NPR reports on new findings for classical works of art. It’s pretty well known now that the stark white of ancient Greek marble statues was originally a lot more colorful when they were put on display. What archaeologists and chemists have just figured out, though, is that as well as looking quite different, some of these statues had a distinctly different smell as well:
Cecilie Brøns, a senior researcher and curator of the Glyptoteket museum’s collection of ancient Greek and Roman art in Copenhagen, Denmark, says ancient texts provide evidence that statues were often scented with perfumes, oils and waxes.
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A variety of flowers and herbs were used to make the perfumes, but evidence points to rose perfume being the most widely used type, Brøns said in an email to NPR.
Some records of this scenting come from ancient bookkeeping. About 2,800 stones with inscriptions have been found on the Greek island of Delos, some of which are inventories from temples on the island.
“These inscriptions are extremely interesting and have some clear evidence for the use of perfumes and scented oils for the cult images in the temple on the island,” Brøns said in her email. (Cult images refer to objects that are worshipped for representing gods.)
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Physical evidence of scents on statues is hard to come by, as the oils and waxes degrade over time. One exception is a statue of the Ptolemaic Queen Berenice II from the third century B.C. Brøns said previous research did not detect a scent, but did detect evidence of beeswax spread on the statue.
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Sculptures were usually painted, and often were decorated with jewelry and flower wreaths. “The aim of this was to make them seem ‘alive’ (expressed by the Greek term mimesis),” Brøns wrote in her email.
In her article, Brøns notes that some oils and waxes were also used to protect and preserve the statues and their paint.
Verity Platt, a professor at Cornell University’s Department of Classics who specializes in Greek and Roman art history and was not involved in the study, said scenting and adorning with flowers were also parts of Greek social life.
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You can read more of Brøns’ aromatic research here, in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology.