Without soap, how did ancient people take a shower? How often did they take a shower?

Answer 1

soap-like material found in clay cylinders during the excavation of ancient Babylon is evidence that soapmaking was known as early as 2800 B.C. Inscriptions on the cylinders say that fats were boiled with ashes, which is a method of making soap, but do not refer to the purpose of the "soap." Such materials were later used as hair styling aids.

Records show that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly. The Ebers Papyrus, a medical document from about 1500 B.C., describes combining animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to form a soap-like material used for treating skin diseases, as well as for washing

At about the same time, Moses gave the Israelites detailed laws governing personal cleanliness. He also related cleanliness to health and religious purification. Biblical accounts suggest that the Israelites knew that mixing ashes and oil produced a kind of hair gel.


The early Greeks bathed for aesthetic reasons and apparently did not use soap. Instead, they cleaned their bodies with blocks of clay, sand, pumice and ashes, then anointed themselves with oil, and scraped off the oil and dirt with a metal instrument known as a strigil. They also used oil with ashes. Clothes were washed without soap in streams.

Soap got its name, according to an ancient Roman legend, from Mount Sapo, where animals were sacrificed. Rain washed a mixture of melted animal fat, or tallow, and wood ashes down into the clay soil along the Tiber River. Women found that this clay mixture made their wash cleaner with much less effort.
The ancient Germans and Gauls are also credited with discovering a substance called soap, made of tallow and ashes, that they used to tint their hair red.

As Roman civilization advanced, so did bathing. The first of the famous Roman baths, supplied with water from their aqueducts, was built about 312 B.C. The baths were luxurious, and bathing became very popular. By the second century A.D., the Greek physician, Galen, recommended soap for both medicinal and cleansing purposes.


After the fall of Rome in 467 A.D. and the resulting decline in bathing habits, much of Europe felt the impact of filth upon public health. This lack of personal cleanliness and related unsanitary living conditions contributed heavily to the great plagues of the Middle Ages, and especially to the Black Death of the 14th century. It wasn't until the 17th century that cleanliness and bathing started to come back into fashion in much of Europe. Still there were areas of the medieval world where personal cleanliness remained important. Daily bathing was a common custom in Japan during the Middle Ages. And in Iceland, pools warmed with water from hot springs were popular gathering places on Saturday evenings.

That's a lot of info..thx.good q's.

Answer 2

Uh I don't know how often they took a bath but ancient people used leaves for soap.

Answer 3

I'll give you some links rather than cut and pasted tons of text - I like to give others a chance to answer too.

A Short History of Bathing before 1601:
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/baths.html

The History of Bathing and Bathrooms
http://www.mapleridge.org/community/heritage/bathrooms_bathing.html

Bathtub: Wikipeida - scroll down to Content box to get a link to a history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub

The Stand - Up Bath - subsection of a History of Plumbing
http://www.theplumber.com/standup.html

Edited to add: Realized you were asking about soap.
The Discovery and Prehistory of Soap
http://www.butser.org.uk/iafsoap_hcc.html

Have fun! :-)

Answer 4

Hey girl, I know this was years ago so I'm not sure why I'm commenting.. But I'm 13 right now. I cry a lot because my acne. I have a BUNCH of little bumps on my face and RED acne on the sides of my face. I am supper embarrassed. I have oily skin to.. But when I wash twice a day it's to dry :\ all my friends have PERFECT skin. Legit. And I feel like they are prettier because of there clear faces :(

Answer 5

Don't think soap is so recent an invention, see on Wikipedia encyclopedy : www.wikipedia.org/
Annyway, it is not the soap which wash, its the water, the soap transforms fats , which are water repellent, so that water can do it's job.

Answer 6

they didnt have a shower, they bathed in bowl or bath, no soap, hence they wernt as wrinkly and dried out as us , as soap dries your skin out.