Italian archaeologist Maria Rosaria Belgiorno displays circular holes used to store perfume oils in Pyrgos, Cyprus February 22, 2005. (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.

(BBC)