pylos, while also showing the potential hardships of a perfumer. This paper will first examine development of perfume study at Pylos. Next, I will explain how perfume was made at Pylos and how it was used. Finally, my paper will describe my experiment in full, including the potential …show more content…
The perfume makers here used olive oil as a base and were often scented with sage. When Linear B script was deciphered, researchers were able to combine knowledge from classical writers, such as Dioscorides, and techniques of Bronze Age Middle East. Assyrian practices of the same time seem to be very similar to what is done at Pylos. They too did not know how to distill perfume and mostly steeped the leaves in hot oil, much like how one would make tea. Greeks were not able to do this either. The perfume industry at Pylos was primarily comprised of a centralized group that was administered by the palace. Tablets found at the site of the palace at Pylos show that the government was providing many supplies for them, such as honey, wool, and wine. The multiple uses of perfume suggest that this is true, as is described further in the …show more content…
Next I coated the bowl that the oil would go in with honey, as was described as being done in Classical times. Next I added the coriander to the oil to help the oil retain the fragrance and mask the smell of the oil. Finally I added the main ingredient, or scent, in this case being sage and honeysuckle. This process was repeated for three of the oils I made. Water was used as a control and was also used to see how sage liquid could be colored by turmeric. I discovered that to color the perfume, I would need to use a large amount of turmeric, more than what I have. To allow the fragrance to set into the water, I steeped it for thirteen minutes. This could also be done to the desired