The Romans are credited with discovering soap in 1000 B.C. However, it turns out that soap making directions have been seen on clay tablets of the Sumerians and they dated around 2500 B.C. myths have it that wood ash that came from a sacrifice and animal fat mixture got into River Tiber that is on the Sapo Hill; the usual place where women did their laundry. The women discovered that due to this substance, clothes became cleaner. “Soap”, which is the modern word is derived from “Sapo” the place believed to be where the soapy solution originated from.
Ancient Rome is the home of the first hard evidence of the art of soap making. The ruins that were found in the city of Pompeii revealed that there was a soap factory in the area and it had finished bars. However, despite the Romans’ fame for taking public baths, they did not use the soap for bathing; they used it only
Soap bar
for washing clothes. This is because they found the soap too harsh. Soap making techniques resurfaced in the eighteenth century when bathing widely practiced. Previously, using soap among a number of people was regarded as unsanitary and dangerous due to superstitions. A wave of demand for “domesticated soaps” brought on new discoveries in the field of soap making.