Perfumes, despite their roles as an accessory in the modern age, has been around for a very, very long time. How long? About 4000 years. So you might wonder, for as long as it had existed, what role had these incredibly fragrant substances played? Surely they can’t just be something you put on to impress your date and not smell horrible, right? Well, you’re right, let’s get into it.
Perfumes, as we know it, didn’t start in the format that we are familiar with. Believe it or not, the way perfumes were made back then is still somewhat similar to the way they are distilled today. Other than a few tweaks in the manufacturing process, perfume making, the earliest record of which came from the 2nd century Mesopotamia, was very similar to the way they are made today, roughly 4000 years later.
So what were they used for? Surely it can’t be just to make you smell great, right? Right, perfumes 4000 years ago were used sparingly. You see, now, in the modern age, where people, regardless of their socioeconomic standing, can go out, and buy themselves a bottle of perfume that they like, granted that they have enough money to make the purchase. Back then, however, things are a little different as perfumes are used to distinguish the nobility from regular citizens. This is one of the reasons why it’s very likely for archaeologists to find some sort of container to hold perfumes near the royal courts. One of the stories behind this is that, in ancient Egypt, it’s said that Queen Cleopatra used fragrances to scent their bodies, and reportedly have gone on to even used these fragrances to scent even their rooms and baths. It’s also said that she had taken their perfumes to their grave.
Another popular use of perfumes in ancient times comes from ancient Rome, where perfumes were used to scent temples and places of worship. It doesn’t end with religious uses, however, since ancient Romans were noted to have also used perfumes to scent bathhouses to scent the water they would use in the baths, as well as using it to perfume their skins and hair. This is among the most familiar uses of perfumes in ancient times that a time traveler from the future would probably recognize.
It’s also said that certain civilizations would go as far as using their perfumes to make sure that the dead would smell as good as possible. This ties into their belief that as the person goes into the afterlife, they must smell as good as possible, along with paying a tribute in the form of a coin.
Regardless of which era you exist in, it’s no big secret that perfumes play an important role. Whether it be to impress someone, to make sure that you’re smelling great as you enter the life after death, there’s no denying that perfumes have, and will continue to play an important role in how humans live, even in the foreseeable future.