Humans only discovered soap about four and a half thousand years ago, and before that, they lived without it for almost their entire history. However, the Stone Age was far from a time of total filth. In this episode, we explore what ancient people washed their bodies and hair with, how they brushed their teeth without a toothbrush, what they did with lice, where they got water in winter, and why their skin was in better condition than modern humans.

Inside: tartar as a time capsule, two-million-year-old toothpick marks, chewed birch resin containing a girl's DNA, 77,000-year-old bedding with a natural insecticide, Stone Age steam baths, lye from ashes, soap plants, clay instead of shampoo, and moss instead of diapers. And an honest conversation about the downside: lice, parasites, smoke, and bad teeth.

We'll also explore persistent misconceptions: whether people washed themselves once in their lives, whether they brushed their teeth, whether dirt provided warmth, and whether people understood the connection between dirt and disease.

⚠️ The video is based on data from archaeology, paleoanthropology, experimental archaeology, and ethnography. Where scientists argue, it's stated directly.

👉 Subscribe if you enjoy calm analyses of ancient people without fiction or horror stories.

📚 SOURCES AND READING ON THE TOPIC
• Wadley L. et al. Middle Stone Age Bedding Construction and Settlement Patterns at Sibudu, South Africa. Science, 2011.
• Jensen T. Z. T. et al. A 5700-year-old human genome and oral microbiome from chewed birch pitch. Nature Communications, 2019.
• Hardy K. et al. Neanderthal medics? Evidence for food, cooking and medicinal plants entrapped in dental calculus. Naturwissenschaften, 2012.
• Warinner C. et al. Pathogens and host immunity in the ancient human oral cavity. Nature Genetics, 2014.
• Lozano M. et al. Toothpicking and periodontal disease in a Neanderthal specimen from Cova Foradà. PLOS ONE, 2013.
• Hlubik S. et al. Hominin fire use and the archeology of hearths. Current Anthropology, 2017.
• Bushdid C. et al. Humans can discriminate more than one trillion olfactory stimuli. Science, 2014.
• Reinhard K. J., Bryant V. M. Coprolite analysis: a biological perspective on archaeology. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory.
• Spikins P. et al. Living to fight another day: the ecological and evolutionary significance of Neanderthal healthcare. Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018.
• Hurcombe, L. Perishable Material Culture in Prehistory. Routledge, 2014.

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