Italian archaeologist maria rosaria belgiorno displays circular holes used to store perfume oils in pyrgos, cyprus february 22, . （reuters/andreas manolis）
egypt’s queen cleopatra showed how to woo members of the opposite sex with it, the french may have perfected it, but it is the cypriots who can now lay claim to the world’s oldest perfumery.
nestled among the overgrown weeds on a cypriot hillside offering stunning views of the mediterranean, is a pit containing circular imprints which held perfume jars which italian archeologists believe is the oldest source of the multi-billion industry of today.
"this is 4,000 years old. without a doubt, it is the oldest production site for perfume in the world," said italian archeologist maria rosaria belgiorno, team leader of a mission excavating the pyrgos-mavroraki site 55 miles southwest of cyprus’s capital nicosia.
scientists have managed to extract essences of the world’s oldest scents and reconstruct the aromas used four millennia ago from fragments of clay perfume bottles.
and, archeologists have discovered, modern preferences are not too different from those of 4,000 years ago.
scientists from the italian institute of technologies applied to cultural heritage found aromas of cinnamon, laurel, myrtle, anise and citrus bergamot in clay fragments, all indigenous plants growing in the region.
the perfumery formed part of a larger site dating from 2000 bc which included a copper smelting works, a winery and an olive press, producing the essential ingredient for essences.
it was not clear who purchased the perfume from cyprus, but records from knossos in crete show the island selling 576 liters of pure-grade olive oil, something which could suggest busy trade then, said belgiorno.
"the cypriots probably learned from the egyptians, we know there were very strong links between the two," she said.
埃及女王克利奥帕特拉曾“示范”过如何用它来捕获异性的芳心；法国人使它的制作技艺臻于完善；而现在塞浦路斯人可以自豪地说自己是世上最古老的香料作坊的主人。
在塞浦路斯一座可以俯视地中海美景的山坡上，繁茂的野草间隐藏着一个深坑，坑里有一些圆形痕迹，显然是存放香料的广口瓶留下的。意大利考古学家们相信这是如今价值数十亿美元的香水产业最古老的根源。
“这里已经有四千年历史了。毫无疑问，这是世界上最古老的香水生产场所。”意大利考古学家玛丽亚·罗萨丽亚·贝尔焦诺说，她是皮尔戈斯·马武罗拉奇遗址挖掘开发组的组长。该遗址位于塞浦路斯首都尼科西亚西南方55英里处。
