Roman cosmetics find in London

Archaeologists excavating the site of a major Roman temple in London have found a sealed box containing a white cream still bearing the fingermarks of the person who last used it, nearly 2,000 years ago.

"This is of major significance," said Museum of London curator Francis Grew Monday. The substance, which will now be chemically analyzed, could be face cream or even face paint, he told reporters. "We are in completely uncharted territory here. Not only is the quality of workmanship of the box exceptional, but to find one in such good condition still sealed and with its original contents will raise huge interest around the world," he added.

Museum conservator Liz Barham who opened the fist-sized cylindrical tin box for the first time Monday, in front of the world's media, described the smell from the half-full container as "sulphurous" and "cheesy". . .

The site -- which last year revealed a stone tablet with the earliest known inscription bearing the Roman name of London -- dates from 50 AD and contained two small temples, a guest house for travelers, plinths for statues and a stone pillar. . .

Apart from the tin box and stone tablet, the site in modern day Southwark about two miles south of central London has also revealed pieces of statues, leather shoes and a wooden writing tablet among many other artifacts.

It will disappear under concrete this Summer when construction of a shopping and housing complex starts.

From Reuters. I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that the stuff is full of white lead, like the concoctions used by Queen Elizabeth I and her contemporaries to hide the ravages of smallpox.

UPDATE: Here's another article -- which notes that the Romans used ass's milk as a facial cream -- with a picture of the tin.

AND a bronze foot from a colossal statue was found at the same site on Friday:

It had been expected to be a routine excavation of an area of small houses and workshops, by Pre-Construct Archaeology and consultants EC Harris, in advance of house building. What they actually found was an unknown Romano-Celtic temple complex, dating from the 2nd century AD, the first ever found in London and described yesterday as one of the most important discoveries of a Roman site in the past 50 years in Britain. . .

Mr Grew said that worshippers at the temple were likely to have been prosperous bourgeoisie, rather than the highest echelon of officials. The box was well made and would have been an expensive item, "but I think we're talking Mappin and Webb rather than Aspreys here".

From the Guardian.

ADDENDUM: Here's a piece on Roman beauty secrets -- not all of which you will wish to try at home.

Posted by David on July 28, 2003 11:01 AM