Successfully recreate the 3,200 year old perfume of ancient Mesopotamia

A woman named Tapputi became the first female chemist in Mesopotamia and the world's first female perfumer 3,200 years ago. With the recipe left by Tapputi on a clay tablet, a team of 15 Turkish scientists successfully recreated one of her perfumes in the lab, Ancient Origins reported on July 25.

One of two clay tablets engraved with Tapputi's perfume formula.

Scientists in collaboration with the Academy of Odors and the Turkish Fragrance Culture Association (Koku Akademisi ve Koku Kültürü Derneği) conducted extensive research on Mesopotamian perfumery production methods. Their goal is to understand Tapputi's way of doing things, then simulate the product in as much detail as possible. Now, although that goal has been achieved, the team will continue to translate and recreate Tapputi's fragrances.

The archaeological team found Tapputi's name engraved on two hieroglyphic clay tablets during excavations near the village of Harran in southern Turkey, which was once part of Babylon in the second millennium BC. The clay tablet is dated to 1200 BC. Ancient scent expert Bihter Türkan Ergül and colleagues translated 27 pages of documents from two clay tablets. Through inscriptions, Tapputi is described as a regular chemist and expert in the production of high-class perfumes from Mesopotamia.

On clay tablets, Tapputi recorded the perfume recipe and the steps she took to create the scent in the ancient Akkadian language. Tapputi uses a combination of flowers, oils, calendula, bear roots, myrrh, horseradish, spices, balsam, and more. She mixed various mixtures with water or solvents, then distilled, and filtered the liquid several times to create a pure perfume with a pleasant smell.

Thanks to the information on the clay tablet, Ergül and his team were able to recreate one of Tapputi's perfume recipes. Ergül noted that hundreds of clay tablets describing ancient Mesopotamian perfumery methods were found during the excavation, and that researchers need more time to translate them all.