Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 822 Ancient Egypt and Spices
Archaeology and tomb robbery seem to be digging the relics left by ancient people, but in fact they are two different things. The biggest difference between the two is that the former is for scientific and cultural purposes, while the latter is naked. money pursuit.

Also because of this difference, archaeologists often conduct rescue excavations when excavating those ancient ruins, and during the excavation process, they will try their best to preserve all the information in the ruins for future research.

But tomb robbers will definitely not do this. They will only choose to dig out as many valuable funerary objects as possible to exchange for money. In this process, they will not consider the archaeological value of those cultural relics at all.

Therefore, not only will they cause damage during excavation, but they will also sell those related cultural relics separately when they sell them afterwards, completely destroying the history contained in those cultural relics.

This is why whether it is the Golden Dawn, the Rose Cross or other organizations of this type are mostly opposed to the illegal trading of cultural relics, and will also devote a certain amount of energy to fighting those tomb robbers.

In addition, such organizations often have a better relationship with the local cultural relics protection department because of this rule, because the two parties have comprehensive and long-term cooperation.

The content found by the Rosicrucian this time came from a museum in Egypt. These cultural relics came from a certain construction site in Cairo. The archaeological department took over from the beginning, so the overall preservation is very complete.

Therefore, after gathering all the texts, Liang En found that the person who left these records was not only because of the priest, but also a high-ranking priest who controlled at least one temple.

The reason for this conclusion is that the discovery of a large pile of documents contains not only the use of spices, but also the warnings on the use of spices and the religious rituals corresponding to certain spices.

In fact, the manuscript found by the Rosicrucians before was just a simple list, only listing the raw materials needed for various spices.

In the other documents found, there are several very detailed configuration methods for some spices, including raw materials, proportions, order of addition, heating and soaking time, and required utensils, all the way to the weight of the finished product.

"I always feel that these ancient Egyptians are a bit too fanatical about spices." After learning that at least half of the documents unearthed in the tomb are related to spices, Nelson, who came to communicate this time, said subconsciously.

Although he knew that spices played a pivotal role in the history of mankind, for example, an important incentive in the Age of Discovery was to obtain spices, but it is a bit strange that a senior clergyman's funerary objects are all related to spices.

"The love for spices is likely to be a characteristic of the entire ancient Egyptian civilization." After seeing everyone's interest in this item, Liang En immediately realized that everyone in this world probably really didn't know this.

In fact, this should have been thought of long ago. After all, the ancient Egyptian language was deciphered relatively late in this world. It is normal for many people to not know these details about the lives of the ancient Egyptians.

So when he found that most of the people present showed expressions of interest, he simply gave an impromptu speech about the story between the ancient Egyptians and spices.

This can also be regarded as a relaxation for everyone. After all, although this kind of exchange meeting should be regarded as a more serious seminar in theory, it is not a bad thing to talk about some marginal knowledge to let everyone relax.

"Spice is an indispensable substance in the ancient Egyptian royal family and religious life. The Egyptians can be said to be the earliest perfumers in the world." Liang En pointed out the content of today's speech at the beginning.

"Modern archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a large ancient perfume workshop in Egypt, which proves that Egypt once had its own skills and needs for making perfume."

"At least from an archaeological point of view. It is also the first country in history to use perfume or sesame oil, and perfume (scented oil) was first used to bathe or spray on clothes."

"Then wouldn't earlier civilizations use perfume or sesame oil?" At this moment, a young man from the Pythagorean school asked. "For example, those ancient Two Rivers civilizations."

The Pythagorean school is also a mystical organization, mainly active in southern Europe. In the 18th century, they were just an organization produced by the ancient Greek school with the help of part of the ideas of the ancient Greek school of the same name.

Because they also abide by the rules of the mystic societies set by the big organizations like the Golden Dawn, they were naturally invited to participate in the exchange meeting this time.

Now it seems that this organization dared to use the Pythagorean school as its name, and there are two reasons. At least the question raised now is also the question that most people on the scene want to ask.

"You're right. Mesopotamia also has a long history, even longer than the ancient Egyptians." Liang En confirmed that the other party had finished asking questions, waved his hand to signal the other party to sit down, and then said.

"But at least from the current archaeological data, they did not use perfume or sesame oil, but were more inclined to burn those herbs or sacrifices."

The pursuit of those fragrant breaths may be a common pursuit of human beings, and it is not just an isolated case to associate fragrances with gods, but there are practices in every place.

After answering the questions, Liang En continued his speech after confirming that no one else wanted to ask questions, and the following content was related to the application of spices.

"The spices of the ancient Egyptians are clearly divided into two parts: life and death. In the part of life, they not only used fragrances mixed with many ingredients to smear the body, treat diseases, spray on clothes or add to bathing Water. It is also used in various religious ceremonies, from the physical to the spiritual level, which is the range of influence of spices."

"As for the dead, it is more important. In order to pursue eternal life, the ancient Egyptians chose to make mummies, which resulted in the frequent use of myrrh and other precious spices in the mummification of princes and nobles.

"Besides, among the various items buried with the "resurrection of the dead", archaeologists also found distillation equipment and a large number of spices, medicines or sesame oils in the bottles and jars of the remaining funerary objects paste--"

As the speech progressed, Liang En gave a popular speech on the relationship between the ancient Egyptians and spices by combining his previous life knowledge with the information he searched in this life. After an hour, he finally reached the last part.

"—Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt, spent huge sums of money to extract and make sesame oil from various aromatic plants. It is said that she often used 15 different scents of perfume and sesame oil to bathe, and the charming fragrance spread all over her body. "

"Caesar couldn't get enough of her in this scented fantasy, Marc Antony couldn't resist the magic of rose petals all over the floor, and Cleopatra also won the name of Cleopatra."

"Cleopatra, the famous "perfume spokesperson", made Egyptian spice products popular among the people with her strong ability to bring goods, but as the last Egyptian pharaoh died of suicide with a cobra, Egyptian perfume also fell into a slump .”

"After all, in the ancient times when productivity was lacking, perfume was always a luxury. And when the last pharaoh came to an end, the era of ancient Egyptian perfumes also ended."

(End of this chapter)