Campomarzio70 – First Perfume Gallery in the Heart of Rome.

We would like to inform all passionate fans of perfumery, particularly Italians and those who plan on visiting Rome, that the first perfume gallery was opened in the very heart of Rome. It was not envisaged as an exhibit area, but as a meeting point for perfumers and fans of fragrances—a cultural workshop.

Campomarzio70 is located on the Via Vittoria 52 and offers a selection of perfumes. The gallery is unique since it connects history, innovation, passion, tradition and culture. This sophisticated gallery-store was redesigned by Design for Architecture and various exhibitions and olfactive events will take place here. The new store unites perfumes, perfumers and fans, and perfumes will be promoted here through emotions, memories and as pieces of art.

Ancient treasures may point to Cleopatra's tomb

CBC News

Archeologists will begin excavating sites in Egypt this week in an attempt to uncover what is thought to be the tomb of Cleopatra, a queen of ancient Egypt, and her lover, Roman general Mark Antony.

The lovers committed suicide after their combined forces were defeated by Octavian in the naval battle of Actium more than two millennia ago.

Egypt's top archeologist on Sunday displayed what appears to be evidence that discovery of the lost tomb is at hand.

Zahi Hawass showed journalists 22 coins, 10 mummies, an alabaster head and a fragment of a mask with a cleft chin, objects found in the Temple of Taposiris Magna, 50 kilometres west of Alexandria.

The coins are inscribed with Cleopatra's name, archaeologists say.

Hawass also took journalists on a tour of the 2,000-year-old crumbling limestone temple near the Mediterranean Sea. Archaeologists hope to find the burial site of Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony as they probe the shafts and tunnels under the temple.

The Roman historian Plutarch said Caesar allowed the two to be buried together, but their tomb was never found.

"We did a survey by radar for one month and the radar showed three important anomalies," Hawass said, adding it's hoped one of the chambers could be the tomb of the doomed lovers.

"If you look at the face of Mark Antony, many believed he had this cleft on his chin and that's why I thought this could be Mark Antony," said Hawass as he showed journalists the mask.

But he admitted archaeologists "are not sure 100 per cent" and joked that the mask could depict Richard Burton, the actor who played the Roman general in the 1963 movie Cleopatra,
co-starring Elizabeth Taylor.




Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, displays part of a mask archaeologists believe may have been that of Mark Antony at the Temple of Taposiris Magna.Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, displays part of a mask archaeologists believe may have been that of Mark Antony at the Temple of Taposiris Magna. (Amr Nabil/Associated Press)



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BBC
TIMESONLINE


Cleopatra: Cosmetiques, Perfumes & Poisons At the time Cleopatra VII reigned in Egypt, perfume making in Egypt was already a 3,000 year-old art. Her famous baths and workshop were allowed to flourish under the protection of Julius Ceaser and later by Mark Anthony. She was one of the wealthiest rulers of the time and infamous in her use of scent. According to legend, she would drift down the Nile on a barge that was enveloped in a cloud of perfume, her body glistening with rare and exotic oils, and the sails of her vessel were permeated with the seductive scents of rose, patchouli, and other aphrodisiacs. The materials most often used for perfume were: rose (especially favored by the Romans), lotus blossom, lily, honey, sweet flag, camel grass (lemongrass), lavender, saffron, cassia, nard (spikenard), cinnamon, myrtle, laurel, marjoram, costus root, ginger root, cardamom, labdanum, rosewood, cyperus, wormwood, fenugreek, balsam, galbanum, opoponax, styrax, orris root, myrrh, frankincense. Perfumes were based in oil or a combination of oil, honey and raisins. All of these ingredients are available to us today. Unguents are made by combining perfumed oil in a natural wax base. In the days of ancient Egypt, unguents were used to both perfume and protect the skin from the harsh sun and dry heat. One of the Cleopatra's beauty secrets was to bathe in scented milk. Natural milk contains proteins and lactic acid (which is itself an alpha hydroxy acid). These help soften and restore suppleness to the skin. After Anthony's demise and Roman intrigue and her suicide, just 30 years before the birth of Christ, the perfume trade was lost to the Egyptians. The Romans embraced scent and were noted for their excesses, and once in control of the trade routes they funneled the lucrative endeavor to Rome

http://www.ireneparfums.com/1c-facts_2a.html

Pollen, plant traces bolster case for Shroud of Turin.

Shroud of Turin.

CNN News

June 15, 1999

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Plant imprints and pollen found on the Shroud of Turin support the premise that it originated in the Holy Land, two Israeli scientists say.

"In the light of our findings, it is highly probable that the shroud did in fact come from this part of the world,"

said Avinoam Danin, a botany professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The botanists, whose findings were reported in Tuesday's Haaretz newspaper, did not address the issue of the age of the linen cloth, believed by many to be the burial cloth in which Jesus was wrapped after his crucifixion.

The shroud was brought to France by a 14th-century crusader and has been enshrined since 1578 in a cathedral in Turin, Italy. About 13 feet long and 3 feet wide, it bears the faint image of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Jesus.

In 1988, scientists tested scraps of the shroud with Vatican approval and concluded it dated back to between 1260 and 1390. They couldn't explain how the image was made, and some experts have said contamination might have affected the carbon-14 dating tests. Danin and his colleague Uri Baruch refused to discuss the authenticity of the shroud itself.

The shroud also includes the images of some plants, and Danin identified one as the bean caper (Zygophyllum dumosum), which he said grows only in Israel, Jordan and Egypt's Sinai desert.

Cistus Incanus

Two other plants whose images were found on the shroud were the Rock Rose (Cistus creticus) which grows throughout the Middle East; and the Goundelia tournefortii tumbleweed, believed by some Christians to be the material of the crown of thorns.

Traces of pollen grains taken from the shroud are from plants found in Israel and neighboring countries, including the bean caper and the tumbleweed appearing on the shroud, said Baruch, a pollen specialist at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The flowers "could have been picked up fresh in the fields.

A few of the species could be found in the markets of Jerusalem in the spring," Danin said. The shroud also contains the imprint of a coin minted in the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who ruled at the time of the crucifixion.

The Roman Catholic Church has never claimed the cloth as a holy relic, but the cloth has attracted pilgrims to Turin since the Middle Ages. Pope John Paul II, who knelt in silent prayer before the cloth last year, urged scientists to do more testing of the linen.

The shroud went on display in a bulletproof case for several weeks last year and will go on view next in 2000, for Holy Year celebrations