Oil That May Have Perfumed Kings Is Found

JERUSALEM — Near the site where the Dead Sea scrolls were found, archeologists have dug up a 2,000-year-old clay flask filled with an oil that might have been used to anoint the ancient Israelite kings.

Joseph Patrich of Hebrew University unveiled the flask Wednesday and said the honey-like oil may be the only surviving sample of a balsam oil used as an aromatic body cream or perfume and famous throughout the Roman Empire.

The oil matches a description of an expensive perfume mentioned by the Roman historian Pliny. Known as persimmon oil, it was distilled from a bush-like plant now believed to be extinct.

The 5-inch-tall flask contains about 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 ounces of the well-preserved reddish oil, which dates to the 1st Century BC. It was wrapped in palm leaves and carefully concealed.

The persimmon plant, which was different from the modern tree of the same name, grew only in the Dead Sea oasis of En Gedi and around Jericho. The ancient Israelites guarded the secret formula for making the oil and tried to destroy the orchards when Roman legions approached. Pliny’s writings indicate the Romans took over production, archeologists say.

The flask, buried in a 3-foot-deep pit in the caves at Qumran, 50 miles southeast of Jerusalem, was found last year by an archeology team that includes an American group of volunteers from the Institute of Judaic-Christian Research in Arlington, Tex.

Hebrew University chemist Zeev Aizenshtat said whatever fragrance the oil once had had evaporated in the desert cave, where summer temperatures hover over 104 degrees.