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The world’s oldest known lipstick was used up to 5,000 years ago in what is now southern Iran, a new study has revealed.
The deep red lip paint in a stone vial was discovered at the site of an ancient cemetery in 2001, but it took researchers some time to identify it.
Unlike modern lipstick, it was probably applied with a brush, an international team of scientists said.
They added that the discovery shed new light on the rapidly changing “public image of female attractiveness” during the Bronze Age.
One of the researchers who analyzed the watch, Massimo Vidale, a professor of archeology at the University of Padua in Italy, told BBC News that he could imagine a woman from “an elite society 5,000 years ago” wearing the watch. He said he liked it.
The vial containing the cosmetic paste was unearthed in a 3rd millennium BC cemetery near the Khalil River in southeastern Iran’s Kerman province.
It was one of many artifacts that surfaced after the flood and fell into the hands of looters before being recovered by Iranian authorities.
Analysis linked it to the “powerful” Bronze Age Markhasi civilization that flourished in that part of Mesopotamia at the time.
Professor Bidale told the BBC: “We were surprised because the material was very different from the gray, compact material found in other flagons to date.”
“When the chisel was inserted into the opening, a loose, uniform powder of dark greyish-purple color spilled out.”
When the researchers analyzed the dried powder, they found it contained hematite, which “gives the paste its deep red color.”
When this was combined with other ingredients such as vegetable oils and waxes, it formed “exactly what you would expect in a modern lipstick”, Professor Bidale said.
Society in the region has changed significantly since the Bronze Age, and Iran’s modern theocracy takes a dim view of such ornaments.
But at the time, the emerging elite of the time wore makeup as part of “a display of luxury and superior status,” as the researchers say.
The researchers also believed that the need to look good was part of the “increasing social stress to which women are exposed in an era of rapid social change.”
Professor Bidale was wary of definitively claiming that he had discovered the world’s oldest lipstick, as there was always the possibility that earlier samples might be discovered.
However, he added, “Let’s just say that our lip paint is quite early. I like to imagine that early Iranian women were stars of elite society 5,000 years ago. But in the future… We will learn more through further research.”
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