The most important element of personal hygiene was always cleanliness, achieved by frequent washing or bathing. Priests had to wash daily, or more often, to remain ritually pure. Upper-class houses of the New Kingdom were equipped with bathrooms, usually consisting of a room or alcove equipped with a stone slab on which people might kneel or stand while water was poured over them from above.
Soap, as it is known today, did not exist. Modern soap is made of fat and lye obtained by pouring water over hardwood ash. Given the lack of hardwood trees in Egypt and surrounding countries, ancient inhabitants of the Nile Valley had to find other cleansers. Thus, instead of soap, ancient Egyptians compounded "body scrubs" of salt, natron, and honey to cleanse the body. Recipes for these cleansers are found in medical papyri. One such cleanser, from the back of the Edwin Smith Medical Papyrus, also includes calcite (Egyptian alabaster) granules. In the burial effects of the minor wives of King Tuthmosis III (1504-1450), pots of "cleansing cream," consisting of vegetable oils or animal fat and lime (CaO), were found. Natron could also be used alone as a cleanser. (Although natron was used in mummification, its use as a skin cleanser is not as unlikely as it might seem: some modern bath cubes consist of talc, scent, calcium carbonate, and calcium bicarbonate, the latter two being the chief components of natron.) After cleansing, the skin would need to be moisturized with unguents and scented oils to keep it from drying out in Egypt's arid climate.
Recent Pages:
· The Western Desert in Ancient Egypt
· Lake Mariotis in Ancient Egypt
· Egyptian hieroglyph and Society
· Ancient Egypt videos
· Pan-Grave People and Culture
· Pepinakht Heqaib
Soap, as it is known today, did not exist. Modern soap is made of fat and lye obtained by pouring water over hardwood ash. Given the lack of hardwood trees in Egypt and surrounding countries, ancient inhabitants of the Nile Valley had to find other cleansers. Thus, instead of soap, ancient Egyptians compounded "body scrubs" of salt, natron, and honey to cleanse the body. Recipes for these cleansers are found in medical papyri. One such cleanser, from the back of the Edwin Smith Medical Papyrus, also includes calcite (Egyptian alabaster) granules. In the burial effects of the minor wives of King Tuthmosis III (1504-1450), pots of "cleansing cream," consisting of vegetable oils or animal fat and lime (CaO), were found. Natron could also be used alone as a cleanser. (Although natron was used in mummification, its use as a skin cleanser is not as unlikely as it might seem: some modern bath cubes consist of talc, scent, calcium carbonate, and calcium bicarbonate, the latter two being the chief components of natron.) After cleansing, the skin would need to be moisturized with unguents and scented oils to keep it from drying out in Egypt's arid climate.
Recent Pages:
· The Western Desert in Ancient Egypt
· Lake Mariotis in Ancient Egypt
· Egyptian hieroglyph and Society
· Ancient Egypt videos
· Pan-Grave People and Culture
· Pepinakht Heqaib