| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Roman cosmetic secrets revealed |
| 2004-11-04 |
| The fashion conscious women of Roman Britain used a tin-based foundation to get a pale and appealing look. The evidence comes from a sealed pot of ointment found at an archaeological dig in Southwark, south London, last year. Bristol University scientists analysed the cream and found it to be made from animal fat, starch and tin oxide. They tell Nature magazine that their own version of this second century AD cosmetic leaves a smooth, powdery texture when rubbed into the skin. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #17 Any pictures .com? Just scientific curiousity. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-11-04 10:01:52 PM |
| #16 Any pictures .com? Just scientific curiousity. |
| Posted by: whitecollar redneck 2004-11-04 10:01:13 PM |
| #15 Thanks Fred - exactly. Would you believe Roman / Romano-British girls also wore bikinis on the banks of the Thames? They've found at least one such leather number in the London mud. It's finds like that that make history come to life. To me, anyway. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-11-04 11:28:07 AM |
| #14 You say "Pantheon" and thought "Parthenon." Happens all the time. Roman girlies used to wear bikinis and eat hamburgers when they went on holiday to the Isle of Capri... |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-11-04 11:17:11 AM |
| #13 Oh no it wasn't. Bummer. Apologies. Must've been getting it confused with the Acropolis. Inspired by Greek architecture though. Ahem. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-11-04 10:01:59 AM |
| #12 The Pantheon was Greek, too. Just to pick holes. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-11-04 9:38:36 AM |
| #11 Slaves? I think most of that stuff was actually built by the Roman legions. Some slave labor could have been employed however. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-11-04 8:35:58 AM |
| #10 There is more to Roman roads than the fact that they were rather straight. I didn't mean the adjective to limit the scope of their achievement to that aspect. I'm not claiming the Romans had unknown, magical techniques. I'm saying we don't have any record of how they evolved their techniques. And flat stones are a lot less impressive than the Pantheon or an aqueduct system -- these constructions require a lot of design and planning, rather than lengthy slave labour. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-11-04 8:23:46 AM |
| #9 Sheep intestines. Howard I was thinking New Zealand. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-11-04 8:20:44 AM |
| #8 This discussion reminds me of the claim that the ancient Egyptians must have had unknown techniques to be able to polish large stones to incredible flatness. It's very simple really: you put the roughly flat side up, pour water on the top, and instruct your slave to polish everywhere the water doesn't puddle. |
| Posted by: Tom 2004-11-04 8:13:36 AM |
| #7 We know a lot of what went wrong, though What I find fascinating is how in less than a generation (and perhaps much less time) all the Roman technologies - pottery, iron working, building, plumbing, etc. just dissapeared from Britain around 425 AD and didn't reappear for over 500 years. BTW, I recall the Romans used animal intensines as condoms. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-11-04 8:00:34 AM |
| #6 Potatoes?!!! Straight roads were achieved using quite simple triangluation techniques, essentially the same as Victorian cartographers employed. Adam Hart-Davis said so. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-11-04 7:40:10 AM |
| #5 A bit like current day Derbyshire, then. |
| Posted by: Howard_UK 2004-11-04 7:38:10 AM |
| #4 They had sheep and paper Howard. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-11-04 7:33:31 AM |
| #3 condoms?! |
| Posted by: Howard_UK 2004-11-04 7:25:52 AM |
| #2 They had a lot of surprising stuff, most of it with no explanation left of how they developed it. Potato jam. Condoms. The Pantheon, straight roads, aqueducts, tunnels, and shafts. There is no record of how and when their engineers evolved their designs to near perfection. We know a lot of what went wrong, though. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-11-04 6:55:31 AM |
| #1 The Romans had lube? |
| Posted by: Howard_UK 2004-11-04 5:52:18 AM |