| Perfume ungents
were discovered in the early graves that date from the time of
the Unification. These were made by covering flowers in
goose grease or other fats and imparting the fragrance to the
oil. This is a far cry from the bottles of French
perfume we use to splash on scent, today.
The elite Egyptian women used these
ungents, or oils, by scooping out a quantity and spreading it
on their person. Scenes also show the wearing of cones
of fragrant oils atop their wigs. The solidified oil, or
perhaps wax would melt as the evening wore on, releasing the
fragrance.
Delicate perfume spoons were carved to
facilitate this part of the ladies toilette. Four such
spoons are shown on the left.
In the early graves, oils were kept in
pottery jars. But later stone jars and pots were made to
contain the ungents. In the Tomb of Tutankhamen a
comical lion shaped perfume pot was part of the boy
kings treasures.
These perfume oils were highly valued
and very portable, so they were often the target of thieves
. The fragrant scent of flowers must have often
accompanied the tomb robbers as they rushed out of the
Valley of the Kings to conceal their "ill gotten
gains".
The flowers for the perfumes came from
areas like the Faiyum where they are still grown today.
The earliest Egyptians moved toward the Nile as grass lands
and forest dried out in climate change and brought the love of
fragrance and thus the horticulture of flowers with them.
However, perfume, as we know it, was not
developed until the the Arabs developed a process of
distillation in the 7th century. Then perfume oils and scented
waters could be made.
The French began developing perfume in
the mid 1600's and the trade bonds between the French and
Egypt would have only become stronger after Napoleon invaded
in the late 1700's. The French would have then had ample
materials to experiment on this new product. Georgian
England was awash with scent.
And the thriving trade of perfumes
between France and the rest of the world continued through
revolution and attempts at world domination.
Today, still, many of those famous
French perfumes that we know have component oils that come from the
Faiyum in Egypt. And owners of shops in Cairo will speak fondly
of wearing the flowing white Arab robes around the streets of
Paris when making their sales calls.
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