From the interior of Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s car to the scent of ancient Egyptian funerary practices, museumgoers are getting a whiff of the past like never before.<\/p>\n
Experts say the approach is more than a pungent stunt: it\u2019s part of a broader effort to try to reconstruct the sensory worlds of the past, with collaborations involving historians, scientists, heritage experts and perfumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the past decade or so there\u2019s been a growing interest in the \u2018archaeology of the senses\u2019, including the archaeology of smell,\u201d said Dr Barbara Huber, an archaeochemist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany. \u201cResearchers began asking not just what objects looked like but what past environments felt, sounded and smelled like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Huber worked on the creation of small cards infused with a perfume based on ingredients identified in residues of ancient Egyptian mummification balms<\/a>, which formed part of a project called Scent of the Afterlife.<\/p>\n Scent of the Afterlife cards. Photograph: Copyright SC Ehrich, C Calvez, CE Loeben, U Dubiel, S Terp Laursen and B Huber<\/p>\n She described it as a \u201ctime machine for the nose\u201d. It has an aroma rich and warming with honey-like notes and a hint of earthy spices \u2013 but not entirely pleasant. In order to create the scents, Huber and colleagues<\/a> carried out a chemical analysis of the residues of balms within ancient Egyptian canopic jars, dating back to 1450BC, to identify a complex mix of aromatic ingredients.<\/p>\n Among these<\/a> were beeswax, resins from trees of the pine family, and a substance called coumarin, a crystalline chemical compound with a vanilla-like scent. The researchers then worked with a perfumer to recreate the aroma. \u201cSince the materials identified in the chemical analysis of the original balm dated to antiquity, modern olfactory equivalents had to be identified that were both safe for public use and faithful to the biomolecular results,\u201d the team reported.<\/p>\n The aroma has now been used in various settings, including in a recent exhibition about ancient Egypt in Denmark<\/a>, and in different formats, including perfumed cards and fixed \u201cscent stations\u201d. In the latter case, scent cartridges were placed inside two modern ceramic vessels and visitors were invited to lift the lid and take a sniff.<\/p>\n Huber added that the perfumed cards had even been sent to schoolchildren studying the ancient civilisation, while the scent is to feature in another exhibition<\/a>, in Canada, from June.<\/p>\n Huber said a smell could help visitors experience the past. \u201cIt can make abstract history tangible,\u201d she said. \u201cIt also reminds us that the past was not sterile or silent, it was sensory, embodied and often intense.\u201d<\/p>\n It is not the first time museumgoers have encountered unusual odours: a 2016 Rolling Stones exhibition included the smell of the band\u2019s digs<\/a>, while the Jorvik Viking Centre offers visitors a ride through Viking-age York complete with a memorable smellscape created in the 1980s.<\/p>\n But the approach is evolving. \u201cJorvik was pioneering and bold but it was primarily experiential, for fun or to \u2018shock\u2019 visitors,\u201d Huber said. \u201cToday we can ground scent displays in chemical analysis, archival research and interdisciplinary collaboration. Smell in museums has shifted from theatrical atmosphere to research-based storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n The Scent of the Afterlife perfume has been used as an educational tool to \u201cexplore the ingredients, where they came from and what they reveal about trade connections in ancient Egypt\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n An animatronic figure of a Viking at the Jorvik Viking Centre in York. Photograph: Ian Dagnall\/Alamy<\/p>\n Liam Findlay of AromaPrime, which created Jorvik\u2019s smellscape, said the company used odours in different ways depending on what a museum was trying to communicate. For example, at Jorvik there are specific scents dotted around, such as the smell of fishing and leather works.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you walked through that Viking village back then, you wouldn\u2019t have necessarily smelled all these individual things very specifically, but it\u2019s about making sure that the visitors take that in because they\u2019ve got like five seconds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The team have also created scents that aimed for accuracy<\/a>, such as the breath of a T rex. \u201cI was informed by fossil evidence, and palaeontologists had their input,\u201d Findlay said.<\/p>\n Dr Cecilia Bembibre, of University College London\u2019s Institute for Sustainable Heritage<\/a>, said investigating smells could bring benefits for researchers, expanding interpretations and helping them \u201cexplore how materials were experienced, how environments were shaped by odour and how cultural practices developed in response to them\u201d.<\/p>\n Huber is about to start work on a new project which will involve reconstructing scents from different parts of the Roman empire, while from 26 March, Bembibre and colleagues will be presenting two smells as part of London Intersections<\/a>, an exhibition that marks UCL\u2019s bicentenary, at the UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment. Visitors will be able to get a whiff of St Paul\u2019s Cathedral library and the inside of the late Queen Elizabeth\u2019s Rover car from golden funnels attached to glass flasks.<\/p>\n The scent of St Paul\u2019s was created by perfumer Sarah McCartney, Bembibre said, adding this artistic interpretation, first made in 2018, evokes worn leather, tobacco, chocolatey vanilla and smooth wood.<\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth II driving a Rover across muddy turf in Windsor Great Park in 1963. Photograph: PA\/Alamy<\/p>\n The second is a more scientific reconstruction: the interior scent of the late queen\u2019s Rover P5B, first created in 2023<\/a> was developed \u201cthrough historical research, chemical analysis of the air from this particular vehicle, and interviews with classic car collectors\u201d, Bembibre said.<\/p>\n She previously was part of a research team working with art historians and perfumers to reconstruct the scent of a pomander, a fragrant accessory used to ward off illness. That smell, she said, was based \u201con a 16th-century \u2018Book of Secrets\u2019 recipe, combining ambergris, musk, civet, rose, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and sandalwood\u201d.<\/p>\n