Fragrant Perfumes

Perfume is by no means a modern day invention. It was used thousands of years ago in ancient Mesopotamia (parts of modern day Iran, Iraq and Syria) and Egypt. Reputedly, the world’s first chemist was a perfume maker who came from Mesopotamia. One of the oldest known uses of perfume was in religious ceremonies, where aromatic herbs and incense were burnt. These mainly comprised frankincense and myrrh.

The Egyptians were one of the first races to use perfume. They invented glass and as a consequence produced the first known perfume bottles. This was around 1000 BC.  The next to follow suit were the Chinese, Hindus, Israelites, Carthaginians, Arabs, Greeks and Romans.

As with all ancient history, events are not simple to unravel, because in recent times, archaeologists in Cyprus discovered perfume dating back more than 4000 years. Not only that, there was also a whole factory together with more than 60 distilling stills, funnels, mixing bowls and perfume bottles!!

Europe started to smell sweeter after the perfume invasion in the 14th century. In the year 1370, Hungary (then under the command of Queen Elizabeth) produced the first modern-day perfume. It was a combination of scented oils and alcohol and known as Hungary Water.