Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-mwwwr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-23T06:08:58.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What's that smell? New directions for materials studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2020

Sarah Newstead  and
Tânia Manuel Casimiro
Sarah Newstead*
Affiliation:
Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site, East Coulee, Canada
Tânia Manuel Casimiro
Affiliation:
IHC/IAP, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ pitboss@atlascoalmine.ab.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

‘Smellscapes’ have become an increasingly popular concept in recent years. Here, the authors argue for a new direction in sensorial archaeology by focusing on the ‘smell of things’ or the potential information held in the odours of archaeological objects. They offer a case study using early modern earthenware ceramics from Portugal—renowned for the distinctive smell and taste imparted to their contents—to explore the possibility of developing standardised analytical techniques and vocabularies that would allow archaeologists to describe the odours associated with artefacts.

Keywords

PortugalEstremozceramicsodoursmellscapessensory archaeology

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 94 , Issue 377 , October 2020 , pp. 1314 - 1324
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Almagor, U. 1990. Odors and private language: observations on the phenomenology of scent. Human Studies 13: 253–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00142757CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartosiewicz, L. 2003. There's something rotten in the state…: bad smells in antiquity. European Journal of Archaeology 6: 175–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/146195710362004Google Scholar
Bradley, M. 2015. Introduction: smell and the ancient senses, in Bradley, M. (ed.) Smell and the ancient senses: 1–16. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315736051Google Scholar
Breslin, P. 2001. Human gustation and flavour. Flavour and Fragrance Journal 16: 439–56. https://doi.org/10.1002/ffj.1054CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casimiro, T.M. & Newstead, S.. 2019. Portuguese coarseware in North Atlantic trade (sixteenth to eighteenth century). American Ceramic Circle Journal 10: 59–81.Google Scholar
Casimiro, T.M., Henriques, J.P., Filipe, V. & Neves, D.. 2019. Pottery use and social inequality in mid-18th century Lisbon: an initial approach, in Matejkova, K. & Blazkova, G. (ed.) Europa post-medievalis: 1–18. Oxford: Archaeopress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvndv5gp.4Google Scholar
Classen, C., Howes, D. & Synnott, A.. 1994. Aroma: the cultural history of smell. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Corbin, A. 1986. The foul & the fragrant: odour and the social imagination. Cambridge: Berg.Google Scholar
Direcção Geral do Comércio e Industria. 1906. Boletim do trabalho industrial. Lisbon: Lisboa Imprensa Nacional.Google Scholar
Evershed, R., Berstan, R., Grew, F., Copley, M., Charmant, A., Barham, E., Mottram, H. & Brown, G.. 2004. Archaeology: formulation of a Roman cosmetic. Nature 432: 35–36. https://doi.org/10.1038/432035aCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gomes, M.V. & Casimiro, T.M.. 2018. Montemor-o-Novo pottery production: characteristics and distribution. Medieval Ceramics 37: 11–20.Google Scholar
Goodner, K. & Rouseff, R. (ed.). 2011. Practical analysis of flavor and fragrance materials. Hoboken (NJ): Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444343137CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leão, D. 2002. Descrição do Reino de Portugal (1610). Lisbon: Centro de História da Universidade de Lisboa.Google Scholar
Magalotti, L. 1695. Lettre sopra i buccheri, con l'aggiunta di letter contro l'ateismo, scientifiche ed erudite, e di relazioni varie. Florence: Felice le Monnier.Google Scholar
Malnic, B., Hirono, J., Sato, T. & Buck, L.. 1999. Combinatorial receptor codes for odors. Cell 96: 713–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8674(00)80581-4CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mahattanatawee, K. & Rouseff, R.. 2011. Gas chromatography/olfactometry (GC/O), in Goodner, K. & Rouseff, R. (ed.) Practical analysis of flavor and fragrance materials: 69–90. Hoboken (NJ): Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444343137.ch4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, J.M. 2013. The scent of status: prestige and perfume at the Bronze Age palace at Pylos, Greece, in Day, J. (ed.) Making senses of the past: towards a sensory archaeology: 243–65. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.Google Scholar
Newstead, S. & Casimiro, T.. 2018. Strange adventures in a city made of marble: exploring pottery production in Estremoz, Portugal. Medieval Ceramics 37: 37–45.Google Scholar
Pollard, M.A., Heron, C. & Armitage, R.. 2017. Archaeological chemistry (3rd edition). Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.Google Scholar
Sell, C. 2014. Chemistry and the sense of smell. Hoboken (NJ): Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118522981CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Serafim, J.C.G. 2011. Um Diálogo Epistolar. D: Vicente Nogueira e o Marquês de Niza. Porto: Edições Afrontamento.Google Scholar
Vasconcellos, C.M. 1921. Algumas Palavras a Respeito de Púcaros de Portugal. Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade.Google Scholar