What an exciting find! The Custody of the Holy Land has been doing some archaeological work in Magdala, the small village on the West of the Sea of Galilee where Mary Magdalene comes from. At the time of Jesus this was a large town of 40,000 inhabitants. The dig has produced a lot of evidence for a large presence of the Roman Army; this in itself would have made Magdala a place that devout Jews would avoid at all costs. And yet…
Among the many findings are some 1st century AD jars of ointment (picture of one of them above), most probably like that costly ointment that was poured on the feet of our Lord by the sinful woman (Lk 7: 37-50). Some of these jars are still filled with an ointment like substance. As we write these jars are at an undisclosed Italian university to be examined and hopefully reproduced. The odour that pleased Jesus so much and filled the room in which he was staying, might be available for us some 2000 years later!

(Photo below: A view of Magdala today)