In this 1-day workshop, we are time-travelers moving back and forth from the ancient world of perfumery to today. You will learn the myths and stories of scents and substances of the Ancient Mediterranean by plunging into one of the first cross-cultural perfumes of the Greco-Egyptian world: the Metopion.
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You will smell, touch and taste the difference between the raw ingredients used in the past and the prepared ingredients of today: bitter almond, cardamom, galbanum, myrrh, calamus, and honey. You will develop skills in interpreting ancient recipes, and you will learn how to use ancient recipes to experiment with scents in ancient and modern ways. And... you will leave the Smell Lab with two samples of the Metopion perfume: an ancient one and a modern adaptation which we will work on during the day!
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You can follow this workshop in person at the Smell Lab studio in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin or On-line.
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If you decide to follow the workshop online we will prepare a box of materials for you to follow our guidelines from home. We will set up a camara at the Semll Lab and you will be able to follow the workshop in real time.


WHAT YOU GET:
- Introduction to the recostruction of the practices of ancient Greco-Egyptian Perfumery 
- What is the Metopion on how is it made
- Evaluation and Analysis of Ancient and modern raw materials
- Evaluation of contemporary perfumes that use "ancient" raw materials
- Metopion formula (ancient and modern version)
- Recreation of the Ancient Metopion
- Blending of a modern version of the Metopion

WHAT YOU TAKE HOME:
- Ancient Metopion in a jar
- Modern metopion in a 5ml bottle
- Metopion formulation
- Blending skills
- Super excited brain and nose!

 

ABOUT ALCHEMIES OF SCENT
https://www.alchemiesofscent.org/
 

Alchemies of Scent is a multidisciplinary research group funded by a generous grant from the Junior Star Program of the Czech Science Foundation (GACR Grant ID 21-30494M). We are hosted by the Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought at the Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences.

 

Our aim is to better understand the practice of ancient Egyptian and Greek perfumery, to study and establish its place in the history of chemistry and science, and to examine the changing connections between art, craft, science and culture in the ancient Mediterranean world.

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Our focus is the encounter between ancient Egyptian and Greek artists, craftspeople, philosophers and doctors preserved in written and archaeological records. They are our primary witnesses to the exchange and appropriation of technology and ideas connected with perfumery from the time of Egypt’s conquest by Alexander the Great to death of the last Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, Cleopatra VII (fourth–first centuries BCE).

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Our method is partly experimental, where we attempt to recreate ancient methods in a laboratory setting, partly traditional, where we use philological, historical and philosophical approaches to study the ancient written evidence.