Soap
Jabón (grasa y álcali)
- Date
- c. 2800 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Babylon / Girsu (Tello), Iraq
- Credited to
- Sumerians
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Mixture of animal fats or vegetable oils boiled with potash-rich plant ash that produces a surfactant. Sumerian texts prescribe it for washing wool and in medicine, rather than for personal hygiene.
The oldest surviving recipe dates to c. 2200 BCE (Tello tablet); clay cylinders with soapy residue from Babylon are dated to around 2800 BCE, but the interpretation is disputed.
What it led to
- Degreasing of wool and textiles, essential to the temples' wool industry
- Pharmacopoeia of ointments and wound cleaning
- Chemical tradition of saponification that would lead to Syrian and Castilian soap
Built on
- Alkaline ashes
- Olive oil and sesame oil production
- Wool industry
Made possible
- Dry cleaning with solvents1845
- Olive-oil soap (Levant)
- Wool fulling