Early history

The oldest registered testimony about the output of soap like materials goes back to 2800 BC. It can be traced back to the ancient Babylon. In around 2200 BC in Babylon, a clay tablet was found on which the prescription for soap was found. The prescription states that soap consists of cassia oil, alkali and water. The Ebers Papyrus of Egypt around 1500 BC suggests that egyptians of ancient times bathed regularly with the animal and combined vegetable oils. They use to add alkaline salts in the oils in order to create soap like substance. It has also been noted in the historic documents of egypt that soap-like material was being utilized in the weaving process during the preparation of wool.

Roman history

In the remains of Pompeii around AD 79 a factory was found which used to manufacture soap-like substances. However this has been proven to be a simple misinterpretation about some saponaceous mineral material remnant. It is quite possible that it was at fallonica where it had the utility of being used a a bandage and after that cleansed textiles. Unfortunately this mistake has been repeated in many texts all over the world. In many texts on soap history you will be able to find this common mistake. The ancient romans did not have much knowledge about the detergent like properties of soap. Rather they made use of strigil in order to get rid off dirt and sweat from the body. In latin the soap is called “sapo” and it apperaed for the first time in the european language in the elder historia naturali’s pliny. It is a text which debates the manufacturing of soap from tallow to ashes. But the only utility he mentions about them is that it was a good cream for hair. He suggests it as rather disfavouring that among the germans and gauls women used it less oftern as compared to men.

There is another public belief which says that soap has borrowed its name from “mount sapo” where the animals were sacrificed during the reign of older romans. It is believed that rain used to dispatch a mizture of animal tallow and wood ash down the mountain and also on the banks of the river tiber. It used to fall into the clay soil whch produced a sudsy material; which helped in cleaning up of clothes.

These are some of the important facts about the history of custom soap.