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 (pictured), a German research team said in March 2009. (See Hatshepsut photos in National Geographic magazine.)
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.
—Christine Dell'Amore
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/photogalleries/egyptian-queen-perfume/
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