History of Soapmaking
The history of soap making is absolutely fascinating, and no one really knows when or where it started. There are many theories over the world. Soap first appeared to be used around 5000 years ago.
Some wonder if there was a rainstorm after a feast somewhere, where the fats of some animal had been roasted in the fire and someone noticed that the left-over material was sudsy and that it cleaned. There is some evidence that early humans may have used wet ash to clean greasy butchering tools. The first concrete evidence of using soap-like substance was dated 2800 BC and there is evidence that ancient Babylonians, Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans used it. They all made soap by making mixing fat oils and salts. Soap was not originally used for bathing and personal hygiene, but was rather produced for cleaning cooking utensils or goods used for medicinal purposes.
Inspired by Nature
One of the most famous soaps of all time was known around the famous silk Road city of Aleppo, which is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. From there it expanded over to medieval Europe, and Castille soap in Spain was made as a well-loved and consistent form of soap.
A very old recipe was found on a Sumerian Clay tablet around 2500 BC, listing the process as heating a mixture of oil and wood ash and it was used for washing woolen clothes. Then a soda ash was developed to make the lye. There are records of aromatic herbs being added to the soap “cakes” including yarrow, lavender, germander and so on.
In the Middle Ages, someone realized they could strain the ashes and globules of fat away in a process called leaching, to produce the alkali needed to make soap. In the Middle Ages, soap makers simply dipped sacks of ash into water like tea bags to get the lye.
The term soap likely comes from a Germanic term called “sapo” and earlier the Latin word sebum, or “tallow”.
Milder soaps were developed around 58 BC and this is when the Celts, Gauls and Romans starting using them on their bodies for cleaning. In China, a detergent similar to soap was made from pig pancreas and plant ash. By 800, Spain was a leading manufacturer of soap followed by the Kingdom of England about 1200.
In the 1600s, it was still so expensive that it was a luxury item and in fact there were times when washing with soap was outlawed! This corresponded to times with large epidemics of disease. However, by the late 1800s, bar soaps became available and there was an increasing awareness of the connection with cleanliness and health.
It is difficult to imagine life without it now. Shower gels and liquid soaps were only invented and created around 100 years ago.
It is also good to understand that using soap has prevented millions of deaths worldwide over the centuries. There are estimates that simply by using a normal soap for cleaning our hands, it can reduce respiratory illness transmission by 25% and reduce diarrheal diseases in half.
So there it is – a crash course in the history of soap, and I hope this helps you appreciate it just a little bit more!