Spanish chemists have discovered the aroma of a 2,000-year-old bottle of perfume found in a Roman-era woman's grave.
Although common nowadays, the exotic scent of a first-century Roman lady could have come from as far away as India and was likely a great rarity in the heart of the ancient empire.
The container was one of several items found during the excavation of a mausoleum in Seville in the southern Andalusia region.
The communal tomb for a wealthy Ibero-Roman family was described as having never been robbed and still "in magnificent condition" on its discovery in 2019.
The remains of six people were interred in the chamber, with eight niches for urns and other goods. The perfume bottle was found in the niche for a woman in her 40s.
The bottle is notable in being made of carved quartz, not blown glass, and still perfectly sealed with a stopper made of the mineral dolomite with bitumen tar — indicating that its contents were very expensive.
Archaeologists found "a solid mass inside." Extensive analysis by a team at the nearby University of Cordoba led by Professor of Organic Chemistry José Rafael Ruiz Arrebola was needed to determine how it would have smelt two millennia ago.
They dated the perfume to the first century AD, and by using X-ray diffraction and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry they found that it consisted of a vegetable oil base — possibly olive oil — and patchouli for aroma.
Patchouli, nowadays associated with hippies and middle-class teenage rebels, is an essential oil extracted from Pogostemon cablin, a plant originally grown in India. While it is easily found in new-age shops today, its use in Roman times was previously unknown.