An Ancient Cleanser: Soap Production and Use in Antiquity

Abstract

The production of soap is one of the later forms of chemical technology in the ancient world. Yet, it is also one of the least studied. Unlike inorganic materials such as glass or ceramics, soap does not leave any archeological treasures that can be studied to chart its history. Instead, our understanding of the chemical technology of soap must rely primarily on the written record. The earliest evidence of soap production dates to the 3 rd millennium BCE from Mesopotamian clay tablets. As soap can be produced through the simple combination of plant ash and animal fat, it is quite possible that it was formed prior to that time period, although no empirical evidence for its earlier existence has been found. An overview of the historical production and usage of soap will be presented, as it pertains to its origins in antiquity through the Roman era.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 30 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.