Grooming and Sanitation
Even in the squalor of an army camp, people try to keep clean.
- combs (not just for Spartans!) Ur Project category 33, Solokha Comb from Ukraine, a similar Etruscan comb with lions instead of warriors. Sanctuaries frequented by women such as the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta tend to contain decorated combs: one from Artemis Orthia, sketch of another (British School at Athens, BSA SPHS/1/3875.7430 from Dawkins, R.M. 1929. The sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta). Bronze Age Egyptian combs tend to be single-sided but there are double-sided examples. The Walters has more single-sided Egyptian combs.
- earspoons/earscoops (2 bronze from Kalapodi (pp. 208, 357, Taf. 8), 2 silver from Golyamata Mogila, 1 silver from Chehrābād Saltman 1)
- kohl sticks
- tweezers (1 bronze from Nineveh, 17 bronze or iron from Kalapodi p. 206, 1 iron from Karaburun IV (Mellink 1972))
- toothpicks?
- razors?
- brushes?
- shears?
- Ur Project Category 36 Toiletry Kits “This category includes objects used in personal hygiene, with a case surrounding the instruments. The instruments include a pointed rod, possibly a khol stick, a lancet, or stiletto, a flattened spatual object, and a pair of tweezers. These are encased in a metal cone known as a reticule.” Mccowen, Nippur I, p. 108 calls them “toiletry kits.”
- Mirrors (of bronze): Curtis, Late Assyrian Metalwork, pp. 123; U-15449; Moorey, Deve-Hüyük
Washbasins and Ewers: not just for Pontius Pilate, in Neo-Assyrian letters silver washbasins were common diplomatic gifts!
Mirrors in the long sixth century were usually discs of polished bronze with a tang and a handle. The back often had decoration, ranging from concentric circles to elaborate engravings. They seem to have been very common, and they were important to women in many cultures. “Most [Etruscan bronze mirrors] were slightly concave, so that held at arm’s length much of the upper body would be in view” (Judith Swadding, Corpus of Etruscan Mirrors): medieval glass mirrors also bulge outwards for the same reason.
