Two women buried in what’s now Kazakhstan went into the afterlife with a small block of white chalk beside them. A Russian and Chinese research team now says those blocks were makeup, scented with oils from plants that don’t grow anywhere near the graves. [...] The team picked out more than 300 organic compounds, and terpenes, the aromatic molecules plants make, formed the largest group. Eight match cinnamon and ten match wormwood, while one compound points to mint.

— Read more in Silk Road makeup from 2,000-year-old Kazakh graves was scented with Indian cinnamon at Archaeology News.