THE PERFUME OF CYPRUS
by
M.R.Belgiorno
Edited by
A. de Strobel
Nicosia 2017
About perfumes research.
The contribution that perfumes have given to the civilizations of the past and the present is unparalleled in the material universe.
The emotional, spiritual, and cultural support took extraordinary proportions, though, just a few have spoken about it. At the dawn of the perfume, it is its sacred messenger symbolism, expressed in the identity of an invisible substance regarded as among the most secret and most fascinating gift of nature, which spreads unrestrainable and remains suspended in the air to support human prayer to God. Countless testimonials illustrate how scents have influenced every human experience through the millennia telling the intriguing history of perfumes.
The primordial sacredness of perfume gave healing powers, charisma, and magic to the different aromatic essences so much so that their use and mixture are not only a part of the history of perfume and cosmetics, but also the art of medical science.
The finding at Pyrgos of an Early Middle Bronze age installation to produce essential oils has been an important occasion for Istituto per le Tecnologie Applicate ai Beni Culturali (ITABC-CNR: Sciences for knowledge, conservation and use of cultural heritage) to collaborate with the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus in making known, outside the academic environment, an important aspect of Cypriot culture. The multidisciplinary approach that has characterized the research is testimony to the spirit of cooperation that has fuelled the research itself, to reconstruct some elements of the ancient civilization of Cyprus, bringing out, strengthening, and consolidating the continuity of one of the oldest Cypriot traditions, without betraying its origins.
That approach was fundamental to create strong synergies between the scientific and the humanistic heritage, together with the intent of preserving and transmitting part of a cultural identity that we can consider Mediterranean. Excavation of the sector connected to the processing of the fragrances began in 2000 and ended in 2003. The Archaeometry investigation was conducted in the laboratories of ITABC-CNR, renowned for having studied under the direction of Giuseppe Donato of the ancient perfume factory of En Boqeq in Israel. In 2003 and 2004 Alessandro Lentini of the ITABC-CNR and Giuseppe Scala of the, University of Florence, carried on the first analyses, and in 2007 Manuela Nelli, botanist of the Officina Profumo of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, joined the team. The chemical analyses were able to identify some of the fragrances that were produced, while the study of pollens, seeds and botanical charred parts recognized more.
They revealed that the plants processed were from the Cyprus flora and within the limits of the samples examined, there were no foreign ingredients. In 2006, the Centre for Experimental Archaeology "Antiquitates" of Civitella Cesi, Blera (VT), well-known in the academic world and accredited by MIBACT, ran tests of experimental archaeology to verify the interpretation of the data and the efficiency of the ancient technologies that coincided with those described by Theophrastus, many centuries later.
First, "Antiquitates" made replicas of vases, which they used for the maceration and distillation of the herbs including Rosemary, Lavender, Marjoram and Myrtle. Second, they added to each one olive oil or almond oil, to blend the fragrances according to the recipes handed down by Theophrastus, Pliny the Elder, and Dioscurides.
After the first two exhibitions organized by the Department of the Antiquities in Cyprus, the findings of the perfumery of Pyrgos were also involved more exhibitions and events organized abroad. The most important, visited by over half a million of people, was held in Rome at the "Musei Capitolini" from 14 March to 15 September 2007. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrRrv6NfTHw.
On that occasion, a path for blind people was organized using the replicas and fragrances remade by Antiquitates: http://www.stampa.cnr.it/docUfficioStampa/cnrWeb/2007/Ma g/ 16_mag_07_03.pdf.
During the period of this exhibition Eugenio Alphandery, general manager and co-owner of the Officina Profumo of Santa Maria Novella, asked to the Italian Ambassador Gherardo La Francesca, General Director for Cooperation and Cultural Promotion of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affair in 2007-8, DGPCC-MAE, the collaboration to organise the same exhibition at Florence, with the intention to propose to the Department of the Antiquities of Cyprus a trip exhibition in Japan, Taiwan and New York sponsored by them. http://www.smnovella.it/400anni.html?lang=en.
Following this request, the furnishings of the "Capitolini Museum" exhibition were stored in the warehouses of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affair, waiting the performing of the procedures to host the exhibition in Florence. For the exhibition at the Museum of the Officina Profumo of Santa Maria Novella in 2008, it used the same furniture and reprinted the volume "I profumi di Afrodite e il segreto dell'olio", Gangemi 2007 under the title "Mavroraki Il Profumo di Afrodite", Gangemi 2008", which was available in the bookshop of the Museum along with a small bottle, containing a few ml of an oil perfume Mavrorachi, created in limited numbered edition for the occasion. As expressly stated in the product information sheet, the perfume elaborated by the botanists of Santa Maria Novella included only a few fragrances among those identified at Pyrgos.
http://www.morningmystbotanics.com/images/pdf/Distillation PDF/pyrgosdistillation.pdf.
In 2009 in occasion of the Exhibition "Secreta Secretorum Afroditis Perfumum", organised at the Pierides Museum of Larnaca in Cyprus (December 2009 - January 2010), the "Lazarou Cyprus Herbs Ltd." created a fragrance named Mystikò using Cyprus endemic herbs to show the treasure of fragrances still owned in Cyprus.
After the diffusion to Cypriot, Italian and International media of the news about the discovery of the Pyrgos perfumery, many researchers and professional perfumers have been interested in the botanical species recognised at Pyrgos. Most of them tried to use and complete the fragmentary sequence coming from the Archaeometry research, giving personal interpretation, to find the original recipe of the ancient perfume Kypros, one of the most famous fragrances mentioned by Theophrastus (270-285 BC), Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) and Pedanius Dioscurides (40-90 AD).
As known, the fragrance is in the history of perfumes as the longest that has given its name to one of seven olfactory families in which are divided all the perfumes of the world. The only which survived with its name through 20 centuries of commercial traffics. Today, the Encyclopaedia of the Perfumes mentions thousands of perfumes belonging to the family Chypre officially produced since the beginning of XIX century, and hundreds named Chypre or Kypre. www.perfumeintelligence.co.uk/library.
It is not surprising then that most perfumes of Cyprus produced by the flora of the island have been in various ways attributed to the goddess of love that the Greeks in the VI century BC called Aphrodite. So too is there no coincidence that the discovery of the oldest perfume shop was made in Cyprus whilst investigating a second millennium BC site. After the discovery in 2003, many investigations have been carried out on archaeological samples and several experimental tests enabled to reproduce fragrances, with the methods of the Early-Middle Bronze Age. Availability of ceramic replicas (reproduced without a lathe, using local clay, and baked in a ground kiln), basalt tools and essential oils extracted from the endemic plants in Troodos, it gave the possibility to organize interactive (olfactory and tactile) exhibitions, accessible even to blind people extending a wide audience the chance to know aspects of Cyprus Bronze Age civilization.
The investigative path has been diverse, through the study of the primary components, such as olive oil and wine, to advance in the complex world of Palaeobotany. Far from being complete, the multidisciplinary research on the perfumery of Pyrgos is based on eight fields of study:
1°
The Archaeological evidence. The perfume factory is in the centre of the industrial and commercial area of Pyrgos/Mavroraki settlement, which today is within the urban area of the modern village, surrounded by villas. The structures emerged to belong to laboratories and workshops that have made quality products, such as perfumes, cosmetics, drugs, bronzes, textiles, and wine. Many of these activities have been benefited from the olive oil produced in the large mill and distributed to the various workshops in large storage jars.
2°
The Archaeometry: The copious number of pottery and stone tools found in their original context in the great hall of the press, has allowed the opening of a specific field of research, archaeometry, whose primary purpose is to reconstruct the second millennium BC organization and collect all possible information through laboratory instruments and modern protocols of research.
3°
The study of Palaeobotany of the island (which still retains over 50 "botanical fossils," protected by the Berne Convention of the Council of Europe in 2002, including 16 endemic aromatic plants, and two native species: marjoram and laudanum, i.e. Cistus Laudaniferus pink and white) is mainly based on palynological investigations carried out on samples from different excavated units. With attention to the materials of the perfume factory that returned many botanic remains. Entire stratigraphic sections were analysed from the point of view of mineral deposits, for reconstruction of climate changes on the island since the second millennium BC.
4°
The experimental tests conducted in Italy and Cyprus are another important investigative tool to confirm the hypothesis of interpretation offered by the archaeometric, archaeological and architectural data.
The experimentation was mainly concentrated on the multiple use of olive oil. The most important sectors are those uses in metallurgy as fuel, in the weaving for the lubrication of the fibres, for ceramic mixtures and in the production of perfumes, cosmetics and medicines.
With regards to scents there has been only one attempt to remake oil fragrances using the ancient techniques of Pyrgos. In 2006-7, Angelo Bartoli (Figs.1, 2), director of the Centre for Experimental Archaeology "Antiquitates" of Civitella Cesi, Blera, (Vt), created four perfumes that were available to the public during the exhibition at the Capitolini Museums in Rome (I Profumi di Afrodite e il segreto dell'Olio: March- September 2007) Greek pantheon: Hera, Artemis, Elena and Aphrodite.
As mentioned above, more fragrances made with the traditional ingredients of the ancient Kypros (recipe from Pliny and Dioscurides) have been created for different exhibitions on the discovery of Pyrgos' perfumery:
- Mavrorachi: a limited-edition perfume in a gadget bottle created by the "Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella" on the occasion of the exhibition on Pyrgos perfumery, organised at its Museum in Florence in 2008.
- Pyrgos: a perfume created by Enrico Buccella for the brand "Sigilli" in 2010, but it is far from the plant fragrances found at Pyrgos.
- Mystikò: a perfume gadget created by Yannulla Lazarou, "Cyprus Herbs Ltd." with essential oils from the Cyprus herbs, for the exhibitions on Pyrgos organised in Cyprus by the Pierides Foundation of Larnaca, the Italian Embassy and by the Department of the Antiquities of Cyprus and CNR (Festival della Scienza di Genova) in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
In addition to the above-mentioned creations, in 2008 and 2010 the children of the school of Pyrgos remade some natural fragrances following a short didactic course organized by the Italian Archaeological Mission (Fig.3). The experiment was organized with the aim of preserving cultural memory. A report and the results were presented as a paper in the frame of the first (2008) and second (2010) edition of the Euro Mediterranean International Conference on Digital Heritage, organized by the Cyprus University of Technology of Limassol.
5°
The research on the history of the perfumes of Cyprus is based on copious quotations from ancient writers and the archaeological and historical records that have made the island famous as the birthplace of perfume, to the point of identifying with one of the 10 olfactory families, which has the name of a geographical place "Chypre". Despite this identification was attributed to François Coty, the type of fragrance Chypre had already spread in the '800, and the name is traceable in a medieval "Kypros", very similar to a more ancient perfume of the classical period.
The family Chypre (oak moss, rock rose labdanum, patchouli, bergamot, etc.), is today so characteristic and "loved" that Fragonard reducing the olfactory families of Coty (from 10 to 7) has recently confirmed its importance, dividing it into Chypre fruit, Chypre floral, Chypre aldehyde, Chypre leather, Chypre aromatic or spicy and Chypre green. The "Parfumerie Fragonard" owns the Perfume Museum in Grasse. Eugène Fuchs, who gave the name of the great painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806 a native of Grasse) the Museum, set it up in 1926. Today, the brothers François and Agnès "Costa" direct both the museum and the perfume factory
6°
The historical and archaeological study of the production and use of perfumes in the Mediterranean is directed to the identification of ancient productions and to social and economic factors that influenced the use and trade. The investigation also includes some comparisons with testimonies from the great civilizations surrounding Cyprus, most notably Egypt and Mesopotamia, with attention to the perfume factories, dating to the Hellenistic and Roman period. The aim is to outline the common characteristics that identify a laboratory to produce perfumes in an archaeological context, and to find new interpretations of dubious archaeological evidence.
- 7° The investigation of various distillation techniques is based on the archaeometric, archaeological and historical documentation, while the written testimonies come mostly from the biblical East and from the Arab and Persian environment. Our study starts from ceramic equipment used to distil (also represented in the miniatures, drawings and paintings depicting alchemical laboratories), looking for evidence about the cultural continuity that led to the use of clay still until modern times. These stills are produced in Italy by certain industries of ceramics and the comparison with the examples of Pyrgos and Paphos are amazing, if you calculate an interval of 4000 years.
8°
The use of resins and the archetype of the perfume is the subject that refers to the prehistory of the perfume, as the oldest attestations of the use of aromatic substances specifically concern the resin, which is easily available from the barks of trees. Since the resin is dissolved in fat and in wine, the various attempts to extract fragrances have led to the composition of the first ointments.
Indeed, in Egypt during the fourth millennium BC, the first seven sacred ointments are all based on resins dissolved in scented Moringa oil. The same resins were already used during religious rituals, and so it is assumed that their first use was linked to religion. Archaeological findings also show that the resins have been used for different purposes: as a sealant to secure tool handles, glue, waterproofing, adhesives, wound healing, and skin disinfectant. Their texture and aroma, along with the fact that ooze from the wounds of tree bark of plants, were considered like human blood, and regarded as expression of lifeblood in which essence of life flows. As a result, the observation that the fragrance of resin is unleashed into the air when burns, gives this substance a metaphysical role, undoubtedly connected to the older concept of supreme entity, which grants all the life on earth. It is a primitive association that justifies the ubiquitous resins in religious ceremonies and rites of passage. The resins of conifers and terebinth, have played a decisive role in social evolution in Cyprus along with other fragrances of the Mediterranean flora. If we try to draw a similarity with Egypt, the country that more than any other has made use of scents for every occasion of life and death, there are huge differences not only in taste, but also especially in the cultural choices.
In Egypt, the scent was something sacred and divine, the private property of the Pharaoh and the priests, who completely controlled its production and use. It was so important that its administration was the expression and symbol of power itself. While in Cyprus, everyone produced and used perfumes, especially at the domestic level. Not only the statue of Aphrodite, but also all the girls, who, according to the sacred ritual, went for initiation in the temple, were anointed and perfumed, regardless of their social status. In all the tombs of the island, of any historical period, were found perfume bottles and jars of ointments, cosmetics or like those found in Pharaoh Tombs. We know that trade in perfumes developed in the Bronze Age (particularly in the second half of the second millennium BC) as shown by findings in Egypt and Cyprus. Because of the Millenary tradition, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the continuity and reputation of Cypriot perfumes survived in family entourage that continued to produce fragrances without any control by official authorities.
Available scents on the Mediterranean market has kept alive the fame of Cyprus, directing probably its taste toward more obtainable than mostly used Mediterranean fragrances. The continuity of production of perfumes through the centuries in Cyprus seems to be related to special factors and reasons that favoured the choice of specific perfumes in Europe. After the cultural exchanges that occurred during the Crusades, European tastes shifted progressively from plants typical of the Middle East and Egypt, towards the scents of the Mediterranean scrub, blended with floral essences, whose production involved many European regions like France with jasmine and Bulgaria with rose. It is possible that this preference was influenced by a sort of rejection of the Arab world, responsible for invasions, battles, and hateful bloody domains. So, the taste of Europeans was directed towards Mediterranean nuances, causing disuse of hot and aggressive oriental perfumes, which are still used in the production of a type of perfume intended principally for the eastern market, and not European. Returning to Cyprus, the fragrances that continued to be exported by merchants in the form of scented talc, oil, tissues, and impregnated carbons were Pine resin, resin of Laudaniferus Cistus (Laubdanum), Styrax, root of Iris, Rose, Oregano and Marjoram, root of the chain Cypress, Neroli (i.e, the perfume extracted from the flowers of wild orange), Bergamot, Oak moss, and Lavender. In the XVI century, Francesco Balducci Pegolotti devoted a long report to the merchandise of Cyprus of his book "La pratica della Mercatura" Della decima e di varie altre gravezze imposte dal comune di Firenze, della Moneta e della Mercatura dei Fiorentini fino al secolo XVI, (manuscript in Biblioteca Riccardiana V3).
Coriander instead became the most famous spices of the island, and it was used not only in the manufacture of perfumes, but also in pharmaceuticals and in cosmetics. Moreover, as is well documented in the history of the perfume, the name of the island was chosen as for excellence (for antonomasia) of a specific olfactory family by François Coty in 1917.
In that year, the great perfumer, in dividing the nuances of the ten olfactory families, which represent the standard on which it is possible to classify all the perfumes of the world, launched on the European market "Chypre de Coty", the first perfume produced at an industrial level. However, the perfume Chypre already existed, as demonstrated by some bottles of Nimes dating back to 1840.
Eugene Rimmel invented a Chypre for Catherine of Russia in 1880, and Malhame Bichara in 1913 sold a precious perfume named "Chypre de Limassol," in a very attractive Baccarat crystal bottle, with the top in the form of a Pharaoh Head. In the series of perfumes that Coty invented in honour of the island of Cyprus, we cannot, however, forget "Origane" from the scent of essential oils of oregano and marjoram, which brings us back to the myth of Amaracus and production of the famous Cypriot perfume Amarichinum, so beloved in the Egyptian world. Maybe today it survives as "Amarige de Givenchy".
M.R.Belgiorno
VOLUMES
BEHIND DISTILLATION
by
M.R.Belgiorno
Edited by
A. de Strobel
Nicosia 2017
