The Perfume Industry of Mycenaean Pylos By Cynthia Wright Shelmerdine University of Texas Paul Astréms Forlag Goteborg 1985STUDIES IN MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY \ Pocket-book 34 Published by Professor Paul Astrém, P.L. 425, Jonsereds Herrgard, S-433 76 Partille, Sweden The Perfume Industry of Mycenaean Pylos Paul Astréms Férlag Géteborg 1985© Cynthia Wright Shelmerdine 1985 Printed in Sweden ISBN 91 86098 30 6 “Minab/Gotab, Rungalv 1985 iif ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project took shape in 1981-1982 in the splendid facilities of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C. For financial support during that year my thanks go to the Center, to the University of Texas at Austin and to the American Council of Learned Societies. During the summer of 1984 I was able to revisit the Chora Museum basement and the site of Pylos, thanks to grants from the University of Texas at Austin and the Institute for Aegean Prehistory. For permission to examine the Pylos material and notebooks I am grateful to Dr. E. Tucker Blackburn and the University of Cincinnati. Mary S. Leahy and the staff of the Bryn Mawr College Library provided gracious assistance in allowing me to examine early herbals and commentaries on Dioscorides in their rare book collection. I have had helpful discussions on many points with a number of colleagues, some of whom have been generous in reading and criticizing earlier drafts of this study, in whole or in part. To all of them I would like to express my gratitude. I owe a special debt of thanks to Professor Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., Dr. John Chadwick, Professor Mabel L. Lang, Or. Thomas G. Palaima and Professor Emily Vermeule. For the faults which remain despite their help, I accept full blame.iv "Tis time to observe Occurrences, and let nothing remarkable escape us; The Supinity of elder dayes hath left so much in silence, or time hath so martyred the Records, that the most industrious heads do find no easie work to erect a new Britannia. Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia (1658) TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments List of Figures Chapter Chapter on Chapter Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. INTRODUCTION THE MANUFACTURE OF PERFUME THE PYLOS PERFUME WORKSHOP THE Fr TABLETS: STORAGE AND DISBURSEMENT OF FINISHED PRODUCTS. SCRIBAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE OIL DEPARTMENT THE USES OF PERFUMED OIL Select Bibliography Index 107 123 155 169vi CHRONOLOGICAL CHART GREECE CRETE EGYPT 6500- | Neolithic Neolithic Neolithic 3500 cian aa at Predynastic 3000 Early Dynastic (3100-2690) 2500 EH EM Old Kingdom = 2690-2160) _| SST MM IA Middle Kingdom 1900 (2135-1785) MM IB-IT 1700 2nd Intermediate . MM_IIT 1550 HI LM IA New Kingdom ——————— | LH IIA LM IB OS a | LH IIB LM II Dyn. XVIII 1400 (1570-1320) LH IITA LM_IITAT 1350 LH ITTA2 UMIWA2 ft 1300 LH ITIBI Dyn. XIX 1250 ——____—___ LM IIIB (1320-1200) LH ITIB2 1200 —— ————_—_—_——]- ---------- LH IIIC LM IIIC Dyn. XX 1100 (1200-1080) EH, MH, LH = Early, Middle, Late Helladic EM, MM, LM = Early, Middle, Late Minoan Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure 6. vii LIST OF FIGURES Map of the Aegean World in the Late Bronze Age. Plan of the Palace at Pylos. Courtesy J.C. Wright. Pylos, Rooms 23-24, Blegen and Rawson 1966, fig. 22. Pylos, Room 32. Blegen and Rawson 1966, fig. 116. Pylos, Room 38. Blegen and Rawson 1966, fig. 36. Mycenae, West House and Houses of the Oil Merchant, Shields, and Sphinxes. Courtesy E.B. French. Plan of the Palace at Zakros. After Platon 1971, p. 81. Egyptian Perfumers' Workshop. After Wreszinsky 1923, pl. 356. Basin, Pylos Shape 1. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 355. Basin, Pylos Shape 2. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 355. Pan, Pylos Shape 78. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 417. Krater, Pylos Shape 58. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 394. Krater, Pylos Shape 59. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 397. Tripod Pot, Pylos Shape 68. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 411. Tripod Pot, Pylos Shape 69. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 411. Tripod Pot, Pylos Shape 70. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 411. Brazier, Pylos Shape 67. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 411. Tripod Pot, Pylos Shape 71. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 411. Stirrup Jar, Pylos Shape 65a. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 403. Stirrup Jar, Pylos Shape 65b1. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 403. Stirrup Jar, Pylos Shape 65b2. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 403. Stirrup Jar, Pylos Shape 65b3. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 406. Stirrup Jar, Pylos Shape 65c. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 406. Stirrup Jar, Pytos Shape 65d. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 406. Stirrup Jar, Pylos Shape 65e. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 406.vit Figure 26. Stirrup Jar, Pylos Shape 65f. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 406. Figure 27. Pithoid Jar, Pylos Shape 53. Blegen and Rawson 1966, fig. 378. Figure 28. Stirrup Jar No. 411 from Pylos. Blegen and Rawson 1966, fig. 391. Figure 29. Stirrup Jar No. 412 from Pylos. Blegen and Rawson 1966, fig. 391. Figure 30. Double-Spouted Jug, Pylos Shape 43. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 379. Figure 31. Lid, Pylos Shape 73. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 415. Figure 32. Pithoid Jar, Pylos Shape 51. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 387. Figure 33. Pithoid Jar, Pylos Shape 52. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 387. Figure 34. Pithoid Jar, Pylos Shape S4a. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 390. Figure 35. Pithoid Jar, Pylos Shape 54b. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 390. Figure 36. Jar, Pylos Shape 50. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 384. Figure 37. Storage Jar, Pylos Shape 56. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 394. Figure 38. Storage Jar, Pylos Shape 57. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 394. Figure 39. Tankard, Pylos Shape 33. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 373. Figure 40. Pedestaled Krater, Pylos Shape 63. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 399. Figure 41. Deep Bowl (Krater-Bowl), Pylos Shape 60. Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 397. Figure 42. Angular Alabastron, Pylos Shape 64. Blegen and Rawson 1966, fig. 386. Drawings and photographs from Blegen and Rawson 1966 reprinted by permission of Princeton University Press and the University of Cincinnati. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION During the Late Bronze Age, ca. 1550-1200 B.C., a number of autonomous kingdoms formed and flourished in Greece (fig. 1). They prospered chiefly during the final two centuries of that era, in the period we call Late Helladic III (LH III; see ¢hronological chart). Greek literature, especially the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey, preserved a fictionalized memory of these kingdoms long after the reality had passed. A few of the sites themselves were known throughout antiquity; Pausanias visited Mycenae in the 2nd century A.D. as an admiring tourist (II.xv.4-xvi.7). Yet modern interest in them only revived when Heinrich Schliemann, a self-made archaeologist as he had been a self-made businessman, excavated at Troy, Mycenae and Tiryns in the 1870's and 1880's. The rich burials and monumental walls of Mycenae were impressive enough to give the name ‘Mycenaean' to the entire civilization of Late Bronze Age Greece, and Schliemann's discoveries attracted the attention of scholars and amateurs alike. Knowledge of the the Mycenaeans and their culture has grownimpressively in the 100 years since then. Palaces? have been excavated at Pylos, Mycenae and Tiryns; Thebes has yielded some information and the promise of much more. Survey work has revealed towns, concentrated in the region of these palaces, and some of these too have been excavated. Archaeologists have uncovered houses and tombs, pottery and other artifacts. These include not only the necessities of everyday life, plain vessels and simple tools, but also luxury items in imported materials such as gold, ivory and bronze. This last is mot strictly a luxury, since bronze was essential for tools and weapons, but it too was imported into Greece. Such items raise another important point about the Mycenaeans: they were very much involved in the larger Aegean world, Against the flow of incoming commodities we can set the great quantity of Mycenaean pottery found abroad--clear archaeological evidence of an extensive and vigorous trade network, which ranged from Italy and Sardinia to Egypt, Asia Minor, Cyprus and the Syro-Palestinian coast. The picture emerges of a cosmopolitan civilization, with the skill to build on a monumental scale and also to do fine work in jewelry and other small-scale crafts; a basically agricultural culture, yet one with a liking for expensive 1Vermeule 1964 provides an excellent survey of the Greek Bronze Age; later discoveries have not diminished its value. Hooker 1976 is thorough and includes the bibliography up to date. For the story of discovery and excavation, from Schliemann's day forward, see McDonald 1967 and Stubbings 1972. Chadwick 1967 is a good introduction to Linear B and its decipherment, and Chadwick 1976 discusses Mycenaean culture in the light of the tablets. *This is a useful term to describe the monumental, complex, multifunctional structures in question, so long as one resists the modern social and political connotations of the word. By the same token I use the word '‘kingdom' to describe a group of towns in the region of a palace and to some extent economically contributing to and benefitting from its existence. artifacts, and the ability to acquire them, or the raw materials necessary to make them. So much archaeology could reveal; material remains, settlement. patterns, connections with the outside world. It could not give many details of the people themselves, their social and economic organization, their religion, or even their names. But understanding of Mycenaean culture advanced by a quantum leap with the decipherment in 1952 of the Linear B script. For the Mycenaeans could write, and they left their inscriptions in clay at all the major palace sites. These clay tablets, incised with syllabic signs, were first discovered by Sir Arthur Evans in the Minoan palace of Knossos on Crete, where he began excavation in 1900. Minoan writing had evolved from pictograshs into a simpler Linear Script A; Linear B was a further adaptation, so at first it was assumed that this script too had been used to write the Minoan language. When Linear B tablets were first unearthed at the mainland palace of Pylos, in 1939, a Minoan takeover of the surrounding region of Messenia was Evans! logical inference. His theory was soon challenged, however, and sceptics were eventually proven right when the young British architect Michael Ventris demonstrated that the language of the Linear B tablets was not Minoan, but Greek, With this discovery the Mycenaeans regained in scholars’ minds the Greek identity which Homer and Schliemann, in their different ways, had claimed for them. In addition, Bronze Age Greece was no longer the exclusive province of the archaeologist: linguists, religious and social historians, economists and other experts could also begin to investigate the Mycenaean world. The tablets are very limited in scope; they contain no literature, mo laws or letters, only the day-to-day administrativeaccounts of a palace economy. Moreover, they are virtually shorthand accounts, in a script poorly suited to the Greek language and probably intelligible to few people other than the scribes themselves, of short-term usefulness. Each palace where tablets were found was destroyed by burning; we owe the extant tablets to the fires which thus inadvertently baked and preserved them. They pertain only to the last year of a palace's existence, and it is clear that they were merely temporary records which would not intentionally have been fired and kept by their makers. Nevertheless, properly used they provide much valuable information. The tablets have revealed the names of gods, and the nature of cult offerings to them. They introduce us to hundreds of men and women, to their occupations, and to the places where they lived and worked. There are inventories of vessels and furniture, lists of ration payments, land tenure documents, and accounts of commodities ranging from broken chariot wheels to perfumed oi]. From such documents have emerged the details of a centralized economic system, in which surrounding towns were taxed by a palace and in turn received allocations from it, and palace officials controlled activities like bronze-working and flax production throughout the kingdom. Further progress is still possible, of course, and one of the most fruitful approaches is to pool the evidence of the tablets with that of archaeology. The palace at Epano Englianos in western Messenia, the presumed site of Homer's Pylos (fig. 2) is a particularly promising subject for this kind of combinatory work, because that region is currently one of the best documented jin Greece. The palace and surrounding town were carefully excavated during the 1950's and 1960's by the University of Cincinnati under Carl Blegen.* The province of Messenia itself, most of which formed the kingdom administered from Pylos, has been extensively explored by the University of Minnesota under W.A. McDonald, who also directed the excavation of Nichoria, one of the principal Bronze Age towns in the region.* For Pylos and its kingdom, therefore, both documentary and archaeological data are abundant. The period of the tablets is of course the Tast year of the palace, and it is important to determine when that was. The excavators place the destruction during the period 1230-1200 B.C., which they define as "a period of transition from III B to III C,"S but others have suggested both earlier and later dates.® As with many chronological disputes, pottery styles are the central problem. The Pylos destruction level pottery has decoration unlike that of standard LH IIIB wares (see ch. 6 pp. 148 f.).” Nevertheless there are features at Pylos such as deep bowls coated inside or all over, which are widely agreed to be late developments in Mycenaean pottery. The coated deep bowl is generally thought to be one of the latest types; therefore its presence at Pylos has led some scholars to date the destruction there to LH IIIC.* Coated deep bowls are indeed found both complete and in sherd material from the >See Blegen and Rawson 1966; Blegen et al. 1373; Lang 1969. “See McDonald and Rapp 1972; Rapp and Aschenbrenner 1978; McDonald et al. 1983; McDonald et al. n.d. On the place of Nichoria in the Pylos kingdom see Shelmerdine 1981. *Blegen and Rawson 1966, p. 421. ®See Sherratt 1980, pp. 187-190. "See French 1969 and Wardle 1973 on the character of LH IIIB2 pottery in the Argolid, which is usually taken as the norm. ®See Hiller, 1980.palace;* however, strict correlation between the Argolid and Messenian (especially Pylian) chronology cannot be assumed. For example, there are coated deep bowls in LH IIIB2 contexts at the provincial Messenian site of Nichoria; and the same seems to be true at the Sparta Menelaion. Thus this feature, and others which characterize LH IIIC in the Argolid, may come into fashion rather earlier in the southwest Peloponnese.'* On the other hand, coated deep bowls are not found in early LH IIIB contexts, even in Messenia, but are a late feature within the period. On ceramic grounds, currently the only evidence available, there seems no reason to reject the destruction date suggested by Blegen. In dealing with Pylos tablets I shall assume that we are dealing with the late LH IIIB period, that is the late 13th century B.C. The present study of the perfumed oi] industry was undertaken in the first instance to see how much could be discovered by combining archaeological and documentary evidence. The topic is well suited to this kind of investigation. Qil jars, olive pits and carbonized olive wood are among the material finds that confirm the importance of this tree to the Mycenaeans, while a number of Pylos tablets concern the manufacture and disbursement of perfumed olive oi]. By studying these in conjunction with archaeological data, and with comparative information from Classical Greece and the Bronze Age Near East, it has proven possible to discover in some detail what ingredients Mycenaean perfumes contained and how they were See Blegen and Rawson 1966, shape 60, pp. 397-399, nos. 1172 and perhaps 1176 (see fig. 40). *°0n Nichoria coated deep bowls see Shelmerdine 1977, and McDonald et al. n.d. On those from the Menelaion see Sherratt 1980, p. 189, and her general discussion pp. 186-190. made; how and where they were stored and used; and how the various aspects of perfume manufacture were monitored by scribes. Documents from Mycenae and Knossos also mention perfumed oil. However, the information from Mycenae is meager, and though recent studies have illuminated the relevant Knossos tablets,? the Pylian evidence is more plentiful and more varied. Nevertheless the other sites do provide useful comparative evidence, especially for the general status of perfumed oi] as a palace business. For the tablets do reveal extensive palace control at all three sites: they record the collection of raw materials (Knossos), their allocation to Perfumers (Knossos, Pylos), stock-taking (Pylos), and distribution of the final product (Knossos, Pylos, Mycenae). This scribal attention shows that perfumery was an officially controlled activity. The subject matter of Mycenaean tablets in general points the same way. Private transactions and activities are of no interest to palace officials, and the tablets rarely mention domestic affairs, even ona royal scale.!? Personnel records at Pylos list many palace workers, including potters; yet the making of pottery has no place in the (extant) records, despite the vast quantity of locally made pottery found in the palace. When the tablets do record such activities, they reflect broader concerns. The Pylos Jn texts, for example, reveal a decentralized bronze-working industry, organized by the **Foster 1974 and 1977a with refer ti i aml qd Pas ‘ences to previous studies by L. Godart *2For an example of the difference between di i see Shelmerdine 1981, pp. 323-324. ail mie Meeepalace to serve needs which affect the whole kingdom.*? Similarly, there are records of flax (Na, Nn) and textile (La) production at Pylos, and other tablets record ration allotments by the palace to carders (Ad 694, Aa [891]),'* spinners (Aa 240, Ad [380], 677) and weavers (Ad 684), That the palace organized and supervised textile manufacture to this extent shows it had a vested interest in the finished product, an interest which probably went beyond the need to clothe palace inhabitants.?* In an administrative system such as that of the Mycenaeans, then, scribal concern with the details of perfume manufacture and disbursement identify this activity, too, as a palatial ‘business’ or ‘industry’. What part perfumed oi] played in the economy--to what extent it was used in trade, either abroad or among Mycenaean kingdoms--is an important question which will be considered in chapter 6. First, though, it is of interest to know as much as possible about the industry itself. Several different kinds of perfume records are preserved at the palace of Nestor. Those dealing with raw materials (An 616r, Un 249, 267 and 592) were kept in the Archives Complex (Rooms 7-8 on plan, fig. 2), but inventory and disbursement records (Fr series) came to light in different rooms. The *70n the Jn series see Hiller and Panag] 1976, pp. 175-182 with references. Tablets are classified by a capital letter, indicating ideogram and thereby subject matter, and a lower case letter, indicating both shape (a-m for short '‘palm-leaf' tablets, n-z for longer ‘page! tablets) and site (e.9., m refers to Knossos tablets, n to Pylos; not all the lower case letters have yet been needed). Individual tablets are also identified by their inventory number, and the site is indicated by its first two letters in capitals; thus a complete citation might be PY Jn 725 (Pylos), or KN Am 819 (Knossos). **Square brackets around a tablet number signify that the reading in question is based on reconstruction of an incomplete text. 150n the Pylos flax industry see Shelmerdine 1981, pp. 324-325 with references, and especially Robkin 1979. find-spots, scribal hands, and the objects found with these tablets are as significant as the documents themselves; they too must be considered in any assessment of the Pylos perfume industry as a whole. I begin in chapter 2 by discussing the ingredients of perfumed oi], and reconstructing the Process of manufacture which can be inferred from the tablets. Chapter 3 looks at the perfumers and their equipment in closer detail, with a view to discovering as much as possible about the nature and the possible location of a perfume workshop at Pylos. In Chapter 4 I turn from the manufacture of perfumed oi] to the records of finished products--the inventory and disbursement accounts in the Fr series. Study of these tablets in their archaeological context leads in Chapter 5 to some conclusions about the function of the rooms involved, and about the system of scribal administration which generated such records. Taken together, these findings form a basis for considering, in Chapter 6, the role of perfumed oil in the Pylian economy.10 n CHAPTER 2 THE MANUFACTURE OF PERFUME COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE From the Bronze Age itself, information about the ingredients and the manufacture of perfumes is meager and often hard to interpret. The Mycenaean tablets themselves give not recipes, but lists of raw materials and finished products from which the process of manufacture must be inferred. However these data can be interpreted with the help of comparative sources. A set of Middle Assyrian tablets dating from the reign of Tukulti-Ninurtas I (1243-1207 B.C.) is especially welcome, because it belongs to precisely the same period as the Pylos documents. These tablets contain recipes for several different perfumes, and they give us the names of various ingredients and pieces of equipment used by Assyrian perfumers, as well as describing the process of manufacture. Some terms remain untranslated, though, and the tablets are quite repetitive. Perfumes are also well documented in Pharaonic Egypt, from solid perfume cones made of animal fat,'® to scented oils such as the Mycenaeans had. Egyptian writings often mention perfumes, and occasionally give recipes for cosmetics of various sorts. The best evidence for perfume manufacture is pictorial, though, and includes a tomb painting of a perfumer's workshop of ca. 1400 B.C. These comparative data will be discussed below (pp. 15 f.), but they offer only partial help in understanding Mycenaean perfumery. Fortunately, we also have much fuller information about ancient perfumery 16These are often illustrated. See for example Lloyd 1961, p. 179 fig. 141, from the XVIIIth dynasty Tomb of Nakht (Porter and Moss 1960, p. .274, Tomb 161 (3) II).12 in Classical writers, whose details are a valuable interpretive gloss on the Bronze Age documents. The chief sources are Theophrastus in the 4th-3rd centuries B.C., and Dioscorides in the Ist century A.D. A section of Dioscorides' de materia medica (1.42-63) discusses the ingredients and the medicinal value of various perfumes, and gives detailed recipes for a number of them. It fs therefore valuable evidence for both the materials and the manufacturing process of Classical perfumes. Theophrastus’ short work de odoribus discusses the properties of various oils and spices used in perfumes, as well as the fragrances themselves and their respective characteristics. His aim is not to provide actual recipes, but occasionally the process of manufacture is mentioned, or can be inferred from his discussion. A third source, sometimes useful though less reliable, is the elder Pliny, a contemporary of Dioscorides; in his naturalis historia he discusses both aromatic plants (12.41-135) and perfumes (13.1-25). Ancient perfumes were made from all manner of plants.*7 Both herbal and flora? scents were popular, and oils of various kinds, such as olive, almond and sesame could serve as a base or vehicle for the fragrance. Distillation was in its infancy in Classical Greece,*® and aromatic plants were usually simply steeped in hot or cold oil; this caused them to release their essential oils, and thus their fragrance. Cold steeping (enfleurage) 170n ancient perfumery in general see Forbes in Singer et al. 1954, pp 285-298; Forbes 1965, pp. 1-50; Genders 1972, ch. 1-4; Lucas-Harris 1962, pp. 85-90 (Egypt); Neuberger 1930, pp. 110-121; Wylock 1970 (Mycenaean and Classical). ‘*Distillation in Greece is first mentioned by Aristotle, meteorologica 1.9,11, I1.3, in the fourth century B.C. Recently a greater antiquity has been suggested for the process in the Near East; see Levey 1955 and 1956. 13 is the simpler process, but it is not effective in all cases; therefore hot steeping (maceration) was also common. Dioscorides is the only author to give actual recipes, and the manufacturing process most common in his account is as follows. Two stages are involved; the first, stypsis (ordvis), served to prepare the oi] by the addition of weakly-scented astringents (ordyuata) such as aspalathus, cyperus and ginger-grass.?® This treatment did not permanently scent the oi1, but rather made it more receptive to the stronger fragrances which would follow (see also Theophrastus 17-18, 22-25, 33). It atso served incidentally to thicken the oi] somewhat." The astringents were mixed with wine or water to form a Paste, then heated in the oi]. Theophrastus comments that this preliminary treatment was recommended in most cases, but was particularly necessary with olive ofl, which does not retain odors well (de odor. 14, 17), and with volatile perfumes like rose (de odor. 55), In the second stage of manufacture, the treated of) was given its final fragrance. This process too involved the steeping of aromatics (fdvowata). Repeatedly the of] was strained from one vessel into another, and fresh batches of aromatics were added until the perfume reached the desired strength, sometimes only after several days. Dioscorides' recipe for iris perfume (1.56) is typical: 194 : Di P : . Teaatacesete a; oumeencas 1.43,53,55; cyperus: 4,39,40,47; ginger-grass: **orivis is often translated ‘thickening! i ing i ofte 8 9 but its proper meaning is simply ‘contraction’, 'astringency'. Liddell and Scott, s.v.. III devine it in perfumery as: "thickening of oil with certain drugs to make it retain oe Sete loner However Foster 1974, pp. 47-49 js right to emphasize a s thickening was not itself an ai i pau m of stypsis, but rather a14 Take 9 Iztrae 5 unciae [about 3.1 kg.] of oi] and 6 Jitrae 8 unciae [about 2.2 kg.] of spathe, chopped as fine as possible; mix with 10 kotulei [about 0.25 1.] of water, put into a cauldron (xadxév) and boil until the mixture absorbs the scent. Then strain it out into a mixing-bow] (kpatipa) smeared with honey. From this scented oil the first iris perfume is made by steeping iris [root] in the treated (€otuunévov) oi], as indicated below. Others: as indicated, chop 5 Jitrae 2 uncige [about 1.7 kg.] of balsam-wood and boil together with 9 Zitrae 5 unciae [about 3.1 kg.] of oil. Then remove the balsam-wood and add 9 Jitrae 10 uncize [about 3.2 kg.] of sweet-flag, steeping a lump of myrrh in sweet old wine. Then in 14 Zitrae [about 4.6 kg.] of the treated and scented of] steep an equal weight of chopped iris [root]; leave it for two days and two nights, and then strain it out forcibly and vigorously. And if you want it stronger, steep and strain out an equal amount twice and three times in the same way.?? It is worth noting that only during stypsis is the mixture boiled; the iris root which will give the final fragrance is left to steep in cool oil (enfleurage). This is the pattern in other recipes as well. Nor was the ‘boiling! always very vigorous. Dioscorides does use phrases that suggest a full boil (the subject is of1): étav 6 wets todtwy avatdon (1.53); ews vy ovvavagéon (1.55); Stav de cai peta tovrov téon (1.55), In each case, though, emphasis is on the mixing (ouv-, weta), not on how vigorously the mixture must boil. According to Theophrastus, ofl containers were not placed directly on the fire. Though he too uses a word for boiling, Eunos, the arrangement he describes is that of a double-boiler or bain-marie, with oi] jars standing in containers of heated water. In fact, ?1The conversion of Jitrae to modern measures can be calculated as follows: 1 Litra = 327.45 grams 1 uncia = 27.2875 grams 11. olive oil = 0.91 kg. 1 kotule §s 0.2265 1., based on a choinix of 0.906 1. (Viedebantt 1923), or 0.2735 1., based on a choinix of 1.094 1. (Hultsch 1882). 15 he gives several reasons why direct heat tends to spoil perfume: the temperature is too high, there is more waste, and the perfume retains an unpleasant smell of burning (Theophrastus 22). Foster points out that this is true for most of the lighter perfumes described by Dioscorides. These correspond most closely with Mycenaean perfumes, because they consist of a single fragrance, rather than a mixture of several hedysmata.?? As far as Assyrian practice can be discerned from the tablets mentioned above, the manufacturing process is a little different from that described by the Classical authors.?? The aromatic ingredients were first steeped for a day jin heated water; more spices might be added in the evening, then the mixture was left to stand overnight. The next day it was heated again, perhaps after straining and the addition of fresh spices. Only at this point was oi] added, and the mixture stirred. The vessel was covered, and heated until the oi] rose and the various substances mixed together. Then the residue could be cleaned from the inside of the vessel, and the mixture stirred and covered. It then stood for up to four days, after which it was boiled again, probably on a low fire. Finally the oil was allowed to cool, strained, and decanted into flasks. There are several differences here from Classical practice. First, there is no mention of stypsis; the aromatics themselves are soaked in heated water, as Dioscorides describes, but the oil is not pretreated. The heating of the oil seems to take place directly on a fire, not in vessels which stood in water. The oil is occasionally said to 'throw up foam', which means that *2Foster 1974, p. 148. ?>Ebeling 1948a,b; 1949; 1950. A summary of the process is given in 1948a, pp. 143-144.16 it must have reached a temperature impossible to achieve by indirect heat. The injunction to boil the mixture until the ingredients ‘mix together', however, does bring to mind Dioscorides' phrase Eus av ovvavagdsn (1.55). The Egyptian wall-painting referred to earlier shows something of a perfumer's equipment and methods (fig. 8). It comes from a Theban tomb, owner unknown, dating probably to the reign of Tuthmosis IV (1397-1384). No bain-marie is shown here, but the process of manufacture does involve heat. One man (5S) is shown stirring the contents of a large basin which rests on an ‘oven‘ or hot-box. Such containers provided more even and gentle heat than an open fire, and they are depicted in other scenes of heating and cooking. Two similar 'ovens', one painted to show that its sides were brick, appear in the tomb of Rekhmire at Thebes (c. 1430 B.C.). They, like the one illustrated here, have a door outlined in the visible side of the structure, to give access to the interior, or to serve as a vent. Another perfumer (6) is shaping?“ scented animal fat into balls; the solid unguent could then be formed into the cones worn at banquets (see references in n. 16). The other activities depicted are what one would expect: the grinding of aromatics (1-3), and the straining of some liquid. This might be oil, or it might be wine or water, which would be strained after aromatics had been steeped in it to prepare them for further use (7). 2*Anonymous tomb: Porter and Moss 1960, p. 281, Tomb 175 (4) II; Wreszinski 1923, pl. 356. Porter and Moss give the date as "Tuthmosis IV (?)"; they also qualify the identification of the scene as “Preparation of ointment (?)." For illustration and interpretation of this and other scenes, see Forbes jn Singer et al, 1954, pp. 285-298 passim. Tomb of Rekhmire: Porter and Moss 1960, p. 210, Tomb 100 (13) I-II; Wreszinski p1. 326. Forbes 1965, pp. 2-17 contains further evidence for Egyptian and Near Eastern perfumery; for Egypt see also Lucas-Harris 1962, pp. 85-90. Even the Bible contains a few incidental references to perfumery; cf. Exodus 30:23-25, 34-35. V7 MYCENAEAN EVIDENCE When we turn to the Mycenaean records the similarities we find in both ingredients and manufacturing process are to Classical practice. Pylos, as well as Knossos, has yielded tablets recording the allocation of raw materials to perfumers. There are four of these, all found in the Archives Complex. The most explicit is Un 267:25 al o-do-ke , a~ko-so-ta ~2 tu-we-ta , a-re-pa-zo-o -3 tu-we-a , a-re-pa-te [[ , ze-so-me ]] +4 ze-so-me-no [[ ko J] «5 ko-ri-a,-da-na AROM 6 6 ku-pa-ro, AROM 6 *157 16 -7 KAPO 275 VIN 20 mE 2 +8 LANA 2 VIN 2 Thus Alxoitas gave to Thyestes the perfume-boiler?® aromatics for perfume destined for boiling:?7 coriander 576 1, cyperus 576 1. ¥*157 16 units fruits 240 1. wine 5761. honey 58 1. woo] 6 kg. inferior wine 58 1. *5Texts of the Pylos tablets are taken from Bennett and Olivier 1973. **The word a-re-pa-te, aleiphate? ts usually translated 'unguent!. The corresponding ideogram AREPA, alexphar does occur with a sign for liquid measure (PY Un 6, Fr 1198), which shows that a liquid perfumed oi] is meant, not a solid unguent of animal fat, such as the Egyptians sometimes made. This ideogram may, as its mame suggests, designate a thicker substance than the ideogram OLE; nevertheless both must be essentially liquids. Thus the occupational description aleiphazoos, usually translated ‘unguent-boiler', is perhaps more accurately 'perfume-boiler', or just ‘perfumer', *7The function of the future middle participle ze-so-me-no is disputed. The translation adopted here is Lejeune's (Lejeune 1959, p. 141 = Lejeune 1971, p. 159). Others have interpreted the word as a middle with cu-we-ta (Palmer 1963, pp. 270, 465) or translated as though it were passive, "unguent which is to be boiled' (Ventris and Chadwick 1973, pp. 224, 441-442, 593),18 The ingredients listed are described by the general term thuea, ‘aromatics’. Cyperus (Cyperus rotundus L.) is mentioned in the Classical texts only as an astringent, used in stypsis (Theophrastus 33; Dioscorides 1.4,39,40,47). Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) is a surprise; it is not mentioned by the Classical authors as a perfume ingredient, and its modern use depends on distillation, a process unknown to the Mycenaeans (see p. 12 with n. 18), Both of these ingredients appear with the sign AROM, meaning 'condiment' or 'condiment measure'.?® XAPO is not clearly identified; the word seems to refer to olives on KN F 841.5.2° On Un 267 the ideogram is unqualified, and the symbol for dry measure tells against Sacconi's proposed identification with cinnamon (cf. oxapédg, ‘cinnamon stick').?° Another obscure ideogram is *157, which consists of an infinity sign surmounted by wi. No identification can be offered for this substance, which is measured in units rather than by weight or volume (unless the quantities are large enough to require the biggest unit of measure, which has no symbol). As has been suggested, it should perhaps be connected with the word wi-ri-za which qualifies wool on another list of perfume ingredients, Un 249 (see p. 20).7? The other substances mentioned are not strictly aromatics, but they too are needed to make perfume. Wine is 28Q0n coriander see Melena 1974a; Wylock 1972, pp. 135-138. On cyperus see Melena 1974b. AROM is interpreted as a unit of measure by Ventris and Chadwick 1973, p. 222. On all these topics see also Foster 1977a; Geiss 1967, 1970, 2%Ventris and Chadwick 1973, glossary s.v. ka-po, and p. 219; but on p. 440 it is tentatively suggested that the word may refer to figs. PY Un 138.5 however contains the entry ka-pa OLIV 7, so the word can certainly refer to olives. 3°Sacconi 1972, countered by Melena 1974a and Foster 1974, pp. 119-120. 740n the ideogram *157 see Foster 1974, pp. 117-118 with references. 19 known in the Classical texts chiefly as a liquid for pre-soaking and making a paste of aromatics (Theophrastus 25; Dioscorides 1.52,53,55,56,57,58,59). Two kinds of wine are here specified, *19/ and its reduced variant *J3fb. The latter has been interpreted as 'must', but a recent suggestion has been that it represents an inferior quality wine.?* This proposal was made on the basis of a Knossos tablet, Uc 160, but it is entirely appropriate here as well. The value of wine in soaking aromatics lies im its alcoholic content and its liquidity, not in its quality; indeed, there would be no reason to waste good drinking wine in perfumery when inferior wine was available. Honey was also used by Classical perfumers, to coat their hands and the vessels they used (Dioscorides 1.43,52,56,58), and sometimes as an ingredient (1.58,59,60). | Finally the wool listed here was most probably used for straining the perfumed oil. It is described on Un 249 (see p. 20) a8 wi-ri-za, wridza, ‘root'; therefore John Killen suggested the wool might be useful to perfumers as a source of lanolin, which collects at the base of a tuft of wool.?? Lanolin is used nowadays, like other greasy substances, as a vehicle for fragrances. It is not mentioned in the Classical texts on perfume, however, and we have no evidence for its use in ancient perfumery. Furthermore, the word wi-ri-za which inspired this suggestion is lacking on Un 267, where the wool ideogram is unqualified; yet it appears with the ideogram on at least two texts from Knossos which have no known connection with the perfume industry there (Od 2026, 8022). 22'Must', Ventris and Chadwick 1973, pp. 223, 441. Inferior wine, Stanley 1982. Stanley's arguments seem to show a real distinction between *131 and *131b, sufficient to answer the question raised by Bennett 1966, p. 14. : *3Killen 1962.20 Since we know from Dioscorides that straining was an essential part of the manufacturing process, this seems the simplest explanation for the presence of wool on Un 267 and 249.7% The latter tablet also has a heading which makes it clear that the ingredients listed are for perfumed oil: vla po-ti-ni-ja-we-jo pi-ra-jo , a-re-pa-zo[-o ] ku-pa-ro. AROM 27 5 .2 0 wi-ri-za LANA 2 [ ]*157 10 3 vacat [ ] Kapo 1 6 Philaios the perfume-boiler of Potnia: cyperus 240 1. root wool 6 kg. *257 10 units fruits 58 1 This list is shorter than Un 267, but all the ingredients on it are matched there. Two more records without headings include some of the same substances, and may therefore also be lists of perfume ingredients (An 616 recto, Un 592). An 616 mentions z-re-wel and me-po, both obscure (unless perhaps the latter is simply a scribal error for me-ri, 'honey'; cf. ku-ro-ro, for ku-pa-ro, in line 1). Un 592 adds another obscure word, ra-ka, which perhaps qualifies the ideogram *54.75 Since ko appears together with the sign AROM, it is probably an abbreviation for the condiment ko-ri-a,-da-na, if the analogy with other perfume and condiment texts is valid. The general similarity of content in these four tablets is more striking than differences in detail, as the following Table suggests: **So Beck and Beck 1978. 35Palmer 1963, p. 451 interprets this word as Saf, which he translates ‘berry’; the suggestion is not followed by Ventris and Chadwick 1973, glossary s.v. 21 Un 267 Un 249 An 616 ko-ri-a,-da-na 6 21 878,474 ku-pa-rog 6 275 1375 *157 16 10 28 KAPO 275 T6 4 314 VIN (*137) 20 ME 2 LANA 2 2 5 6 VIN (*132b) 2 6siva ]T2 at TABLE I The quantities of the various ingredients are not in regular Proportion to each other.?* Nor do they represent all the ingredients necessary to the manufacture of perfume. The recognizable items in Table I are wine, honey and wool. No of1 is listed at all; also missing are rose and sage, the final fragrances (#dvopata) known from the Fr tablets. Cyperus is not a final fragrance but a stymma, according to Dioscorides 1.47, where it is an alternative to balsam-wood. It seems likely that this was its function in Mycenaean times as well. This is suggested by the nature of the list in Table I, which seems to cover only isolated commodities needed in the routine of perfume-making, but not the major ingredients. Another indication is that cyperus is mentioned only once in the Fr texts (Fr 1203), and then only in combination with another adjective, wo-do-we, wordowen, 'rose-scented'. This is the only case where two adjectives of fragrance appear together; Mycenaean perfumes seem **Contra Lejeune 1959, pp. 142-144 = Lejeune 1971, pp. 158-161. He neacred, his conclusions before an entry for coriander was read in An r.5-6.