Conference Programme

Day 0: Monday 6 November 2023

Arrival and registration at Vila Lanna. Directions available here.

Day 1: Tuesday 7 November 2023

09:00. Introduction.

Part 1. People of Perfumes

09:15. Giuseppe Squillace (Calabria): Perfumers in the ancient world. Techne and professional secrets.

10:15. Laurence Totelin (Cardiff): ‘Plunge the jar in a well of cold water for 40 days’: Greek and Roman medical authors on perfume manufacture.

11:15. Break.

11:45. Roberto P. Dario (perfumer): From “Myrepsos” to modern “Noses”: knowledge, techniques and perfumery evolution.

12:45. Lunch at Vila Lanna.

Part 2. Tools and Techniques

13:45. Maria Rosaria Belgiorno (ISPC-CNR): “Eau de B.C.”, perfumed, alcoholic, intoxicating spring of human pleasure. (Mesopotamian and Aegean origins of Mediterranean distillation).

14:45. Bastien Rueff (École française d’Athènes): Was the firebox an incense burner? Preliminary Research on Minoan Perfumery.

15:15. Break.

15:30. Laura Prieto (FLU / IOCB Prague): The Influence of Modern Chemistry on the Development of Fine Fragrance.

16:00. Eduardo Escobar and Giacomo Montanari (Bologna): The “First” Perfume Recipe: Why Water Matters in Ancient Assyrian Perfumery.

17:00. Break.

17:15. Andrea Salayová (Masaryk): Castoreum and its uses through times: from perfumes to medicine.

17:45. Anya King (Southern Indiana): Innovation and Heritage in Early Islamicate Perfumery.

18:45. Rest.

19:30. Conference Dinner at Vila Lanna.

Day 2: Wednesday 8 November 2023

Part 3. Novel Methods for the Study of Perfumery’s History

09:00. Jay Silverstein (Nottingham Trent) and Robert Littman (Hawaii Manoa): Making the Mendesian: The Hellenistic Perfume Industry at Tell Timai.

10:00. Alice Capobianco (Genova): Ethnoarchaeology as a tool for understanding the production cycle of scented ointments in the Roman period.

10:30. Marie Theres Wittmann (Oxford): The Price of Smell: An Economic Approach to the Economy of Perfume in Pompeii.

11:00. Break + Interactive. Coughlin (FLU): Digital Approaches to Studying Perfume Recipes.

11:30. Béatrice Caseau (Sorbonne): Christian perfumes: incense and liturgical Myron, sources to understand how perfumes were created.

12:00. Klara Ravat (olfactory artist): Working creatively with raw materials: naturals vs. synthetics.

13:00. Lunch at Vila Lanna.

Part 4. Cultures of Scent

14:00. Miguel Matos (creator / author / perfumer): Against All Odds: On Becoming a Self-Taught Perfumer While Developing Personal Composing Methods and Techniques.

15:00. Barbara Huber (Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology): Arabian “Perfumes”.

16:00. Break.

16:20. (via ZOOM) Mohammadreza Jalali (independent scholar): The Persian Scents of Antiquity: A Cultural History of Ancient Iranian Perfumes.

16:50. (via ZOOM) Katarzyna Gromek (independent scholar): Introducing xiāng: the reconstruction of the olfactory landscape of early China in practice.

17:20. Break.

17:30. Heike Wilde (FLÚ): Sources for Perfumery and Scent in Ancient Egypt.

18:00. Demi Lizzann Williams (Worcester Polytechnic Institute): African Ritual Aromatics and Cosmetics. Exploring Cultural Significance and Global Impact.

18:30. Closing discussion.

18:40. Rest.

19:30. Depart for post-conference dinner in Prague.