Ancient Romans valued urine for its ammonia content. They found the natural enemy of dirt and grease valuable for laundering clothes and even whitening teeth. And like all valuable products, there was a scheme to tax it.
Ancient Roman Mouthwash
Importing bottled urine became so popular that the emperor Nero taxed the trade. The ammonia in urine was thought to disinfect mouths and whiten teeth, and urine remained a popular mouthwash ingredient until the 18th century.
Before soap, urine, mixed with water, was used as a detergent for clothing. The ammonia in the urine made even the worst stains go out of the clothes. The barrels of urine were therefore eagerly purchased by laundries. Urine was not only used to wash clothes, but the Romans also used it to brush their teeth.
Cultural and medical practices in Egypt, China, Thailand and the Aztec empire also advocated its use. During ancient Roman times, Pliny the Elder, used urine for treeing sores, burns, anal afflictions, scorpion stings and baby rash.
The Romans cleaned their behinds with sea sponges attached to a stick, and the gutter supplied clean flowing water to dip the sponges in. This soft, gentle tool was called a tersorium, which literally meant “a wiping thing.”
A sponge on a stick
If you went to the toilet in ancient Rome, you would not have any toilet paper. Instead you may have used a sponge (Latin: tersorium) to wipe. These ancient devices consisted of a stick with a vinegar- or salt water-soaked sponge attached. They were often shared!
Although there were many sewers, public latrines, baths and other sanitation infrastructure, disease was still rampant. Most dwellings were not connected to street drains or sewers. Some apartment buildings (insulae) might have had a latrine and a fountain on the ground floor.
Ancient Romans used to use both human and animal urine as mouthwash in order to whiten their teeth. The thing is, it actually works, it's just gross. Our urine contains ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, that is capable of acting as a cleansing agent.
Some used ash obtained from burned mouse, wolf or rabbit heads. Burned remains of ox horns, goat's feet and egg shells mixed with pumice were also used. The Romans also rinsed their mouth with turtle blood three times a year to prevent toothache. The Romans also used urine to whiten teeth.
Indeed the characteristic smell of urine is partly due to ammonia. A solution of ammonia in water is alkaline and alkaline solutions are effective cleaning agents because they can break down fats into soluble fatty acids and glycerol.
The ancient Romans used a mixture of charcoal and goat fat as deodorant. In the 19th century, lime solutions or potassium permanganate were used. These substances work disinfecting. The first commercial deodorant was patented by Edna Murphey in Philadelphia, PA, USA, in 1888.
To most Romans, personal cleanliness was a matter of pride and bathing a daily ritual. The city now had 200 public baths of varying sizes and degrees of luxury – places to relax, socialise and wash off the day's dirt.
The Romans did not have disinfectants and it is likely that the bathing pools were only periodically emptied and cleaned. In addition, the baths often had built-in toilets which recycled bath water to carry away the waste.
Preparing the Hide. Thankfully, modern tanners don't need to use urine or dung to prepare skins for tanning. They do, however, need to follow many of the same steps that the ancients did. Soaking with anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agents.
“They had really good teeth – they ate a diet that contained few sugars, and was high in fruit and vegetables,” orthodontist Elisa Vanacore said at a press conference last week.
We saw one of the uses when we were looking at the production of cloth. Stored urine was used in the fulling and bleaching processes. Urine was pounded into the cloth, with with the feet or wooden paddles. The cloth was rinsed and then spread out to dry in the sun.
When it comes to the best overall dental health, Denmark takes the #1 spot. With a DMFT (decayed, missing, or filled teeth) index score of 0.4, Danish citizens have pretty perfect teeth. Germany, Finland, Sweden, and the UK all have scores below 1.0, making them the five countries with the healthiest teeth.
Not even the Greeks and Romans, who pioneered running water and public baths, used soap to clean their bodies. Instead, men and women immersed themselves in water baths and then smeared their bodies with scented olive oils. They used a metal or reed scraper called a strigil to remove any remaining oil or grime.
For example, the old superstition was known – kissing a female mule in the nostrils cured hiccups and a runny nose. It was also believed that some people were capable of hurting others just by looking at them. Such superstition was called the “evil eye”.
Victorian Oral Hygiene & Dental Decay
Most people cleaned their teeth using water with twigs or rough cloths as toothbrushes. Some splurged on a “tooth-powder” if they could afford it. Sugar became more widely distributed, thus contributing to an increase in tooth decay during this time period.
Teeth ultimately turn yellow as you get older, when enamel wears away from chewing and exposure to acids from food and drink.
One of the most pressing problems, in the absence of soaps and detergent, was how to remove stains, dirt, and grease. The Romans discovered an effective stain-remover: human urine with its high ammonia content. Urine-based cleaning agents, euphemistically known as 'chamber lye', were used well into the 19th century.
"Roman cities must have smelled terrible," says Dr Ager, the author of The Scent of Ancient Magic. At religious sanctuaries, for example, where sacrificial animals were slaughtered, there would have been smells of "a lot of blood and excrement", she says.
Every day, Romans would finish work around the middle of the afternoon and make their way to the baths. Men of all social classes mixed freely together. Old, young, rich and poor would share the daily ritual of the baths.
Ancient Rome was famous for its sanitation: latrines, sewer systems, piped water and public baths believed to improve public health.