Manoyl Oxide (C20H34O, 290 MW, 17.51 min at Brandeis, 23.71 min at Penn)

Manoyl oxide is a diterpenoid ether found in the Cistaceae (rockrose) and Pinaceae (pine) families, and could arguably represent either. Cistaceae has a long history, however—in the Mediterranean, in general, and Crete, in particular (Herodotus, *The Histories* 3.112)—as a traditional ingredient in perfumes and, moreover, was a species known to and used by the LBA Minoans themselves [4,31]. Manoyl oxide is found (in higher quantities than in Pinaceae) in labdanum, a highly viscous resinous material obtained from *Cistus creticus*, or Cretan rockrose, a plant that is depicted on an LM IA (ca. 1600 B.C.) fresco from Akrotiri, Thera [31–33]. *C. creticus* is native to the island of Crete and has several well-known cultivars including one termed "Lasithi", named after the general region in which Tourloti resides. This Lasithi cultivar seems likely to be the source of the manoyl oxide used in both the Tourloti and Mochlos preparations, as it grows abundantly in the western Siteia foothills to this day.

Ancient Egyptian and Greek sources enumerate labdanum's many medicinal and aromatic uses [34], but it is best known in the present day as "amber" in perfumes such as Taittinger's "Baccarat", Yves St. Laurent's "Jazz", and Calvin Klein's "One" [19]. It is one of the main substitutes for ambergris in the modern perfume industry as a foundational lower, or base, note, and serves also a fixative to help retain scents, as it undoubtedly did for the perfumed oils of LBA East Crete. Some of labdanum's compounds can also serve as a middle, or heart, note just as in the case with storax balsam, and this

versatility may explain its use in nearly a third of all modern perfumes [19]. It has filled this role for the past century as an original main ingredient for the so-called chypre (i.e., Cyprus) family of perfumes, such as Hermès' "Bel Ami", which coincidentally uses storax as a complementary base note in a similar fashion to our ancient perfumed oils.

#### *3.6. Tilleul from Tilia (Linden)*
