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A History of Aromatherapy<\/p>\nA History of Aromatherapy<\/p>\n
Prehistoric Era:<\/strong> Aromatherapy shares a common early history with herbal medicine, of which it is a part. This is a history that extends thousands of years into the prehistoric past and chronicles the ancient relationship between human beings and plants.<\/p>\n Archeological evidence from the Shanidar cave burials in Iraq has been interpreted as indicating that Neanderthal people in the area were burying their dead with flowers more than 50,000 years ago. This inference was made from the presence of flower pollen from several species, including yarrow, which was found with the skeletal remains, concentrated around the head.<\/p>\n The amount of pollen found for some of the species suggested strongly that whole flowers had been placed in the burial but there has been lively debate in the field of archeology concerning whether or not the pollen might have been carried into the burial by rodents so this oldest evidence for the ritual use of plants remains speculative.<\/p>\n The archeological evidence for prehistoric ritual and medicinal use of plants by humans is fragmentary, especially prior to the Neolithic era (roughly 9000 to 3000 BCE). Most of the plants with the longest documented history of use are psychoactive in nature.<\/p>\n