Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Ancient Ointment



In 2005, Italian archaeologists discovered 2,000+ year old lotion left nearly intact in the cosmetic case of an aristocratic Etruscan woman. While excavating a necropolis near the Tuscan town of Chiusi, an intact tomb, dating to c. 250 BCE, was found. It bore the name of Thana Presnti Plecunia Umranalisa, a member of one of the most important aristocratic families of Chiusi. The archaeologists’ discovery was only recently made public after chemical analysis revealed the original compounds of the ancient lotion.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/10/ancient-ointment.htm

--Shahriyar J., Period 7

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks like the lotion dried out..almost a paradox...

Unknown said...

Oh wow I women were freaked out about dry skin way back then too! Haha, that's so cool, I wonder if it still works.

Devina said...

Wow Shahriyar! I never thought before that ointment/lotion ever came from the other place besides the queen from Egypt. That was really unique of them back then.

Unknown said...

haha that's awesome, i wonder what else there is preserved out there we haven't discovered yet.

Nick Heath said...

This is an especially interesting article because of the age of the lotion. It intrigues me to wonder if only members of aristocratic families could afford to obtain these kinds of lotions. If other commoners could obtain these cosmetics, would they have traded for them or would the lotions be reasonably priced so that they could buy them? It is an interesting subject to contemplate.

NonaB said...

This is a very interesting article to me because I did not even realize that they used lotion in those days. The lady whose lotion it was was part of the aristocrcy. Was it only women who were part of the aristocracy that had the privledge of using lotion?

TJ Jones said...

It is amazing that something used today was already discovered and used 2000 years ago. It is also amazing that, through chemical analysis, we can find out the compounds that originally used to make the lotion. This is a very interesting subject that deserves some contemplation.