Egyptian Queen's Perfume to Be Resurrected

We already know how to walk like an Egyptian, and soon we'll know how to smell like one, too.

The favorite perfume of powerful Egyptian "she king" Hatshepsut may be resurrected from residue found in a 3,500-year-old perfume bottle , a German research team said in March 2009.

X-ray photographs of the 4.7-inch-tall (12-centimeter-tall) bottle, from the permanent collection of Bonn University's Egyptian Museum, reveals remnants of the ancient oil. Scientists plan to identify the substance and, possibly within a year, re-create the perfume.

The bottle, which was found in the queen's possessions after her death in 1457 B.C., is engraved with a hieroglyph (bottom) of her name.

The thin neck "allows a very economical dosing of the valuable content," according to Michael Höveler-Müller, curator of Bonn University's Egyptian Museum. A small clay stopper would have kept the oil from spilling.
"In every case our research will touch new grounds and will maybe enable us to put our noses back into a time more than 3,500 years [ago]," Höveler-Müller said in an email.

Now that's NEAT! I love National Geographics! Always cool stuff! Wonder if they'll publish their findings somewhere. First thing I think of is sandlewood, but that just too common. It has to be something harder to come by now I would think. I plan on doing some "perfume" making myself here soon as all the blossoms start coming out.

Really cool ravengrim!

Now that would be something really interesting to smell. The though of smelling perfume reproduced from over 3,000 years ago and non the less a perfume that a "she king" wore everyday would be something I would love to do.

That's very interesting. I'd love to get a whiff of that! It better not stink!

I was reading about that the other day. I think that's really awesome! I've always wondered what kind of perfumes they wore and what they smelled like.

Wow! Can't wait to find out what was in the perfume!

I WANT that!

I would love to smell an ancient perfume.