News
Gaetano Pesce and Wadi Dawkah: A Frankincense Love Story
January 2023, New York. Gaetano Pesce wakes from a singular dream: a frankincense tree, one he has never seen in his life. The beginning of an adventure between design, resin and perfume.
Incense
Ingredients
Frankincense: the journey of an age-old material
While frankincense has always been part of the changing face of fragrances, it has taken on a new role in the modern perfumery landscape. Its journey reflects both a shift in aesthetics and a change in perspective. An age-old material that has become one of the most relevant voices in contemporary niche perfumery.
Ingredients
Wadi Dawkah : Modern Masterpieces, The Scent of Frankincense
Dominique Roques discusses with Yohan Cervi, critic and lecturer on the history of modern perfumery to trace the journey of frankincense through the world of fragrance creation.
Ingredients
Boswellia sacra in images and the imagination
Tracing the history of the frankincense tree through images allows us to follow how humans have perceived, utilized, and imagined it over millennia. From ancient reliefs to botanical plates, these representations tell a story that is as much cultural as it is natural.
Ingredients
Ayn Dawkah: the cornerstone of Omani frankincense
At the heart of Wadi Dawkah, the UNESCO-listed site and birthplace of Omani frankincense, Amouage has just laid the cornerstone of an ambitious project for a cultural center dedicated to the desert’s white gold.
History
Through smoke: Monotheism and Frankincense
Ever since the Bronze Age, olibanum has played a central part in the rituals observed by many different civilizations. But while we tend to see incense-burning practices primarily as a way to connect humans to the divine, this sacred role does not exclude other, more secular functions, as illustrated by the long history of incense use within monotheistic religions.
Wadi Dawkah
A panorama of the Land of Frankincense
Behind the mysterious name “Land of Frankincense” lies a collection of four exceptional sites located in the Dhofar region, in the south of Oman: the remains of the caravan oasis of Shisr, the associated ports of Khor Rori and Al Baleed, and the Wadi Dawkah.
Podcasts by Nez
Frankincense, Oman’s essence
Ayesha Mualla, a social anthropologist and enthusiastic teacher, has conducted research on frankincense usages in the omani culture in the Dhofar region.
Ingredients
Olibanum resin: a panacea?
In 2022, researchers at the center of natural and medical sciences at the University of Nizwa, 150 km from Muscat, managed to decipher the Boswellia sacra genome using DNA from fresh frankincense leaves. An achievement that owes much to the perseverance of the Omani scientific teams.
Ingredients
The quintessential scents of Oman
The hospitality of Oman is felt upon arrival at Muscat airport with a subtle, diffused scent of frankincense as Omani people know that if they want to create a tranquil atmosphere, they can turn to olibanum.
History
The Incense Trade Route, by Sterenn Le Maguer-Gillon
What is the history of incense and its trade? That’s the question answered in this article, which traces the history of the “Incense Route” over several centuries, from its earliest beginnings to the inscription of the Dhofar region in the Sultanate of Oman as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
Podcasts by Nez
Sterenn Le Maguer-Gillon and Dominique Roques – Wadi Dawkah, The Incense Trade Route
Dominique Roques discusses with archaeologist Sterren Le Maguer-Gillon about how these places all bear witness to an era when the Omani region was a strategic trading crossroads on the Incense Trade Route.
Olfactory Culture
Perfume as a way of life in the Middle East
Frankincense, bakhoor, attars: perfume is deeply rooted in Omani culture, starting with the Latin roots of the word, per fumum, meaning through smoke. The love of fragrances can be found throughout the Middle East, inextricably linked to how people see themselves and others, to their personal values, to the social rituals that unfold in daily life or at special occasions.
Ingredients
Renaud Salmon: “Wadi Dawkah is serving as a pilot project for the Omani frankincense industry”
In 2022, Amouage signed a partnership with Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism to relaunch the frankincense industry in the sultanate. This initiative follows on from the inscription of the Land of Frankincense on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. Renaud Salmon, Chief Creative Officer of the Omani fragrance house, takes up the story.
Ingredients
Renaud Salmon: “The frankincense industry deserves more transparency”
In Oman, the creative director of Amouage, a company founded in the sultanate in 1983, is overseeing a vast project that will combine responsible production of the precious resin with tourism and cultural activities.
