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Il profumo della Maddalena

Posted by Robin on 11 December 2008 17 Comments

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).

Filed Under: perfume in the news
Tagged With: archaeology, perfume history

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17 Comments

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  1. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 10:23 am

    And I didn't think anything could top the new audience potential of the college fragrances. Acqua Santa Originale, anybody?

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  2. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 11:33 am

    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?

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  3. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 11:55 am

    Ack.

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  4. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 11:56 am

    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.

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  5. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 12:41 pm

    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…

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  6. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 12:46 pm

    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)

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  7. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 2:33 pm

    I want my feet to smell like Jesus' feet!

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  8. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 9:42 pm

    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.

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  9. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 10:17 pm

    I started looking into nard and came across this:
    http://www.biblefragrances.net/buy.html

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  10. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 10:21 pm

    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.

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  11. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 10:22 pm

    Oh, and perfumes: L'Artisan Jatamansi comes to mind. I'm sure there are others.

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  12. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 10:23 pm

    Me too, made me smile this morning!

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  13. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 10:23 pm

    Couldn't hurt!

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  14. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 10:24 pm

    Oh, me too.

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  15. Anonymous says:
    11 December 2008 at 10:51 pm

    Interesting, thanks! And that reminded me of Virtue, which as it turns out also has spikenard:

    https://nstperfume.com/blog/_archives/2007/4/3/2855471.html

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  16. Anonymous says:
    12 December 2008 at 11:35 am

    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.

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  17. Anonymous says:
    12 December 2008 at 4:58 pm

    Kevin sent me some khyphi earlier this year — it's lovely. Don't know where he gets his though.

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