Ethnologists Dr Mojca Ramšak and Dr Karla Oder have teamed up to investigate the multi-layered meaning of sulphur smells in human experience. Their collaboration, which was planned even before the official launch of the project “Smell and intangible cultural heritage”, bridges the gap between tangible and intangible heritage through an innovative study of olfactory experiences.
Dr Oder investigated the heritage of ironworking in Ravne, Slovenia, where the smell of sulphur compounds was an integral part of the workers’ daily lives. Historical sources document the difficult conditions in forges, where workers were exposed to the sulphur fumes released during the heating and forging of iron. These emissions, which occurred mainly when working with low-grade iron, often caused health problems such as swollen lips due to the sulphur dioxide released from iron ore or coal.
In another study, Dr Ramšak investigated how sulphurous odours had deep cultural significance in religious traditions. In biblical texts, sulphurous odours serve as metaphors for sin, divine wrath and punishment. While such references have long been interpreted purely symbolically, geological science today explains many of these biblical mentions of sulphur through natural phenomena such as volcanic activity, bridging the gap between the physical and metaphysical understanding of this element.
This unique collaboration contributes to our understanding of tangible and intangible cultural heritage by illuminating how the same element — the smell of sulphur — operates both in the physical reality of industrial labour and in the spiritual realm of human cognition.
Their research findings were published in 2024 as separate articles in two peer-reviewed journals: Carinthia I: Mittheilungen des Geschichtsvereines für Kärnten (in the chapter ‘Der Geruch nach Schwefel’) and Unity and Dialogue (in the chapter ‘Malodour, mentioned in the Bible’).
Link to the Project website: https://hslab.fkkt.uni-lj.si/2024/06/27/smell-and-intangible-cultural-heritage/