A Hellenistic Household Ceramic Assemblage from Tell el-Timai (Thmuis), Egypt: A Contextual View

Hudson, Nicholas F.

doi:10.5615/bullamerschoorie.376.0199

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One imported red-figure Greek sherd suggests, perhaps, early Greek migrants had established themselves in the Thmouis perfume industry by at least the 4 th century B.C.E. (Hudson 2014a;Hudson 2016).…”

Section: Archaeological Discoveries At Tell Timaimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The kilns, while likely used for various types of ceramics, were certainly involved in the production of perfume bottles. Numerous fragments and some complete fine grey clay perfume bottles (lekythoi) were discovered in association with the kilns (Hudson 2014b). At first, these bottles appeared to be imports because the central Delta clays tend to be orange/red and generally quite coarse.…”

Section: Archaeological Discoveries At Tell Timaimentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Eau de Cleopatra

Littman¹,

Silverstein²,

Goldsmith³

et al. 2021

Near Eastern Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

I will tell you. The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burned on the water: the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed that The winds were lovesick with them; the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggar'd all description: she did lie In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue, O'erpicturing that Venus where we see The fancy outwork nature: on each side her Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid did." (Shakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene 2) Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, reveled in perfume (Plutarch Life of Marcus Antonius 26.2) She even used it in her seduction of the Roman general Marc Antony. Sailing up the river Cydnus to meet him. She reclined in a canopy spangled with gold, adorned like Venus in a painting. Boys dressed as cupids fanned her and wondrous scents from incense offerings wafted along the riverbanks. Not long after her death in August 30 B.C.E., a book circulated under her name called Cleopatra's Cosmetic, full of recipes for fragrant oils and cleansers (Totelin 2017: 114-118; Flemming 2000:40-41). (Fig. 1 Cleopatra Alma Tadema; fig.2 bust of Cleopatra Berlin; Cleopatra 000)Cleopatra's fondness for olfactory adornments must have been influenced by Egypt's long tradition of fragrant remedies and exquisite perfumes, which go back to the very beginning of dynastic history (ca. 3100 B.C.E.). The fragrances of Egypt were famous throughout the entire ancient world. The base for perfumes and unguents was animal fat, and vegetable oil, rather than our modern alcohol. Distillation of alcohol was not discovered until the 4 th century B.C.E., but it was not until the 14 th century C.E. that it was used for perfume (Voudouri & Tesseromatis 2015). Sweet scents were created either through smoke from burning fragrant resins, barks and herbs (thus the origin of the word 'perfume' from per fumum 'through smoke'), or through maceration by steeping resins, flowers, herbs, spices and wood. Resins, barks and herbs have antifungal and antibacterial properties, and thus could also eliminate body odor and produce soft and fragrant skin. One of the few documented perfume recipe from ancient Egypt, and one of the world's first perfume recipes, records the instructions to prepare a fragrance called kAp.t in Egyptian, and rendered in Greek as kyphi. The earliest mention of kyphi goes back to the building of the

show abstract

Section: Archaeological Discoveries At Tell Timaimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Archaeological Discoveries At Tell Timaimentioning

confidence: 99%