One of the earliest named figures is Tapputi, referenced on a Mesopotamian cuneiform tablet from around the 12th century BC describing distillation-like perfume-making techniques, alongside surviving Egyptian papyri and later Roman writers such as Pliny the Elder, who documented perfumery methods and ingredients in detail.

Why ‘first’ is genuinely hard to pin down

So much early written record has been lost or never survived in the first place that historians are working from fragments rather than a complete picture, which means any claim to a single definitive ‘first’ documented recipe should be treated with some caution. What we do have — the Tapputi tablet, Egyptian papyri describing scented oils and incense, and later, more comprehensive Roman writing — gives a reasonably clear picture that perfume-making was already a sophisticated, documented craft thousands of years ago, even if we can’t identify one single true origin point.

  • Tapputi: named on a Mesopotamian tablet, often cited as an early recorded perfumer
  • Egyptian papyri describing scented oils and incense recipes
  • Roman writers like Pliny the Elder cataloguing perfumery methods and materials

It’s a reminder that perfumery is genuinely one of humanity’s oldest documented crafts, predating a great deal of what we now think of as ancient history by a considerable margin.

Our guide to the history of perfume and our complete guide to perfume explore this early history further.