Aug 10, 2010

Boulder perfumer re-creates Egyptian fragrances for King Tut showBy Sari PadorrDenverPost.com

What do Cher, Steven Tyler and King Tut have in common?

Perfumer Dawn Spencer Hurwitz of Boulder has created perfumes for all of them. OK; not specifically King Tut, although, goodness knows, he could use a little freshening up after all that time in a tomb. She re-created the fragrances of ancient Egypt in conjunction with the ” Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs” exhibit at the Denver Art Museum for its gift shop.

Fragrances and oils were used by the ancients as medicine to help with sleep disorders, as well as for rituals, anointing statuary to bring them to life, says Hurwitz of life during the 18th Dynasty, around 1330 B.C., when Tut lived.

“The priests and priestesses had this sacred chamber, and there would be a seal to the room they would break every morning to open the aromatics closet,” Hurwitz says. “They would use the sacred oils and fragrances on the statuary throughout the day to take them through the passage of time. At night, they would reseal the chamber. It was a sacred honor to even touch these sacred unguents from the gods.”

Hurwitz researched those ancient scents through books at The British Museum in London, works from Egyptian archaeologists and some amateur Egyptologists.

The Denver Art Museum added the scents because they “thought it might be an interesting opportunity to explore extending visitors’ King Tut experience after they leave the museum and go about their lives,” says gift shop manager Greg McKay.

The top seller is Cardamom and Khyphi, which Hurwitz says is probably the most famous perfume that comes from ancient Egypt. It started as incense with ingredients such as juniper berry, myrrh gum and frankincense gum, she says. Add a few other items, mash it, boil it for 21 days and, voilu, you get perfume.

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