Margaret Alice Murray. Photo treatment by dana for Sultan Pasha Attars Poudre Noire
#didyouknow…
…that Margaret Murray (1863-1963) was the first female professor of archaeology in history? Born in Calcutta, she is a groundbreaking presence in the theoretical landscapes of Egyptology, folklore, and feminist political reform. In 1908, she was the first woman ever to unwrap a mummy, that of Khnum-Nakht. She did so using a revolutionary, interdisciplinary approach that set the basis for what is now known as the “Manchester Method”.
What follows is a fictional bit of correspondence with her sister, Mary. All facts and names mentioned are historically accurate.
From spectacle to science. Photo treatment by dana for Sultan Pasha Attars Poudre Noire
27th of April, 1899
Dear Mary,
You may have already heard the news; if I am to guess, the family must have burst knowing of my personal implications with Professor Petrie, half in horror at my lack of a commitment ring and half with delight that I am no longer what they’d dread as an old maiden at their door. Nonetheless, I am here to confirm our rather friendly disposition to one another, but also to mention the slightly more enticing fact (for me, at least) that I have been appointed a Junior Lecturer. I am, thus, the first woman lecturer in archaeology in the Kingdom, which is to say my learning of the hieroglyphs (in German, no less, and clouded by Herr Griffith’s perpetual smoke) paid off.
At least he smells good, although his predilection for bitters and burning tree clays left our expedition crew with an unexpected tradition: whenever we want to bellow a shoutout, we tap the ashtray first.
Yours,
Margaret
The Two Brothers of Deir Rifeh. Photo treatment by dana for Sultan Pasha Attars
28th of May, 1907
Dear Mary,
It’s a wrap, as Standen likes to say. The Deir Rifeh is now officially closed, and we remained on the rim, in silence, as the workers dragged the last of the tool carts away. There are no words to describe the emptiness of a site once its bearings have been stripped- its idleness is almost palpable, as if the tomb is what gave this place life, in a way. We all sat quietly to gather our thoughts and once again doubt our right to lift one’s body out if its chosen rest– but as we watched the last particles of dust settle and the fires go out, we were reminded of the thin sheer layer of protection we may be able to offer these mummies in the years to come.
That, and the selfish hope I’ll be the one to first look at them with more respect than given past.
Yours always,
Margaret
The unwrapping of Khnum-Nakht. Photo treatment by dana for Sultan Pasha Attars
29th of June, 1908
Dear Mary,
If you haven’t yet read the papers, two days ago I completed the unwrapping of Khnum-Nakht. Never again a mummy will be “unrolled” as a curiosity for those who pay the most; never again will they be poked and paraded as a circus exhibition and with no regards to their dignity; never again will we impose such mascarades to those who can’t give us their consent. That is not science, and I will not stand for it.
At the unwrapping, Miss Hart-Davis was my secundo; in attendance I also brought Standen and Mr. Wilfred Jackson, the addition of whom, I hope, will professionalize us as scholars and will provide substance as only a marriage between disciplines can… chemistry and paleomedicine will therefore no longer be left out from any study on mummies. Not, at least, while I’m alive. Although I’m the first to admit I can be a bore.
Yours,
Margaret
P.S. I was so nervous that I shamelessly grabbed someone’s pipe and tried to smoke it. It didn’t help, but it meddled with the almost pristine linen strips and filled my nostrils with something I will never forget, because luck had it my mummy was dry as a bone and retaining faint traces of herbs within its folds. From dust to dust, here, could not have been more appropriate.
The DNA of Poudre Noire. Photo treatment by dana for Sultan Pasha Attars
Historical awakenings are the hardest thing to look into- obsolete by nature but important by role, they are both timely and timeless- very much a time travel conundrum. And yet, we seek their detachment with the same thirst we unwrap mummies to make sure they’re preserved: layer by layer, fascinated by newness in something as old as time.
Poudre Noire by Sultan Pasha does not portray talcum, nor is it some goth nouveau vintage powder fragrance. It—at least to my nose—is powder, or dust, as you will. Surprising and atypical for a concoction destined to simply smell, it’s made of three strata of sensation: one is textural, the second- perfumed, and the third- almost gravitational. The opening is smooth and polished, vaporous, almost etheric, and cold: cutting tuberose, spicy geranium, flinty smoke (styrax?) and a briny, iodiny tinge seem to surround what’s there to be experienced, providing context and tooling as precise as an operating block. As Poudre Noire starts to settle, one has an almost visual rendering of unfolding layers upon layers of smell, rather individualistic but working together in sequence: pulpy lilac accords, slight stone fruit, velvety roses, and a very beautiful, sweet jasmine (albeit brief) open up to unveil the center. Throughout, a bit of almond, hanging in the air but slightly separate from all the rest. Lastly, in the depths, dense and heavy, the core: sticky resins and balsams, leathery bits, pungent animalic waxes, fermented grasses, thick honey, and a slightly anisic, dark pipe tobacco are packed together so tightly, nothing else can go through. Or matters.
Disclaimer: Poudre Noire selected by me and provided for analysis directly by Sultan Pasha Attars. Thank you.
– dana sandu, Sr. Contributor
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