Beauty - history

Ancient ointment of pine, mastic and moringa oil found

Italian archaeologists have discovered lotion that is over 2,000 years old, left almost intact in the cosmetic case of an aristocratic Etruscan woman.

Solid, homogeneous and pale yellow, the ointment revealed fatty acids in high abundance.
This is almost unique in archaeology. Even though more than 2,000 years have passed, the oxidation of the organic material has not yet been completed. This is most likely due to the sealing of the alabaster unguentarium by the clayish earth, which prevented contact with oxygen,
After analyzing the material, the researchers established that the contents of the vessel consisted of a mixture of substances of lipids and resins.
The natural resins were the pine resin, exudated from Pinaceae, and the mastic resin, from Anacardiaceae trees. The lipid was a vegetable oil, most likely moringa oil, which was used by the Egyptians and Greeks to produce ointments and perfumes.  Find out more

 Cels is an Etruscan Earth Goddess Who makes the grain grow tall. She is the Etruscan forerunner of the Roman Grain Goddess Ceres. Her name means "Earth, Ground, or Soil", and comes from an Etruscan root kel- or kil-, "to grow". Related words in Etruscan are cele "large, tall, grown", celthi "augmentation, celebration" and celutule "grown, developed", giving Her name the rough meaning of "The Earth That Causes Growth". She was also known as Cel Ati, "Mother Earth", and She was worshipped at the town named after Her, Celthi, on the northern shores of Lake Trasimene, the modern Lake Trasimeno or Lake Perugia.

Ceres was the Earth goddess and goddess of corn. She carried the cornucopia, a horn full of vegetables and fruit. In this sense Ceres can be seen in the social response of becoming aware of organic agriculture to preserve the soil, the recent climate change, and is entering our collective consciousness as a need to take care of our natural and irreplaceable resources. Just as in biological agriculture, sinking the roots in the past, represents a leap towards a future of search of the natural taste and wholesome and the quality, of ecological responsibility and knowledge. An indicator for environmental or community activism.