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Despite their great efforts, the cities of the Roman Empire did not smell good and well, it makes sense: they lived in conditions of high fecal contamination and also used feces as medicine. Of course, to Caesar what belongs to Caesar: they had bottles to store their ointments and oils that, like the best current perfumes, promised a lot. Without going any further, the two bottles you see above these lines date from the 1st century AD, are from the Roman Empire and belong to the MET collection.

Because from then on they knew that the (good) smell, coming from anointing oneself after bathing in hot springs, from incense from temples or from burials, was something more: it could be a language of status, identity and power. So for those smells they needed a container at their height that would turn the task of perfuming themselves into almost a ritual. For example, a dove.

Dove-shaped jars. Roman unguentories were, in a nutshell, something like today's ampoules: small ceramic or glass containers where they stored oils, commercial products, or substances for funeral practices. Blown glass arrived in the 1st century BC. and 200 years later, the Romans were true virtuosos of glass manufacturing in both quality and quantity: according to the Penn Museum, they manufactured up to 100 million vessels a year.

These curious zoomorphic specimens in the shape of a bird and the size of which fit in the palm of the hand became so popular that they constitute a subcategory in themselves within their unguentary and are frequently found in sites. The method of use was practically identical to a vial: you have to break that small neck to access the contents inside. In this case, literally breaking the bird's neck. In addition to their aesthetic value, they served their purpose when storing valuable ointments: it protected the contents from excessive exposure to oxygen and helped to dose the amount poured.

Why it is important. Converting ointment bottles into something more sophisticated in the shape of a bird constitutes one of the first and most striking cases of packaging and user experience (imagine that unboxing of an influencer of the time). Having a glass bottle and also with this type of shape was an indicator of status, as witnessed by the art of that period, where we see men and women perfumed after a visit to the hot springs.

On the other hand, leaving aside the shape, these bottles are the vestiges of the imperial commercial network: spices from India, resins from Arabia and locally grown flowers were used to make perfumes and ointments. If they also go to the laboratory, they constitute a valuable source of chemical data on Roman civilization and its customs. Without going any further, a laboratory analysis allowed the identification of a primitive patchouli in a sample in Carmona (Seville).

Context. Among these zoomorphic glasses, the dove was the star: archaeological evidence suggests that the dove was one of the first birds domesticated by humans, so people learned its habits and characteristics and used it for messaging. On the spiritual level, they introduced it into their religious rituals and mythology. Thus, the dove was the sacred animal of Venus and she was often represented in statues with a dove perched on her hand or on her head.

However, this relationship is much older: already in the Bronze Age, in Sumerian Mesopotamia, the association between doves and the mother goddess is recorded. Storing perfume in a container in the shape of your sacred animal is a fully conscious and coherent act.

Yes, but. Many of these readings of the dove-shaped glass bottles are hypotheses based on what we know about the Romans, but we do not know for sure: these perfumes could well be for everyday use or for funeral rituals. Likewise, they were not exclusive objects of the wealthiest classes: the simplest ointments were within the reach of the popular classes and their shapes were refined over time. In short, the dove could have different meanings depending on who had it and what for.

Cover | MET