OUR smell old sweetness, some dusty book or forgotten clothes brings back old memories transport to the past, in which we may have forgotten how we lived.

This is against them. scientistsunfair misidentified – feeling research turns into effort understanding of the past. In particular, now more and more researchers are trying to reconstruct ancient spirits, using them to understand the way of life of people of other times.

“It’s a very simple feeling. “Before, the smell was important too, and maybe even more important, because before everything was not so clean,” she explains. Barbara Huberresearcher at the Institute of Geoanthropology named after Max Planck in the field of archeology.

However, capturing an old scent is a huge challenge for scientists.

Given that archeology finds and studies material things, traces of an ancient scent seem to be a huge problem for scientists.

Aromatic compounds come and go, as soon as their source disappears, they also disappear, evaporating into the air. However, as Huber explains, There are several new but powerful biomolecular approaches that could help science decipher ancient scents..

The smell of history

The key to deciphering the smells of the past is often invisible to the naked eye.

biomolecules which, according to Huber, provide the most information, include lipids – fats, waxes and oils – which do not dissolve in water. They are often found after being used as fuel for lamps, body salves, or corpses, embedded in porous pottery or even in feces.

Huber also studies secondary metabolites, small molecular weight chemical compounds produced by organisms (plants, algae, fungi, bacteria) and found in plant products such as resins, aromatic woods, herbs, fruits, and spices. These compounds can reveal the ingredients and aroma of medicines, foods, and incense.

OUR ancient DNA sequencing and proteomicsthat is, studies of proteins derived from the organism’s genome and found in objects such as calcified plaque have identified amino acids that elicit conditions such as gum disease associated with bad breath.

Reconstruction of ancient spirits

Huber learns from his own work incense burners found at the archeological site at Taimah, the oldest settlement in Saudi Arabia dating back five millennia, in an attempt to understand and reconstruct”olfactory landscape» an ancient oasis.

He identified secondary metabolites, which in turn showed the use of incense, myrrh, and pistachio-scented resins in private buildings, tombs, and temples, respectively. The researcher then collaborated with a perfumer in an attempt to recreate the scents that dominated these places thousands of years ago.

“These resins looked about the same… but when they started to burn, they gave off a completely different smell. So, for example, the incense had a rich smell, and you could feel that maybe they used it to clean houses to avoid unwanted smells or something like that, ”she explains.

OUR Sean Coughlinresearcher of ancient and medieval thought of the Czech Academy of Sciences, trying to recreate fragrances, allegedly worn by Cleopatra herselfbased on recipes recorded in ancient Egyptian texts and temple graffiti.

“The problem is simple. Usually, when you follow a recipe, you more or less know what it will give you. But when you reproduce a historical recipe, you don’t have a goal,” Coughlin explains.

“What we’re really trying to do is use organic chemistry that can shed light on this process, because we think the process has actually determined the range of possible flavors,” he notes.

Coughlin compares his experiments to the American Test Kitchen cooking show. Although results may be questionable, there is progressspeaks.

As an example, he cites a perfume recipe known as Mendesian, for which ancient perfumers heated oil for 10 days and 10 nights before infusing it with woody substances such as cinnamon and resins such as myrrh.

“It was a big mystery for us. Because if you ever heat oil for ten days, it stinks.“, he says himself. But after he tested it with his team by heating the oil in test tubes for more than 12 days, they found that this method speeds up the natural process of rancidity, removing foul-smelling compounds and extending the flavor’s life.

“There is also a stage, after heating the oil, but before making the perfume itself, where mild aromatics such as roots, wine and resins are added. We assume that these substances they not only cover the bad smell, but also absorb it from oil,” he explains.

For modern perfumes, experts use ethanol, a type of alcohol, as a base, Coughlin says, although some delicate natural fragrances still require the use of oil or fat, which must be refined and refined in some way.

However, today’s chemists owe a lot to the ancient perfumers, he adds, as they pioneered many of the techniques that are still in use today.

Accordingly, today’s researchers are taking the necessary steps to preserve affordable scents for future generations.

Source: CNN