David Pybus describes himself as a “21st century alchemist and aromancer”, and says his mission in life is to “get people to stop their frenetic living from time to time and to smell the roses”. He’s underselling himself, of course. He’s really a chemist with more than 20 years’ experience at the world’s largest perfume makers.
During an appearance on the BBC’s Dragon’s Den in 2007, he convinced entrepreneurs Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones to part with £40,000 each to help launch Scents of Time, a range of fragrances based on ancient themes.
We, sitting comfortably in front of our computers here in the 21st century, a mocha-choca-frappe-latte possibly close at hand, like to complain a lot about stress.
Balancing the demands of work, family, health and the full range of entertainment offered our by multi-channel digital TV package, is – after all – a trying daily endeavour. It’s blissful to believe that life was somehow calmer and simpler in the quaint days of ancient history. But the findings of some new studies have suggested that that firmly was not the case.
High levels of the stress hormone cortisol have been detected in the hair of ancient Peruvians – considerably higher levels, it should be noted, than those detected in the hair of humans today.
A new video has been released on YouTube that shows the University of Western Ontario’s dig at Gallinazo Group in Peru.
Gallinazo Group is a 2,000 year old Peruvian city that was built by a poorly understood culture known as the “Gallinazo.” As Heritage Key reported recently archaeologists have discovered that the 70 hectare city had giant holes in it. People lived in crowded, adobe brick, mounds with large empty fields in-between them. It’s a mystery why they chose to live this way, even though there was plenty of free land available.
This video was shot to give students – who are interested in spending a summer digging there – an overview as to what the experience is like (so there is a promotional element to it).
Writer, anthropologist and four-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Kim MacQuarrie spent five years living in Peru. While exploring one of the country’s most hidden regions, he filmed a group of indigenous people whose ancestors remembered their contacts with the Inca empire. Their stories were passed down in the oral tradition. And so the seeds for this riveting book were sewn.
Not only has Macquarrie worked in locations as far-flung as Siberia and Papua New Guinea, but he is rightly considered one of the foremost experts on the history of Peru, and indeed the Incas. The Last Days of the Incas is authoritative, exhaustively researched, entertaining but factual.
MacQuarrie’s narrative style is accessible and contemporary, making this an enthralling account of one of the most fascinating periods in world history. It’s more of an epic adventure yarn than a plodding history book.
Few lost tribes have captured the world’s imagination the way the Incas have. Though the Children of the Sun ruled a swathe of South America for a relatively short time – the Inca heyday lasted about 90 years – their legacy lives on, both as the proud heritage of modern Andean nations and in the minds of modern pilgrims, who travel in their thousands to see Machu Picchu, fabled Lost City of the Incas.
When the Spanish arrived in Peru in 1532, they found the Incas ruling over about two million square kilometres, known as Tawantinsuyu (“The Four Parts Together”). How did the Incas form a vast unified state across mountainous territory? And what is the truth behind the mythical origins of these people? These are two key questions this lavishly illustrated monograph attempts to answer.
David Pybus describes himself as a “21st century alchemist and aromancer”, and says his mission in life is to “get people to stop their frenetic living from time to time and to smell the roses”. He’s underselling himself, of course. He’s really a chemist with more than 20 years’ experience at the world’s largest perfume makers.
