The Past Stinked! But What Did It REALLY Smell Like?

Bright Side

Back in the day, cities had this distinct aroma that you wouldn't exactly call pleasant. Picture a mix of horse manure from all the carriages, the unmistakable scent of coal burning, and open sewers doing their thing – it was a symphony of not-so-great smells. If we go even further in the past, the picture doesn't change for the better. If you had a time machine, you might wanna pack some extra air fresheners before venturing into the past urban landscape. Would you still like to travel in the past if you had a chance? Let us know in the comments below!

Transcript

00:00Imagine you're an archaeologist on vacation in Spain.

00:04Your days are packed with hot sunshine, delicious peaches, and rest.

00:09That is, until your next-door neighbors decide they want to build a swimming pool in their backyard.

00:15One morning, you wake up with people chatting too loudly.

00:18They sound excited about something, so you go to check what it's all about.

00:23It turns out your vacation neighbors dug a hole deep enough to find a Roman ruin

00:28that looked like the final resting place of ancient Romans.

00:33Your inner archaeologists forget you're on vacation and head straight to work.

00:38And believe me, you've found gold.

00:41Well, not literally, but something like that.

00:44Inside the Roman ruin, there was a beautiful quartz vessel.

00:48Archaeologists before you have found similar artifacts.

00:51What nobody has ever found before was a vessel with perfume inside of it.

00:56So far, scientists never had clear proof of what the ancient past smelled like.

01:02We know that lemon and rose are perfume notes that are really popular today.

01:06But what did our ancestors like to use to make themselves smell better?

01:11This shocking discovery you happened upon showed that ancient Romans used patchouli as perfume.

01:18You know, that musky plant that people either love or extremely dislike?

01:22Yeah, that's the one.

01:23These Romans were probably very wealthy people, since patchouli was only found in India around that time.

01:31And quartz vessels were considered a luxurious piece of decor.

01:35We're talking about the 1st century CE.

01:37Yup, a long, long time ago.

01:40The period of history when the Roman Empire expanded a lot.

01:44And that Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

01:48This might not have happened to you in real life, but a similar story happened to archaeologist Juan Manuel Román.

01:56Residents from a little town called Carmona called him to investigate once they hit a Roman antiquity while digging to build a pool.

02:05Researchers already knew that Romans were big perfume enthusiasts.

02:09They were the first civilization to bring perfume to the liquid form we see today.

02:13Before them, records show that the Egyptian civilization also used scent quite a bit.

02:19But they used it differently.

02:21For ancient Egyptians, the scent came in incense form.

02:25They would burn myrrh, frankincense, and other herbs during religious ceremonies.

02:30Then, after the ruling class started to democratize this practice to the population, things started to change.

02:36Commoners would use essential oils to perfume their baths, doing this out of sheer pleasure.

02:43You remember Cleopatra, right?

02:46The beautiful and powerful queen of Egypt?

02:48There's a Shakespearean passage that says she arrived to greet Mark Antony, her future husband, in a boat with perfumed sails.

02:57As you can imagine, essential oils were really expensive back then.

03:01Well, they are still pretty expensive nowadays.

03:04But in 50 BCE, they were a rare commodity.

03:08So, for someone to soak their sails in them, that someone might as well be Cleopatra.

03:14Fun fact here.

03:16Essential oils are, quite literally, the essence of plants, herbs, and flowers.

03:21They are highly concentrated, and they are obtained through a thorough distillation process.

03:26They are expensive because to make a few ounces of oil, you need pounds of the plants, herbs, or flowers you're distilling.

03:33Now, many of us can count and rely on the five senses throughout our lives.

03:38And even if we tend to think that sight is one of the most important senses, the sense of smell holds quite a bit of surprise.

03:46Have you ever walked by someone, smelled their perfume, and was completely transported in time?

03:53Maybe to your grandma's house or to the memory of an ex?

03:56Smell has the power to make us time travel emotionally.

04:00This is called olfactory bonding.

04:03You see, other kinds of sensory information, like sight, touch, and hearing, have to pass through the thalamus before they reach our cerebrum.

04:11But odor goes directly from our nose to our limbic system, which is part of our brain connected to emotion, creativity, and memory.

04:19In terms of evolution, the sense of smell was really important for hunter-gatherers to find food to eat, especially fruits.

04:27Imagine you're a cave person walking by a mango tree.

04:31If their smell is taking up the whole block of forest, then you know it's time to eat it.

04:36You heard the phrase, the nose knows, right?

04:39Well, that's what it's all about.

04:41Now, how about we follow the scent down history lane and see how different periods might have smelled like, shall we?

04:50We've discovered that ancient Rome smelled like patchouli, or at least a part of it did.

04:55But if we fast forward in time and land in the early years of New York City, the odor changes completely.

05:03Around the 18th century came the so-called Industrial Revolution.

05:06That's when humans became experts at building machines that automated a lot of our work for us.

05:12Not having to rely solely on agriculture, humanity started to grow more and more.

05:18So cities also grew more and more.

05:21And guess what?

05:22They didn't smell too nice.

05:24Accounts of early days New York City said that the town was like an open-air dumpster left baking in the sun for too long.

05:31People threw their garbage on the streets, and it didn't help that the town didn't have a proper sewage system.

05:38It's safe to say that New York City stank.

05:41But people back then didn't have aroma diffusers or essential oil sprays.

05:46They just had to deal with it.

05:48It's easy to understand why, when perfume came along, people were excited to hide the horrendous smell of the town.

05:55But that's not all.

05:57Bad odors started to become associated with diseases.

06:00In France, scientists and doctors were extremely worried that people would get sick just by inhaling the bad-smelling air in cities.

06:09So, a belief started to circle around that perfume was a way to protect people from the city's bad odors.

06:16Still, only rich folks could afford perfume.

06:19As far as the story goes, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, every single public place had to be scented with perfume.

06:26Because the Queen couldn't tolerate bad smells.

06:30Initially, most perfumes were done in a natural way, mixing essential oils with a carrier liquid.

06:37One of the first perfumes ever to be made was by an Italian barber in the German city of Cologne.

06:44And yes, that's why it's called an Eau de Cologne, until this day.

06:49By the way, this guy's fragrance, which translates to admirable water,

06:53was used by the great Napoleon and is the world's continuously produced fragrance.

06:59As time passed and processes evolved, the brand Chanel came up with a new mode.

07:05They were the first brand ever to use synthetic material to make their world-famous fragrance, Chanel No. 5.

07:13Today, fragrance companies are responsible for a multi-million dollar industry.

07:17It remains a luxurious good since its origins in Roman times have shown us.

07:23But each perfume brand and type comes with its own special promise.

07:28You see, certain perfumes can make you feel more empowered,

07:31while others can prep you for a night of romance with your beloved.

07:35Sure, there is some marketing involved in this,

07:38but the basis for these assumptions is scientific, and it's called aromatherapy.

07:43The emotional effects of aromas in our bodies have to do with that science we explained earlier, remember?

07:50The smell goes directly into our limbic system, which is part of our brain that dictates our emotions.

07:56And we can trace aromatherapy practices all the way back to ancient times.

08:02Perhaps even more than today, the scent was used for medicinal use.

08:06Perfumes and essential oils were kept in jeweled rings and necklaces

08:10that the bearer could easily bring to the nose whenever they felt like it.

08:14Today, some branded perfumes have dived into the aromatherapy side of fragrance-making

08:19and have created scents, they say, help to make you happier and more energized.

08:25If you've ever noticed a difference in your mood by smelling roses or even using perfume,

08:31do tell us all about it.

08:32We're all about that olfactory bonding, after all.

08:35Heh heh.

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