{{short description|Mesopotamian perfume maker}}
'''Tappūtī-Bēlet-Ekallim''' ({{lit|Assistant of the Lady of the Palace}}){{efn|The {{gloss|Lady of the Palace}} referenced is the goddess Bēlet-Ekalli.<ref name="Death Scent"/>{{Better source needed|date=February 2026}}}} is one of the world's first recorded chemists.<ref>{{harvnb|Levey|1973|loc=p. 9, note 1}}: "The earliest chemist known by name is thus a woman."</ref> She was a perfumer active in Assur during the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I.<ref name="Death Scent">{{cite web |last=McBride |first=Nuri |title=Tappūtī-Bēlet-ekallim: The First Perfumer? |website=Death Scent |date=2022-07-22 |url=https://deathscent.com/2022/07/12/tapputi-belatekallim/}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=February 2026}} As mentioned in a cuneiform tablet dated around 1200 BC,<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Gabriele Kass-Simon |editor2=Patricia Farnes |editor3=Deborah Nash|title=Women of Science: Righting the Record|year=1999|publisher=Indiana Univ. Press|location=Bloomington, Ind.|isbn=9780253208132|page=301|edition=First Midland Book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ez7DCJM57esC&q=tapputi}}</ref> she used flowers, oil, and calamus along with cyperus, myrrh, and balsam, which after adding water and other solvents were distilled and filtered several times.<ref>{{cite book|last=Levey|first=Martin|title=Early Arabic Pharmacology: An Introduction Based on Ancient and Medieval Sources|publisher=Brill Archive|year=1973|pages=8–9|isbn=90-04-03796-9}}</ref>
She also was an overseer at the Royal Palace and worked with someone named (—)-ninu (the first part of her name has been lost).<ref>Rayner-Canham, Marelene, and Geoffrey Rayner-Canham. ''Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century''. First edition. Chemical Heritage Foundation, 9 June 2005. 1. Print.</ref>
==In popular culture== * Tapputi is one of the main characters of the animated webseries ''Super Science Friends''.
==See also== * Timeline of chemistry * Timeline of women in science
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== <references />
==External links== * [https://www.girlmuseum.org/tapputi-belatekallim Tapputi Belatekallim at ''The Girl Museum'']
{{authority control}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
Category:11th-century BC people Category:11th-century BC women Category:Assyrian women Category:Assyrian people Category:Court scholars Category:Perfumers Category:Ancient courtiers Category:Ancient women scientists Category:Ancient scientists Category:Ancient women scholars