Page 28 - aruba-today-20190514

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 14 May 2019
Aztec allies ritually

disfigured captured

Spaniards' remains

MEXICO CITY (AP) — New male was dismembered
research suggests an Az- and burned to replicate
tec-allied town ceremoni- the mythical fates of Aztec-
ally disfigured the bodies of era gods, according to one
captive Spaniards during myth known as "El Quinto
one of the worst defeats Sol," or Fifth Sun.
in the Spanish Conquest The convoy was comprised
of 1519-21, experts said of people sent from Cuba
Wednesday. in a second expedition a
The heads of the cap- year after Hernan Cortes'
tive Spanish women were initial landing in 1519 and
strung up on skull racks they were heading to the
alongside those of men. Aztec capital with supplies
An analysis of the bones and the conquerors' pos-
revealed the women were sessions. Cortes had been In this photo taken on Saturday, April 4, 2019, Yiannoula Lazarou lights a fire underneath a rep-
pregnant, and in pre-His- forced to leave the con- lica of a 5th millennium B.C. perfume distiller that was discovered in the ancient Mesopotamian
settlement of Tepe Gawra near modern-day Mosul, Iraq, at an ancient perfume theme park and
panic practice that may voy on its own while trying museum in Korakou, Cyprus.
have qualified them as to rescue his troops from Associated Press
"warriors." Another sacrifi- an uprising in what is now
cial offering included one Mexico City. More than a scent: Cyprus
woman's body that was Members of the captured
cut in half near the remains convoy were held prisoner
of a dsimembered child of in door-less cells, where promoting its perfume past
3 or 4. they were fed over six
The National Institute of months, the experts said.
Anthropology and History Little by little, the town
said the offerings were ex- sacrificed and apparently By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS new perfume theme park It was a long journey to
cavated at the Zultepec- ate the horses, men and Associated Press nestled in Cyprus' verdant perfume's modern spiritual
Tecoaque site just east of women. But pigs brought KORAKOU, Cyprus (AP) — Solea valley, which allows home in France.
Mexico City. Zultepec was by the Spaniards for food Before Cyprus gained fame visitors to recreate those For thousands of years,
an Aztec-allied town that in were apparently viewed as the mythical birthplace ancient perfumes in the tra- Cypriots — from the high-
1520 captured a convoy of with such suspicion that of the goddess of love Aph- ditional way, with replicas est echelons of nobility to
about 15 male Spaniards, they were killed whole and rodite nearly three millen- of the ancient clay distillers the average commoner
50 women and 10 children, left uneaten. In contrast, nia ago, Cyprus was known extracting the scents from — produced and used per-
45 foot soldiers who in- the skeletons of the cap- around the Mediterranean the locally grown herbs fumes. The popularity of
cluded Cubans of African tured Europeans were torn for its perfumes, scents that over an open fire. those fragrances carried
and indigenous descent, apart and bore cut marks the mighty queens of Egypt Belgiorno says evidence to through the ancient Egyp-
and about 350 allies from indicating the meat was coveted. the popularity of Cyprus' tians to the Templars, me-
indigenous groups in what removed from the bones. What appears to have dis- fragrances is found in a dieval Venetian merchants
is now Mexico. All were ap- The town then took on the tinguished the Cypriot fra- reference to a Cypriot per- and up to the present.
parently sacrificed over the name Tecoaque, which grances was the quality of fume merchant inscribed Early on in the last century,
space of months. means "the place where the rich olive oil in which on 4,000 year-old tablets famed French perfumer
But the dismemberments they ate them" in Nahuatl, the ancient perfumers cap- found in the ancient Greek Francois Coty created the
were not random acts of the Aztec language. tured the musky scent of in- city of Thebes. That refer- perfume Chypre — French
bloodthirstiness or revenge. When Cortes learned what digenous oak moss, citrusy ence pre-dates the emer- for Cyprus — which is one
Rather, the experts said, happened to his followers, bergamot and labdanum gence of the deity Aphro- of the seven main perfume
the inhabitants of Zultepec he sent troops there on a or rockrose. This was done dite, meaning Cyprus was groups and the only one
were re-creating or imitat- punitive expedition. The through a distillation pro- famous for its perfumes that bears the name of a
ing mythological scenes inhabitants tried to hide all cess using clay vases of ex- before it gave birth to the place.
with the bodies. remains of the Spaniards acting dimensions. ancients' love goddess. The Italian Research Na-
"The inhabitants of Zulte- by tossing them in shallow "Perfume is the symbol of The origins of perfume- tional Council, along with
pec were re-creating cre- wells and abandoned the life," said Maria Rosaria Bel- making are believed to Belgiorno, has teamed up
ation myths," archaeologist town. giorno, a retired professor date back to 5,000 B.C. with the Lazarou family that
Enrique Martínez said. Cortes went on to conquer with Italy's National Council in ancient Mesopotamia, runs a successful herbal
For example, one Spanish the Aztec capital in 1521.q for Research whose own where archaeological digs business to build the park
archaeological digs on the in the early 20th century which rests on a parcel of
east Mediterranean island near the city of Mosul in the family's farmland near
15 years ago unearthed modern-day Iraq turned up the village of Korakou.
the oldest perfumery of the the first evidence of such The park puts on display a
Bronze Age. activity. range of working replicas
Perfumes hide the smell of From there, perfume-mak- including those from the
the dead and of decay. ing migrated to Anatolia earliest known perfumery
They, according to Belgior- and then to the Mediter- in the Mesopotamian Tepe
no, have a "spiritual con- ranean and beyond, with Gawra settlement, from
nection" to life. perfumeries discovered in the Minoan era on Crete —
And that connection is one such diverse places as Sar- of Minotaur fame — and of
of the motivations behind a dinia and Slovakia. course from Cyprus.q