A Brief History of Soap
It’s very likely that you stepped out of your shower this morning smelling of lavender, rosemary, or lemon, perhaps even patchouli or sandalwood if you were feeling particularly adventurous. We’re spoiled for choice by the wide variety of soaps we use to clean ourselves, be it with handmade Aleppo bars or a shower gel from the local convenience store. But what if we put ourselves in our distant ancestors’ shoes (sandals?). Only recently did we develop the infrastructure to produce soap en masse, so how did our forebears clean themselves and how did the soap of today first begin?
The first recorded recipe for soap came from the ancient Babylonians, inscribed on clay tablets dated to c. 2800 BC. This proto-civilization made soap using an abrasive mixture of animal fats and ash, though it’s unclear whether it was used to clean the body or in preparation of fibers for weaving.
The Ancient Egyptians were the first known civilization to use soap for healing and hygiene. They harvested alkali salts from the Valley of Natron, which is the namesake for sodium’s elemental symbol “Na,” then mixed them with animal and vegetable oils, as well as ash. The Ebers papyrus dated to 1550 BC outlines using this mixture to treat skin diseases as well as for general washing.
The Romans and Gauls were the first to produce bar soap using a mixture of tallow and ash, but like the Babylonians before them, used it for cleaning fabrics or pots and pans, preferring to use olive oil as a skin cleanser in their extravagant bath complexes known as thermae. In fact a soap factory was uncovered in the ruins of Pompeii, destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.
Soap making finally became an economic industry during the 8th and 13th centuries, with the Middle East and particularly what is now Syria leading the world in production. Hard soap from this region was typically produced with olive oil or lime and had a pleasant smell, unlike the “very unpleasant” variety made in Medieval Europe.
By the 16th century soap making processes were refined in Europe and vegetable were substituted for oils animal fats. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century saw the mechanization of the soap-making process and the rise of small soap manufactories in industrializing countries. In this era soap was still considered a luxury commodity and was prohibitively expensive for much of the population, but by the mid-1800s companies began producing cheaper yet still good-quality soap. This led to an explosion in demand and the rapid growth of soap companies, some of which are still around today, such as Unilever and Palmolive.
In the thousands of years since soap was discovered, humanity’s understanding of its value and importance have grown and flourished with our civilizations. The soap industry has gone from peripheral to luxury to ubiquitous, while the varieties of soaps have swelled beyond number. But when it comes to the ingredients and the formulation of soap, things have remained comfortingly basic.
