All over the world, for all of human history &ndash; and probably going back to our earliest hominid ancestors &ndash; people have found ways to try to keep themselves clean. But how did soap come about?&nbsp; Research: <ul> <li>&ldquo;Soap, N. (1), Etymology.&rdquo; Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1115187665.</li> <li>American Cleaning Institute. &ldquo;Soaps & Detergents History.&rdquo; https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/understanding-products/why-clean/soaps-detergents-history</li> <li>Beckmann, John. &ldquo;History of Inventions, Discoveries and Origins.&rdquo; William Johnston, translator.</li> <li>Bosart, L.W. &ldquo;The Early History of the Soap Industry.&rdquo; The American Oil Chemists' Society. Journal of Oil & Fat Industries 1924-10: Vol 1 Iss 2.</li> <li>Cassidy, Cody. &ldquo;Who Discovered Soap? What to Know About the Origins of the Life-Saving Substance.&rdquo; Time. 5/5/2020. https://time.com/5831828/soap-origins/</li> <li>Ciftyurek, Muge, and Kasim Ince. "Selahattin Okten Soap Factory in Antakya and an Evaluation on Soap Factory Plan Typology/Antakya'da Bulunan Selahattin Okten Sabunhanesi ve Sabunhane Plan Tipolojisi Uzerine Bir Degerlendirme." Art-Sanat, no. 19, Jan. 2023, pp. 133+. Gale Academic OneFile, dx.doi.org/10.26650/artsanat.2023.19.1106544. Accessed 18 Aug. 2025.</li> <li>Costa, Albert B. &ldquo;Michel-Eug&egrave;ne Chevreul.&rdquo; Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michel-Eugene-Chevreul</li> <li>Curtis, Valerie A. &ldquo;Dirt, disgust and disease: a natural history of hygiene.&rdquo; Journal of epidemiology and community health vol. 61,8 (2007): 660-4. doi:10.1136/jech.2007.062380</li> <li>Dijkstra, Albert J. &ldquo;How Chevreul (1786-1889) based his conclusions on his analytical results.&rdquo; OCL. Vol. 16, No. 1. January-February 2009.</li> <li>Gibbs, F.W. &ldquo;The History and Manufacture of Soap.&rdquo; Annals of Science. 1939.</li> <li>Koeppel, Dan. &ldquo;The History of Soap.&rdquo; 4/15/2020. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/history-of-soap/</li> <li>List, Gary, and Michael Jackson. &ldquo;Giants of the Past: The Battle Over Hydrogenation (1903-1920).&rdquo; https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=210614</li> <li>Maniatis, George C. &ldquo;Guild Organized Soap Manufacturing Industry in Constantinople: Tenth-Twelfth Centuries.&rdquo; Byzantion, 2010, Vol. 80 (2010). https://www.jstor.org/stable/44173107</li> <li>National Museum of American History. &ldquo;Bathing (Body Soaps and Cleansers).&rdquo; https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/health-hygiene-and-beauty/bathing-body-soaps-and-cleansers</li> <li>New Mexico Historic Sites. &ldquo;Making Soap from the Leaves of the Soaptree Yucca.&rdquo; https://nmhistoricsites.org/assets/files/selden/Virtual%20Classroom_Soaptree%20Yucca%20Soap%20Making.pdf</li> <li>&ldquo;The history of soapmaking.&rdquo; 8/30/2019. https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-science-technology-and-medicine/history-science/the-history-soapmaking</li> <li>Pliny the Elder. &ldquo;The Natural History of Pliny. Translated, With Copious Notes and Illustrations.&rdquo; Vol. 5. John Bostock, translator. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/60688/60688-h/60688-h.htm</li> <li>Pointer, Sally. &ldquo;An Experimental Exploration of the Earliest Soapmaking.&rdquo; EXARC Journal. 2024/3. 8/22/2024. https://exarc.net/issue-2024-3/at/experimental-exploration-earliest-soapmaking</li> <li>Ridner, Judith. &ldquo;The dirty history of soap.&rdquo; The Conversation. 5/12/2020. https://theconversation.com/the-dirty-history-of-soap-136434</li> <li>Routh, Hirak Behari et al. &ldquo;Soaps: From the Phoenicians to the 20th Century - A Historical Review.&rdquo; Clinics in Dermatology. Vol. No. 3. 1996.</li> <li>Smith, Cyril Stanley, and John G. Hawthorne. &ldquo;Mappae Clavicula: A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques.&rdquo; Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 64, no. 4, 1974, pp. 1&ndash;128. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1006317. Accessed 18 Aug. 2025.</li> <li>Timilsena, Yakindra Prasad et al. &ldquo;Perspectives on Saponins: Food Functionality and Applications.&rdquo; International journal of molecular sciences vol. 24,17 13538. 31 Aug. 2023, doi:10.3390/ijms241713538</li> <li>&ldquo;Craftsmanship of Aleppo Ghar soap.&rdquo; https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/craftsmanship-of-aleppo-ghar-soap-02132</li> <li>&ldquo;Tradition of Nabulsi soap making in Palestine.&rdquo; https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/tradition-of-nabulsi-soap-making-in-palestine-02112</li> <li>&ldquo;Soaps.&rdquo; https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/ethnobotany/soaps.shtml</li> <li>van Dijk, Kees. &ldquo;Soap is the onset of civilization.&rdquo; From Cleanliness and Culture. Kees van Dijk and Jean Gelman Taylor, eds. Brill. 2011. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvbnm4n9.4</li> <li>Wei, Huang. &ldquo;The Sordid, Sudsy Rise of Soap in China.&rdquo; Sixth Tone. 8/11/2020. https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006041</li> </ul>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

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