[ATFE2] Re: intro and quest
Agreed there is lots of evidence that distillation was know about in Ancient times. What there is no evidence of, is that they used it to create essential oils. Those stills used for aromatic plants seemed to have been principally for the production of aromatic waters. The perfumes were all animal fat or vegetable oil extracts, and made using the crude resins. During distillation, doubtless they noticed the fine layer of oil, but if they went further to collect that as a separate item I can see no evidence of.
Destructive distillation was also used to make tars which are nothing like a distilled oil.
The biggest use of stills seems to have been to extract crude kerosene for oil lamps from the natural pools of crude oil that popped up all over the Middle East.
Martin
-- In ATFE2@yahoogroups.
>
> Hi All,
>
> I've done a bit of research on this . . . we are learning more and more as
> archaeologists continue to unearth history and it is all fascinating to
> unravel. A recent excavation in northwest Pakistan shows evidence that
> alcohol was distilled (rudimentary) as early as 500 BC, however the practice
> only became common somewhere between 150 BC and 350 AD (quite a spread of
> time and not accurately pinpointed yet). Most probably, alcohol
> distillation using an alembic was attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan around the
> 8th century. The Latin verb, stillare, is translated as both "to distill"
> and "to drip", so the search is still on to pinpoint exactly when the latter
> became the former. Joseph Lambert, in Traces of the Past, writes about a
> wooden Etruscan ship that sunk off the coast of Giglio ca. 800 BC made with
> tar extracted from pine wood. A sophisticated GC/MS has been used to
> identify ancient resins used to preserve a mummy, and a reconstruction of a
> mediviel apparatus for producing the tar depicts a vessel sunk in the ground
> to collect the tar with an upper vessel filled with the bark or wood being
> extracted with holes in the bottom to allow the tar to flow down into the
> collection vessel. The two are sealed so that a fire can be built in the
> pit surrounding the upper container to heat the wood to a point of
> extracting the tar. The analysis found crudely refined bitumen in the tar,
> which only could be produced by high heat. We've been enthralled by this
> article http://www.theregis
> archaeologists discovered the world's oldest perfume . . . 4,000 years old.
> This of course, is long before the purported time of Jesus. However, the
> technique of burying a long-necked jug filled with herbs, oil and water over
> embers for 12 hours would be closer to what we call 'infusion'.
>
> None of this, of course, is true distillation, which requires vaporization
> and condensation. These reports, however, perhaps are the beginnings of the
> long journey to "pure" distillation with steam or water that we attribute to
> having invented somewhere in the 11th Century.
>
> Be Well,
> Marcia Elston, Samara Botane/Nature Intelligence
> http://www.wingedse
> http://www.aromacon
> "The most commom way people give up their power is by thinking they don't
> have any": Alice Walker
>
>
>
>
>
> _____
>
> From: ATFE2@yahoogroups.
> Martin Watt
> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 4:51 AM
> To: ATFE2@yahoogroups.
> Subject: [ATFE2] Re: intro and quest
>
>
>
>
>
> Ditto on what Marge said. All this stuff about sacred essential oils is
> hogwash promoted by Young Living. It is highly unlikely that any essential
> oils were around during the several hundred years over which the Christian
> stories were written. Certainly infused oils and resins were used. Of course
> I am assuming when using the word "sacred" that you mean the Christian uses
> as there are numerous other religious practices that use "sacred" plants or
> their extracts.
>
> The only books that I would half trust are those written by botanists on the
> Ancient uses of plants, or perhaps Lisa Maniche book on Ancient Egyptian
> medicinal plants. At least she can read the glyphs on the monuments but
> cannot always put a plant to what the glyph says. This is always the problem
> when dealing with Ancient uses of plants. Often the dialect used to write
> about them is not fully understood by modern users of that language.
>
> Martin Watt
> http://www.aromamed <http://www.aromamed
> http://www.aromamed <http://www.aromamed
>
> --- In ATFE2@yahoogroups. <mailto:ATFE2%
> <lkschuster@
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > My name is Lori and I want to say thank you to the moderators for their
> warm welcome. It has been a while since I signed up so apologize for the
> late intro. I am trying to find a resource on sacred use of essential oils
> and am only finding aromatherapy novels and MLM garbage on the net. I would
> like an authoritative publication to use as a reference guide that addresses
> the oils used historically in world religions. Maybe Martin or someone else
> here could make a recommendation for me. Thank you.
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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