The smell of history
New research projects are working to understand the scent of the past and determine which contemporary scents should be preserved for posterity.
The challenge of looking for past scents is how to grasp an unpermanent phenomenon. Archaeologists often search for and research what we can touch - the artifacts we see in museums.
Scent-forming compounds are inherently volatile - once the source of the scent is gone, they also disappear. Most of the odors originate from biological materials - plants, food, human and animal bodies - that are rapidly decomposed, personal friend Huber - Ph.D. in archaeology at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany - explained.
Faced with these challenges, there are still some new and powerful bio-molecular methods that help scientists decoding ancient scents.
The key to clarifying the scent of the past is often not seen with the naked eye, according to CNN.
Scientists can study the remnants of immature bio-molecular remains in incense sticks, perfumes, cookers and food containers using techniques such as chrome counting (chromatography) - the technique of separating components in a mixture and the spherical spectrometry (mass spectrometry) - the technique of detecting different compounds by calculating the weight of different molecules.
According to Huber, bio-molecles that contain the most information include lipids - fat, wax and oil - that are not soluble in water. They are often found in ceramics, after being used in items such as lamp fuels or preservatives used to top or on the body. Lipids are also found in stools.
Huber also studies secondary metabolites, plant-based organic compounds that are traced to plant products used in the past, including resin plastic, herb, herbs, fruits and spices. Compounds that can reveal the ingredients and scents of incense, medicine, and food.
The ancient DNA and proteomics sequencing - a large-scale study of ancient proteins - found preserved in things like limestone plaque, has discovered amino acids that signal conditions such as periodontal disease - related to odor-prone breathing.
However, as Huber's research shows, collecting these odor clues is often just the beginning.
Recreating the scent
During the study, Huber researched incense sticks found in the Tayma archaeological site - the oldest settlement in Saudi Arabia dating back 5,000 years - to test and recreate the scent.
She discovered secondary metabolites that showed the use of tropical resin containing incense sticks, medicinal plants and plantain in private buildings, tombs and temples.
Huber then worked with a perfume expert to try and recreate the scents, revealing what smell these places could have been like thousands of years ago.
Sean Coughlin, a researcher in ancient and Medieval thought at the Czech Academy of Sciences, is looking to recreate the fragrances that Egyptian Queen Cleopatra used, based on the recipes recorded in ancient Egyptian documents and from the engravings on the temple walls.
"Normally, when you follow the formula, you know what you get. When you recreate a historical formula, you don't have a goal. What we are really trying to do is use organic chemicals to give us some clue about the process, because we think the process is really what determines the range of possible flavors," said Coughlin.
Mr. Coughlin compared his experiments to the one in the cooking show Americas Test Kitchen. Although the results were not as expected, he still noticed progress.
Mr. Coughlin said that most modern perfume uses Pethanol as a base, although some sophisticated natural scents still require oil or fat.
However, chemists today are still grateful to ancient perfume makers. They have pioneered many techniques that are still used in modern science, such as distillation and the liquid segmentation method.
