MARTIN LEVEY Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania
OUR knowledge of the history of Babylonian chemis- Other medicaments consist of a 'plant of sickness,' try is derived from two main categories of evidence, oil of ironwood (?), and a concoction made by boiling the first being the artifacts of the ancient civiliza- a sihhi plant with beryl." (5). In a Sumerian text of the third millenium B.C. the tions unearthed in this region, and the second being literature of this period which has been recovered. essential oils and aqueous extracts containing these oils The latter includes the study of the level of Egyptian are employed in prescriptions in this oldest known science and that of other districts which were in contact medical document of Babylonia. Thus the Sumerian with Babylonian learning and culture. Most impor- tablet implies that these people were acquainted with tant of the less direct avenues of approach to the study various processes of extraction of oils from botanicals of ancient Babylonian chemistry is the manner of 1000 years before the Akkadian tablets discussed in transmission of the science and its status in the later this paper (6). Greek and Moslem civilizations. A vast quantity of perfume products was required Babylonian chemistry of the second millenium was for religious purposes in the form of essential oils, an applied science. I t had been developed on an waters of perfume, and salves. Herodotus relates empirical basis, through the countless experiments and that 1000 talents of incense were consumed annually practices of daily living, from prehistoric times. At in the Babylonian Temple of Be1 (7). The ritual of the same time, nevertheless, this chemical branch of the Hebrews also made use of incense, holy anointing technology had a number of genuinely scientific oil, and other perfume products as described in the elements implicit in its techniques and procedures. Old Testament (8). The latest discovery to shed more light on the HISTORICAL SOURCES historv of Babvlonian chemistrv is a erouu of tablets products. Until now our knowledge of the history of ancient describing the" manufacture bf chemistry in the written sources has come primarily Included in these, all written in Akkadian cuneiform, from the glass-making texts of the seventeenth are two texts with recipes for perfume preparations and ( 1 ) and seventh ( 2 ) centuries B.C. The former text five texts dealing with the technological aspects of is of a cryptic nature so that its complete understand- perfumery. One of the latter texts is said to have heing will have to await our fuller acquaintance with longed to the library of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1089 the technology of the period. The latter texts have B.c.); the remaining tablets, from the inscription on yielded information of a more substantial nature one and their similarity in style and content, all date including the various chemicals utilized in glass making from the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I (1256-1209 B.c.). and glazes, the fuel used, and clues for the construc- Their chemical contents will be discussed in greater detail later. tion of high-temperature furnaces. One of the most important chemical industries in PERFUMERY APPARATUS Babylonia was the preparation of aromatic substances. These products had four main uses reaching into the Apparatus used by Babylonian perfumers, as menlives of almost all the people in the Near East: in tioned in the texts under discussion, was completely medicines, in ritual services, in magical practices, of the kitchen variety. Included were various sizes and in cosmetics (3). In tablets of the nineteenth and shapes of pots made of clay, glass, or metal, a century B.C. there are lists of therapeutic spices (4). measuring cup (equal to 1 qa, or 0.41 liters), flasks, Although the Babylonians were ignorant of antisepsis, stirrers, bowls, sieves, and a furnace. One piece was they did nevertheless employ the essential oils for in- probably a suhlimatory apparatus resembling that fections. Waterman, in his study of the Assyrian utilized hy the later alchemists. It may he supposed period, came to the conclusion that ". . .the use of to have consisted of a pot with a wide lip having a oils for anointing against the wind, of lotions for fever, trough so as to catch the sublimed liquid dripping of external applications for infection, and sore throat, down from the lid. Strong evidence for the use of and bathing of hands and feet with a distillation of this apparatus is also to he found in works of the later lidrnsha plant, and cassia, aim a t a scientific procedure. Alexandrian chemists. The liquid was then soaked with a cloth and the operation continually repeated. ' Presented before the Division of History of Chemistry at up Extensive use of cookroom apparatus is not very surpristhe 124th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Chicago, ing since two women, by name Tappati-Belatekallim, September, 1953. 31'3
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the Perfumeress, and (-)n~nu, the Perfumeress, are cited in their respective texts. The early history of chemistry is thus indebted to these second-millenium women as well as to their feminine successors in the early centuries of the Christian Era in the persons of Mary the Jewess, Paphnutia the Virgin, Cleopatra the Alchemist, and Theoseheia, the sister of Zosimos. The methods used for the winning of perfume in the Babylonian literature are reflected, almost in their entirety, in a ninth century a.n. work on perfume chemistry by al-Kindi (9). The one important exception is that by al-Kindi's time distillation was in widespread use and so it occupies a prominent position in his hook. In the Babylonian texts there are descriptions of extractions using oil, water, or both together as vehicles and the possible use of sublimation as a form of distillation. In the following passage, a description of the use of expression followed by extraction with oil is given as a procedural step in the manufacture of perfume. On the fourth time of pouring together, you heat fresh good qa calwell water and pour it inta a _himupot; then you pour amus, ' / a qa myrrh, expressed and filtered, on the heated water in the _himu pot. The mixture stands overnight and is steeped. In the morning, you filter the water and aromatic, using a cloth sieve, into another @xu pot. Remove the dregs. Then you measure 3 qa calamus, 3 qa expressed, filtered myrrh, and 40 qa water which had been overnight with the ealamus and myrrh and do as wm done earlier with the calamue and myrrh. Light the fir% When the water necessary for the mixture is heated, pour in the oil and stir. When the oil, water, and aromatic penetrate one another, you need not shake it further. Cut down the fire under the diqmu pot and let it stand for two or three days.. (10).
..
It is interesting that in this procedure the water of perfume of the first steeping process is used for the second batch in the following steeping step. In Babylonia the usual technique in the derivation of the perfumes from plant materials consisted of approximately twenty tedious and painstaking steps, each comprised of a number of subsidiary operations. As has already been mentioned, the Babylonian perfume texts give strong evidence that the process of sublimation was utilized. That the evidence is incomplete is a result both of lacunae in the texts and of their highly abbreviated character. Campbell Thompson has shown that sublimation was practiced in Bahylonia, particularly in metallurgical processes. It would be difficult to believe that the Babylonians, who were acute observers, were not aware of the so-called heavier oxide of zinc, and the pompholyx, or lighter oxide adhering to the upper part of the furnace (11). There is also philological evidence that the "sublimate of the red" from cinnabar, as well as sal-ammoniac, were known as sublimates (12). The latter was prepared from the soot of dung fires, in the same way that it was obtained in later times by the Moslems and Indians. The evidence for sublimation is given in the following quotation from one of the perfume texts: On the tenth pouring together, remove the oil, and heat the
water gently. Wash a hariu pot and pour into it 2 beakers of balsam oondeusatte and jet it stand all day. I n the evening place the water of the hariu pot and 13 qs of balsam in a howl and let stand overnight. ~ h d l the e 6re and let the aromatic get hot. Pour oil into the diqaru pot, stir, and cover. Do not remove the organic material. The lire will become intense and the ail will throw up foam. The betanu [trough in the lip] of the diqam pot you will repeatedly wipe up with a handcloth. You stir and cover and it remains four days in its diqaru pot. The next morning you will kindle a gentle fire (IS).
The balsam condensate mentioned is the product derived from the previous operation and serves as a vehicle for the 13 qa of (comminuted) balsam to which more oil is later added. This resembles the medieval process of cohobatiou. In present-day distillation the aqueous layer in the receiver is pumped back into the retort automatically since it contains not only dissolved volatile oil but also oil in emulsified and suspended forms, the quantity depending on solubility and specific gravity of the various oil constituents. The technical requirements of suhlimation as apparently used by the Babylonians necessitated considerable experience. Much more difficult than steam distillation or the combined steam and water method, hydrodistillation of essential oils, which resembles the sublimation method more closely and is in use in some parts of the world today, is a very complex procedure requiring much knowledge of its variations (14). The yields of the Babylonian chemists must certainly have been very low with many impurities present, such as decomposition products in the nonvolatile plant constituents (methyl alcohol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, low fatty acids, nitrogenous compounds, phenols, e t ~ (15) . and polymerized aldehydes. In addition, the yield was lowered by partial hydrolysis of valuable esters such as linalyl acetate. The perfume texts also describe the preparation of perfume water by means of forty extractions of balsam extract with water. This is strongly reminiscent of the many different types of repetitive operations performed by the Alexandrian and Arabic alchemists. For the Babylonian chemist, repetition of chemical operations was absolutely essential for a greater yield. But for later Greek and Arabic workers, with distillation in common usage, there was much less need of repetition. However, under the strong hand of tradition originating in Babylonia the alchemists retained the old procedure in spite of later technical advances. Two of the tablets are concerned with perfume recipes. These detail the amounts of the constituents making up the final product. Thisis of interest since in the medical and pharmacological Sumerian and Akkadian texts mention is rarely made of the amounts of simples used in prescriptions. This was done to maintain the secrecy of the medical guild for the protection of its members. Regarding the chemical documents, in spite of the fact that quantitative measures are given, not very much is divulged owing to the di5culty of the various chemical operations. The newlv described second-milleuium texts on perfume chemistry giving the preparation of perfumes,
JULY. 1954 perfume water, and aromatic salve will prove of the greatest importance to our knowledge of the history of ancient chemistry. I n addition to being the oldest texts giving such full elaboration of chemical methods, they are objective, descriptive directions without the least bit of magical, mystic or cryptic influence. It is true that Babylonian chemistiy as described in the texts is hut technological in scope. However, it mas Babylonian applied chemistry which built up the strong base of empirical knowledge upon which later chemists were to erect the foundations of our present chemical science.
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.41m printed separately in Rome, 1950. Pagination in later notes refers to the latter. (4) G o u c n ~ nIT, , 249; also 11, 258, 358. (5) WATERMIIN, L., "Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire," Part IV, 35. Cj. DDYSON, G. M., "Physiological aspects of the essential oils," Perfumery and Essential Ozl Record, Special, No. 21,287 (1930). (6) LEVEY,M., AND S. N. KRAMER, translation and discussion of the oldest h o w n medical text, in Sumerian, now in the University of Pennsylvania Museum. To be published shortly, in part in Sci. American. (7) HERODOTUS, 5 183. (8) See, e. g., Exodus 30: 23-4; I1 Chron. 16: 14; Exodus 30: 265-78.
1-7. (9) GnaaE~s,K., Editor and Translator, "Kit& KKimiy5' Al'-Itr
LITERATURE CITED AND R. CAMPBELL THOMPSON, "A middleBabylonian chemical text," Iraq, 3, 87-96 (1936). (2) CAMPBELL TAOMPSON, R., "A 8 W y of the chemistry of Assyria in the seventh century," Ambiz, 2, 3-16 (1938); ZIMMERN, H., "Assyrisch chemisch-technische Rezepte insbesondere fiir Herstellung fssbiger glasierter Ziegel," Zeit. f. A s s y . , 36 (1925). (3) EBELING,E., "Parfiimerezepte und kultiache Texte aus Assur," Orientalia, 17, 129-45, 299313; 18,404-18; 19,
(1) GDD, C. J.,
(10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15)
Wattrss'idat von Ya'qub B. IshiLq Al-Kindi," A b h a d lungenjzir die Kvnde des Morganlandes, 30, Leipzig, 1948. Free translation utilizing EBELING'S transliteration, cp.eit., pp. 29,30. CAMPBELL THOMPSON, R., "A Dictionary of Assyrian Chemistry snd Geology," Oxford, 1936, p. xx. Ibid., pp. 23-30. EBELING, op. nt., 1 ~ 2 0 . GUENTHER, E., "The Essential Oils," D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., New York, 1948, Vol. I, p. 145. Ibid,, p. 156.
