home / visit / room 9 





















 

Room 9 – Oil for beauty
Modern research has brought to light the principal active ingredients and characteristics of pure olive oil that explains the enormous fortune and the long tradition in the use of olive oil as a base for cosmetics throughout the Mediterranean civilization. From the dawn of history cosmetics have assumed a role that often exceeded the boundaries of medical practices and religious rituals. In front of a mirror, between vases of cosmetic oils and methods used for accentuating the beauty and perfection of the body, many symbols of beauty in the past have smiled; Aphrodite, Helen and Cleopatra.

- Zoom 136 Kb -

Pictures of an Egyptian lady and a Roman matron during their beauty routines, the confection and mixing of cosmetics by expert perfumers and above all a rich display of beautifully refined phials and vases in stone, ceramic, paste-glass and blown glass which underline the importance of the cosmetic production with the use of pure olive oil. The ancient perfumers had at their disposition many aromatic substances coming from every part of the then known world.
 

Vase for cosmetics
Vases for cosmetics made mainly from stone were used throughout the whole Egyptian civilisation. Religious rites, beauty treatments and the embalming of the dead needed the preparation of an enormous quantity of perfumed oil and ointments. Just the anointing of the face of the dead person needed up to 12 kinds of perfumes and cosmetics.

Material: diorite
Manufacturing technique: excavated from a complete block of rock
Origin: Egypt
Dated: Ancient Realm (2650-2190 B.C.)
Use: container of cosmetics