Q 01/05

The word 'perfume' comes from Latin words meaning what?

A) To sweeten

B) To anoint with oil

C) To bloom

D) To smoke through

Answer · why

D) To smoke through

To smoke through: Latin per, 'through', plus fumare, 'to smoke'. The word first named the scented fumes of something burning, such as incense, and onl...

Q 02/05

Tapputi, named on a cuneiform tablet as a palace perfumer, is one of the first recorded chemists of which civilisation?

A) Egypt

B) Mesopotamia

C) Persia

D) The Indus Valley

Answer · why

B) Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia. Around 1200 BC in the Assyrian city of Assur, Tapputi distilled flowers, oil and calamus, filtered the result and put it back through the...

Q 03/05

On which Mediterranean island did archaeologists unearth a 4,000-year-old perfume factory, believed to be the world's oldest?

A) Cyprus

B) Crete

C) Sicily

D) Malta

Answer · why

A) Cyprus

Cyprus. An earthquake destroyed the Bronze Age perfumery at Pyrgos but also buried its stills and bottles, so scientists could recreate scents from th...

Q 04/05

Which Persian polymath is credited with first distilling oils from flowers?

A) Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

B) Omar Khayyam

C) Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

D) Al-Razi (Rhazes)

Answer · why

C) Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

Ibn Sina (Avicenna). He is credited with distilling rose petals into both rose oil and rose water, and he used the oil to treat heart conditions.

Q 05/05

By legend, Hungary Water, one of Europe's first alcohol-based perfumes, was first made for whom?

A) The country's queen, Elizabeth

B) Its king, Louis the Great

C) A Franciscan monastery

D) A Venetian spice merchant

Answer · why

A) The country's queen, Elizabeth

The country's queen, Elizabeth. The legend, which scholars doubt, has the rosemary water made to treat her ailments, and in one telling it won her a m...