Archaeologists Strike Perfume at Ancient Settlement in Israel

A team of archaeologists appears to have cracked the secret of perfume-makers from the ancient Jewish settlement of Ein Gedi, near the Dead Sea.

Archaeologists digging in the remains of the biblical village found a huge watchtower, which dates back to the fourth century, with a hidden facility for making the coveted balsam oil, used to anoint kings and later manufactured and sold by the village.

“It was considered one of the best perfumes in antiquity, in the early Roman period as well as in the Byzantine period,” Yair Hirschfeld of the Hebrew University told Israel Radio. “The installation we found was actually from the later period, so it was probably used [to manufacture] perfume, and not for anointing kings.”

The wealth of the village depended on the superiority of the balm, which was made from a species of persimmon tree found only along the shores of the Dead Sea and in nearby Jericho. The tree became extinct in the sixth century.

Hirschfeld said the facility included two pools, one outside the tower and a smaller one inside.

The second pool was “protected by the tower itself,” he said.

“Everything was under protection, it was a secret,” he said, adding, “We may assume that perfume at that period was made in a special formula, something like the Coca Cola formula. They wanted very much to keep it as a secret from the other producers of balsam oil in Jericho and other places around the Dead Sea.”

The University of Hartford was also involved in the discovery.