Make-up's ancient history discovered in Omani shells

Shells containing green and black pigments have been found at the Salut archaeological site

Dr Michele Degli Esposti excavating a late pre-Islamic grave at the Salut archaeological site in Oman, where shells were found that revealed ancient cosmetic habits. Photo: Dr Michele Degli Esposti

Archaeological research near the Hajar Mountains in Oman has shed light on the history of cosmetics and proved there is nothing new about people wanting to enhance their appearance.

A study, based on the analysis of half a dozen shells found at the Salut archaeological site, has revealed Iron Age people used black and green pigments that were kept in shells. Many of these were discovered in burial sites, indicating that the make-up may have been considered important in the afterlife.

“In the same way they were burying pots, stuff they used in daily life, maybe they were also burying them [cosmetic shells] to accompany the dead,” said first author of the study, Dr Michele Degli Esposti, from the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

Cosmetic protection

Historically, pigments such as kohl have been regarded, not necessarily with scientific evidence, as being of medicinal value, perhaps because they were thought to prevent infection.

“It might be possible that ancient people reckoned kohl to have some curative property, so they wanted to give their dead some way to protect themselves,” Dr Degli Esposti said. “This can just be speculation. The farther back we go in time, the more so, because you don’t find literary sources.”

The shells were also found around dwellings, a sign that the use of cosmetics was part and parcel of daily life.

The paper 'A First Glance at Pre‐Islamic Pigments in Shells From Salut (Sultanate of Oman)' is published in Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. Researchers looked at six cosmetic shells, three from an Iron Age settlement dated between 1300 BCE and 100 CE, and three from graves thought to be from the second or first millennium BCE.

Archaeologists have found much earlier evidence for the use of cosmetics in the Middle East, with red ochre having been unearthed at a site in Umm Al Quwain dating back at least 6,000 years.

Who used the pigments and what was in them?

Traditionally, both men and women in the region have used the black cosmetic kohl, especially around the eyes, so Dr Degli Esposti said it was possible the pigments found at Salut were used by anyone.

“Projecting what we see now in the past, we could suggest that both men and women were using it, especially if it was also endowed with medical properties,” Dr Degli Esposti said. “It happens quite a lot that we project modern ethnographic observations into the past. Often you must be cautious with that, but in many cases it’s the only way we have to build things into a broader context and into a narrative.”

A central part of the research was discovering the chemical composition of the colours. The shells were sent to Italy, where researchers at the University of Milan found that the green pigments included minerals containing copper, while the black pigments had minerals containing manganese.

The pigments also tend to contain calcite and quartz along with, probably, water and oil, although the recent research did not test for these.

Environment's role

Another of the paper’s authors, Prof Andrea Zerboni, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Milan, said the region’s arid environment was good for preserving archaeological materials, including pigments.

“In this case, the pigments have been preserved thanks to the low presence of water in the sediments that hosted them, which prevented extreme alteration and the removal of the material,” he said. “Earth science investigation techniques were used to study the mineralogical composition of the pigments and to understand how they have been preserved over time."

Prof Zerboni added that the geology of the area influenced the development of the funerary landscape of the Salut region. “It is interesting to observe how communities of the Iron Age and later periods consistently sought to take advantage of the landscape’s natural forms to construct their funerary monuments, placing them on hilltops, or slopes, or associating them with large boulders present in the area,” he said.

As well as looking at the pigments, the researchers who carried out the study were interested in the shells themselves, which they identified as coming from species of bivalve mollusc commonly found in the area.

The paper offers initial results from a wider project that will analyse about 30 cosmetic shells from several locations, including some in the UAE, such as Tell Abraq, a site on the border of Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain where Dr Degli Esposti is currently working.

Other samples in this larger follow-up study come from Siniyah Island in Umm Al Quwain and date from the sixth to the eighth centuries CE. “This is nice because it extends the samples and also it comes closer to the modern day, which shows the continuity,” Dr Degli Esposti said.