The history of fragrance is interesting, and the workings of perfume making in the ancient world is a fascinating topic.
Records of the ancient world seem to only give us a glimpse of this timeframe. It’s riveting to think about what our ancestors were doing and how they were doing things.
If you look up anything about the ancient workings of fragrance, it’s usually easy enough to read about the countries that were pioneering fragrance production and what they were using various perfumed oils for.
In the ancient world, fragrances were more for religious purposes, or anointing statues in ceremonies. Fragrance on skin was usually reserved for royalty.
Not many perfumers of the ancient world are named, but you can find various art depicting them in general.
One exception is a woman named Tapputi. She lived in 1200 BC in Mesopotamia, and is the first perfumer recorded by name.
This was found out when a German excavation team, Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft excavations, unearthed a cuneiform tablet (called KAR 220) in 1903. In 1919, Assyriologist Erich Ebeling deciphered the text.
The text names Tapputi Bellatekallim as ‘female overseer of a palace’, or “The assistant of e lady of the palace”, meaning she was the royal perfumer. This, apparently, was very rare, as men were typically the perfumers to the King.
The tablet included information about Tapputi’s extraction techniques, her distillation methods, which are essentially a precursor to modern day fragrance distillation, and at least one recipe.
The tablet suggests Tapputi worked alongside at least one other person, but the damage to the tablet only lists Tapputi’s name in full.
Today, KAR 220 is housed in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin.
It’s fun to imagine a room in the depths of the palace, or even underneath it, filled with vials of oil, and an array of plants and flowers lining the walls. Basins and bowls filled with oils and fragrances in various stages.
While hardly anything is known about Tapputi, her contributions to the world of fragrance made it worth making sure her name was inscribed into the annals of history during her time.
