(ORDO NEWS) — Modern people already know quite a lot about the life of their ancestors in different periods.
However, until now, even the clearest images of the life of ancient people remained without a very important detail smells, we still do not know what aromas and stench surrounded a person in the past. But German scientists have proposed ways to fix this.
Smell has always been an integral part of human life, but the smells of the past are still a mystery to modern people. The thing is that most of the aromas consist of organic substances that quickly decompose, so archaeologists cannot determine how certain objects smelled thousands of years ago.
But now researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Humankind (Germany) have proposed ways in which it will be possible to restore the smells of the distant past.
Why do we need to know what the past smells like
If scientists can restore smells from the past, then we will discover more information about the lives of our ancestors: how the rituals were carried out (for example, with what incense), did they have perfumes, how did the kitchen smell, did the ancient people follow the rules of hygiene, in the end ends.
“Smell is a powerful and underestimated aspect of the human experience,” says Professor Nicole Boivin, lead author of the study. something from our past, for example.
Researchers believe that they can restore the smells that prevailed in certain situations in the past with the help of some scientific methods.
In particular, they can be helped by metabolomics a science that studies the totality of small molecules in an organism, organ, tissue or cell, which can tell about life processes in certain organisms.
Also, specialists can use the methods of proteomics the field of molecular biology dedicated to the identification and quantitative analysis of proteins.
Together with the study of ancient texts, images and broader archaeological and environmental records, researchers will be able to discover previously unknown aspects of the life of ancient people, including what smells surrounded them.
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