The Origins of Soap

In 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, someone mixed fat and oil and ash and made soap. Today, from the same shores, a business that spans generations of the Evyap family makes Duru, a nature-inspired collection of soaps, washes and other personal care products.   In ancient times soap was primarily used to wash clothing. Fabric was cleaned with this soap while weaving, to better hold together and to help set the dyes that gave the fabric color. In Egypt soap was used to clean pots and the statues of gods. As its use spread west, the Gauls and the Celts in Northern Europe began to use it on their skin and hair. They applied a thick paste to their bodies and scraped it off with a metal blade called a strigil. They gave it its name, soap, from the Celtic and Latin cognate “saipo,” and formed their mixture into small balls, easy to use and trade.   Evidence of soapmaking can be found in the ruins of Pompei, and the Romans used soap as a medicine, enabling physicians to clean wounds and infections and stop the spread of disease. By the eighth century AD, soapmakers in the Eastern Roman Empire formed a guild, and they were held in the same esteem as carpenters and masons. But their soap smelled terrible.   Back in the eastern Mediterranean craftsmen began to use olive oil instead of animal fat. They added fragrance from thyme, yarrow, lavender and germander to a molten brew they poured it into molds and allowed it to cool and harden for two weeks. They exported their fragrant soap west into Europe and east into Asia. By the 13th century an industry was born.   Soap became commonplace and mass-produced throughout the industrial revolution, and while cleanliness spread to the world’s population, soapmaking lost some of its art and allure. With Duru that art and allure of the eastern Mediterranean has returned as the Evyap family takes pride in honoring the past while bringing a bit of indulgence to today’s everyday moments.   Available for the first time in the US market with new formulas and fragrances, we hope you’ll enjoy our products as much as we enjoy sharing them with you.