Editing Soap (section)

=== True soaps in the Ancient world ===
True soaps, which we might recognise as soaps today, were different to proto-soaps. They foamed, were made deliberately, and could be produced in a hard or soft form because of an understanding of lye sources.<ref name=":1" /> It is uncertain as to who was the first to invent true soap.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Derry |first1=Thomas Kingston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mf88HKKYEbQC&dq=origin+of+soap+history&pg=PA265 |title=A Short History of Technology: From the Earliest Times to A. D. 1900 |last2=Williams |first2=Trevor Illtyd |date=1960-01-01 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=9780486274720 |page=265}}</ref>

Knowledge of how to produce true soap emerged at some point between early mentions of proto-soaps and the first century AD.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Alkali was used to clean textiles such as wool for thousands of years<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Cassidy |first=Cody |date=2020-05-05 |title=Who Discovered Soap? What to Know About the Origins of the Life-Saving Substance |url=https://time.com/5831828/soap-origins/ |access-date=2024-09-16 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> but soap only forms when there is enough fat, and experiments show that washing wool does not create visible quantities of soap.<ref name=":0" /> Experiments by Sally Pointer show that the repeated laundering of materials used in [[perfume]]-making lead to noticeable amounts of soap forming. This fits with other evidence from [[Mesopotamia]]n culture.<ref name=":0" />

Pliny the Elder, whose writings chronicle life in the first century AD, describes soap as "an invention of the Gauls".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The history of soapmaking |url=https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-science-technology-and-medicine/history-science/the-history-soapmaking |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812172210/https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-science-technology-and-medicine/history-science/the-history-soapmaking |archive-date=2022-08-12 |access-date=2022-08-21 |website=The history of soapmaking}}</ref> The word {{Lang|la|sapo}}, Latin for soap, has connected to a mythical Mount Sapo, a hill near the River Tiber where animals were sacrificed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bognolo |first=Guido |title=Surface Active Agents: Historical Perspectives and Future Developments |pages=5}}</ref> But in all likelihood, the word was borrowed from an early Germanic language and is [[cognate]] with Latin {{Lang|la|sebum}}, "[[tallow]]". It first appears in [[Pliny the Elder]]'s account,<ref>{{cite web |last=Harper |first=Douglas |title=Soap |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=soap |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208192853/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=soap |archive-date=2011-02-08 |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=etymonline.com}}</ref> ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Historia Naturalis]]'', which discusses the manufacture of soap from tallow and ashes. There he mentions its use in the treatment of [[Scrofula|scrofulous sores]], as well as among the [[Gauls]] as a dye to redden hair which the men in [[Germania]] were more likely to use than women.<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Pliny_the_Elder/28*.html#191 XXVIII.191].</ref><ref>[[Martial]], Epigrammata, [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/martial/mart8.shtml VIII, 33, 20.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121162318/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/martial/mart8.shtml|date=2013-01-21}}</ref> The Romans avoided washing with harsh soaps before encountering the milder soaps used by the Gauls around 58&nbsp;BC.<ref name="Foreman">{{cite web |last=Foreman |first=Amanda |date=October 4, 2019 |title=The Long Road to Cleanliness |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-road-to-cleanliness-11570196433?mod=e2fb |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807091833/https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-road-to-cleanliness-11570196433?mod=e2fb |archive-date=August 7, 2020 |access-date=October 6, 2019 |work=www.wsj.com}}</ref> [[Aretaeus of Cappadocia]], writing in the 2nd century AD, observes among "Celts, which are men called Gauls, those alkaline substances that are made into balls [...] called ''soap''".<ref>Aretaeus, ''The Extant Works of Aretaeus, the Cappadocian'', ed. and tr. Francis Adams (London) 1856:[https://books.google.com/books?id=v4gIAAAAIAAJ 238 and 496] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609210236/https://books.google.com/books?id=v4gIAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=it|date=2016-06-09}}, noted in Michael W. Dols, "Leprosy in medieval Arabic medicine" ''Journal of the History of Medicine'' 1979:316 note 9; the Gauls with whom the Cappadocian would have been familiar are those of Anatolian [[Galatia (Roman province)|Galatia]].</ref> The Romans' preferred method of cleaning the body was to massage oil into the skin and then scrape away both the oil and any dirt with a [[strigil]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=De Puma |first1=Richard |title=A Third-Century B.C.E. Etruscan Tomb Group from Bolsena in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |pages=429–40}}</ref> The standard design is a curved blade with a handle, all of which is made of metal.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Padgett |first1=J. Michael |title=Objects of Desire: Greek Vases from the John B. Elliot Collection. |date=2002 |publisher=Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University. |pages=36–48}}</ref>

The 2nd-century AD physician [[Galen]] describes soap-making using lye and prescribes washing to carry away impurities from the body and clothes. The use of soap for personal cleanliness became increasingly common in this period. According to Galen, the best soaps were Germanic, and soaps from Gaul were second best. [[Zosimos of Panopolis]], ''circa'' 300&nbsp;AD, describes soap and soapmaking.<ref>{{cite book |last=Partington |first=James Riddick |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part/page/307 |title=A History of Greek Fire and Gun Powder |author2=Hall, Bert S |publisher=JHU Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8018-5954-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofgreekfi00part/page/307 307] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In the Southern [[Levant]], the ashes from [[Barilla|barilla plants]], such as species of [[Salsola]], saltwort (''[[Seidlitzia rosmarinus]]'') and ''[[Anabasis articulata|Anabasis]]'', were used to make [[potash]].<ref>[[Zohar Amar]], ''Flora of the Bible'', Jerusalem 2012, s.v. '''ברית''', p. 216 (note 34) {{OCLC|783455868}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Abu-Rabiʻa |first=ʻAref |url=https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/AbuRabiaBedouin |title=Bedouin Century: Education and Development among the Negev Tribes in the Twentieth Century |date=2001 |location=New York |pages=47–48 |language=en |oclc=47119256 |access-date=2019-08-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725005846/http://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/AbuRabiaBedouin |archive-date=2019-07-25 |url-status=live}}</ref> Traditionally, olive oil was used instead of animal lard throughout the Levant, which was boiled in a copper cauldron for several days.<ref name="Cohen1989">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Amnon |title=Economic Life in Ottoman Jerusalem |date=1989 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0521365511 |location=Cambridge |page=81 |language=en}}</ref> As the boiling progresses, alkali ashes and smaller quantities of [[quicklime]] are added and constantly stirred.<ref name="Cohen1989" /> In the case of lard, it required constant stirring while kept lukewarm until it began to trace. Once it began to thicken, the brew was poured into a mold and left to cool and harden for two weeks. After hardening, it was cut into smaller cakes. Aromatic herbs were often added to the rendered soap to impart their fragrance, such as [[yarrow]] leaves, [[lavender]], [[germander]], etc.