For her “Piece of Stuff” this week Ashley discussed a little perfumed bottle shaped like a monkey from Ancient Egypt, which got me to thinking about what type of perfume might have been in the bottle. This got me to thinking, have you ever wondered what Cleopatra might have smelled like? Sure you have. No? Okay that might just be me and a few select others. These include Dora Goldsmith who is working on her PhD on Ancient Egyptian smells at the Freie Univeristät, Berlin, who was interviewed by olfactory art curator [I love a world where this is a job title!] Caro Verbeek about her work trying to reconstruct the famous fragrance Mendesian – the perfume that may well have been worn by Cleopatra.

Verbeek, who obviously has perfected the language necessary to evocatively describe a scent called the reconstructed Mendesian “incredibly voluminous, red-colored, strong, warm, rich, sweet and slightly bitter.” As I revealed in the podcast this week, I have lost my sense of smell, but even I can use Verbeek’s redolent description to imagine what this might have smelled like.

So, I bet you are wondering what was in this ancient perfume – well the base seems to have myrrh, famous for being one of the gifts the Three Magi brought to the baby Jesus, and cinnamon. Both Ceylon cinnamon and cinnamon cassia were used, but these are not fragrances we experience into today’s perfume as they can cause allergic reactions. But we sure love our homes to smell like the cinnamon used in scented candles at the Holidays.