Olfactory archaeology

Could the greatest luxury in fragrance be evoking scents rooted in the past? A clutch of perfumers thinks so. Scents that conjure the aromas of Ancient Egypt and Rome, alongside those inspired by extinct plants, are capturing the consumer imagination. Simultaneously, museums are using the art of biomolecular archaeology to resurrect historical scents, signaling a shift in how brands and institutions approach sensory engagement.

Anti-Parfum, a Paris-based fragrance house, describes scent as “humanity's first time machine, the invisible thread connecting us all.”The house imagines its fragrances in the space where “olfactory archaeology meets present-day artistry.” Among its fragrances is Bast, billed as a reinterpretation of the ancient Egyptian fragrance ânti, said to be part of the civilization’s sacred ceremonies. The modern-day version sees perfumer Sidonie Lancesseur blend notes of frankincense, cardamom, saffron, cypriol, and myrrh essence. And inspired by an extract of perfume found in Pompeii’s ruins is rosa antiqua with blackcurrant, damask rose, and olive oil.

Meanwhile, US-based fragrance house Future Society is focused on reviving bygone botanicals. Founded by Jasmina Aganovic, the brand’s first fragrance collection reimagined “six extinct flowers through DNA sequencing and the artistry of the world’s best perfumers.” Among the collection is Haunted Rose, an eau de parfum inspired by Macrostylis villosa (subspecies 1 + 2), a flower once native to South Africa that the house says was lost to invasive species after 1960. Future Society notes that perfumer Jérôme Epinette “approached the scent as a form of time travel, reconstructing not just the flower, but the entire environment it once inhabited.”

Given the transportive qualities of these historical scents, they’re also being employed to amplify cultural experiences. Archaeo-chemist Dr. Barbara Huber of Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Tübingen led recently published research that captures how biomolecular data from the past can be transformed into scents that bring another dimension to the museum experience. Featured in the paper was The Scent of the Afterlife project, which saw Huber’s team recreate the scents of the ancient Egyptian mummification process. This scent was captured on scent cards that were displayed at exhibitions looking at ancient Egypt at the Museum August Kestner in Hanover, Germany, and at the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

We are working almost like detectives, identifying ingredients molecule by molecule and trying to reconstruct what a substance may once have smelled like.

Dr. Barbara Huber

Archaeo-chemist, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

Huber tells VML Intelligence that the process of recreating these extinct scents is “both scientifically challenging and creatively fascinating, [as] ancient scents are rarely preserved directly,” she notes. “What survives are tiny molecular traces within organic residues or absorbed into ancient vessels. In many cases, we are working almost like detectives, identifying ingredients molecule by molecule and trying to reconstruct what a substance may once have smelled like,” adds Huber. Working with archaeologists, chemists, perfumers, and sensory experts, Huber says the goal is to “give a voice (or rather a smell) back to the silent archaeological record.”

Huber’s research looks at “the sensory worlds of past societies,” and the role of scents in ritual, medicine, and daily life. She has recently published Scents of Arabia, a book about aromatic practices in the region, and is also studying “Roman perfumes, ancient medicinal fumigations, and the aroma of historical alcoholic beverages to understand how smell and aromas shaped all sorts of experiences in the past.”

Reflecting on why these ancient scents capture the modern imagination, Huber believes “there is a growing fascination with authenticity, storytelling, and sensory experiences that connect us to something larger than ourselves,” she says. “Scents inspired by the past offer exactly that. They carry narratives of distant places, forgotten rituals, and historical lives.”