5,000-year-old fragrance displayed at exhibition
Ali Rıza Akbulut - ISTANBUL
A 5,000-year-old fragrance from the Bronze Age has been showcased at an exhibition opened on İstiklal Avenue.
Beyoğlu Mayor Haydar Ali Yıldız attended the opening of the Ancient Fragrances Exhibition at Istiklal Art Gallery.
The exhibition showcases fragrances and incense originating from Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Rhodes. The most striking feature of the exhibition is the display of fragrance formulas prepared before Christ.
Bihter Türkan Ergül, the vice president of the Fragrance Culture and Tourism Association, stated they unearthed and translated the world’s first written fragrance formula, an Assyrian-origin formula from Mesopotamia.
“Working with nine archaeologists, we present this fragrance to the visitors coming to this exhibition in Istanbul. The world’s first fragrance formula from the Bronze Age is being exhibited here,” Ergül said.
Stressing that the fragrance formula from the Bronze Age includes scents such as frankincense, seal and resin essence, Ergül noted that there were no flowers, spices, or fruits used in fragrances at that time, and therefore, it is a scent that is a little more different than people are used to in contemporary times.
