The love of beauty is shared by everyone and has existed since ancient times. In the early days, the ancients mainly used natural white lead ore in the pursuit of lead white cosmetics with whitening effect, but when and where lead white was first synthesized has been debated in the academic circles and has attracted much attention.
A recent archaeological study completed by Chinese scholars has clarified this "beautiful misunderstanding", and they have found and analyzed the remains of miniature copper containers unearthed from an early Spring and Autumn aristocratic cemetery in Shaanxi Province to find and analyze the remains of the world's earliest known synthetic lead white cosmetics, indicating that the use of synthetic lead white makeup by ancient Chinese in the early Spring and Autumn period was common, nearly 300 years earlier than that of Europe and the Mediterranean region.
This important research paper, which reflects the details of the quality of life of the ancients, was jointly completed by the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the School of Humanities of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) and the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, and was published online on the evening of September 3, Beijing time, in the professional humanities and social sciences journal "Humanities & Social Sciences Communications" (Humanities& Social Sciences Communications), a professional humanities and social sciences journal under Springer Nature, an internationally renowned academic publishing institution.
Samples of synthetic lead white cosmetics used for research. Photo by China News Service reporter Sun Zifa
What is Lead White Cosmetics?
Dr. Han Bin, the first author of the paper and a special research assistant at UCAS, said that lead white usually refers to water leuite, leucite or a mixture of the two, and it is one of the most important cosmetics and pigments in human history.
Lead white is famous in China as "lead flower", from which the idiom "wash away lead flower" comes from, and its original meaning is to wash away the cosmetics called "lead flower" applied on the face, showing the real appearance, and the "lead flower" here is actually lead white.
The use of lead white in early humans came mainly from natural white lead ore, concentrated between 5000 BC and 2000 BC, mainly in southern Europe (around 4000 BC), Egypt (around 3000 BC), Iran (around 3000 BC), Mesopotamia (around 2500 BC) and the Indus Valley (around 2500 BC). Later, around 600 BC, synthetic lead white began to appear.
Samples of synthetic lead white cosmetics used for research. Photo by China News Service reporter Sun Zifa
What is the argument for synthetic lead white?
Han Bin pointed out that according to historical records, in the 4th century BC, the ancient Greeks used the corrosion method to synthesize lead white - put vinegar into a container, and then hang the lead bar on top of the vinegar, and heat (mainly for the fermentation of horse manure heat) The vinegar vapor produced by contact with lead and chemical reaction with lead to form lead white. After that, lead white began to be mass-produced and widely used in paintings and cosmetics in Europe.
In the East, there have long been different views on the origin of synthetic lead white in China, which has long been studied in the history of science and technology: Dr. Joseph Needham, a well-known expert on the history of science and technology, believes that China already had the technology of synthetic lead white in the 5th century BC and then introduced it from China to Europe, while other scholars believe that China's synthetic lead white technology did not originate locally, but may have been introduced from Europe or ancient Egypt.
What are the new discoveries of the remains of the early Spring and Autumn cemetery?
Han Bin said that recently, the Department of Archaeology of UCAS and the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, with the support of the Ruiguo Ruins Museum in Liangdai Village, Shaanxi Province, have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the white residues in the miniature copper containers unearthed from the tombs of the princes and their wives in the early Spring and Autumn Period in the Liangdai Village site in Hancheng, Shaanxi Province, through microscopes, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, stable isotope carbon 13, radioactive carbon 14 and other scientific and technological means, and the results confirmed that the white remains are the world's earliest artificial lead white. At the same time, it also shows that since the early Spring and Autumn period in China, both men and women have pursued whitening.
A set of miniature copper containers excavated from the tomb of the princes' wives (M26) at the site of Liangdai Village. Photo courtesy of the Ruiguo Ruins Museum in Liangdai Village
He further explained that there were a large number of white residues in the miniature containers unearthed at the Liangdai Village site, which were leucite (lead carbonate) or a mixture of leucite and hornite, among which the lead carbonate crystals in the cosmetic residues were pseudohexahedral, long needle-like and prismatic, similar to the morphology of lead carbonate crystals produced by the solution precipitation method. Radioactive C14 dating can be used as an indicator to determine the age of carbon sources, so as to distinguish synthetic lead carbonate from natural white lead ore, and the results of radioactive C14 analysis of lead white samples from Liangdai Village site reveal the synthetic properties of Liangdai Village samples.
A miniature copper vessel excavated from the tomb of a female nobleman (M300) at the site of Liangdai Village. Courtesy of Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology
In addition, the presence of co-existing angular lead ore indicates that the reaction process of artificial synthesis is the reaction of lead monoxide and acetic acid to form soluble lead acetate, and then reacts with carbon dioxide or soluble carbonate (potassium carbonate in plant ash) from wood to produce lead carbonate precipitation in solution, which is significantly different from the corrosion process used in Europe for a long time. This also shows that the artificial synthesis of lead white at the east and west ends of the Eurasian continent is not only different in time - ancient China is two or three hundred years earlier than ancient Greece, and the lead white synthesis technology is of its own independent origin.
Han Bin also pointed out that it has been more than 10 years since the miniature container of the early Spring and Autumn aristocratic cemetery of Liangdai Village was unearthed, and the achievement of the research results of synthetic lead white cosmetics is also inseparable from the careful protection of the unearthed cultural relics by the Ruiguo Ruins Museum in Liangdai Village.
Dr. Han Bin, Special Research Assistant of UCAS, presents and introduces the remains of synthetic lead white cosmetics used for research. Photo by China News Service reporter Sun Zifa
What is the significance of discovering the earliest synthetic lead white?
Professor Yang Yimin, corresponding author of the paper and head of the Department of Archaeology at UCAS, pointed out that the emergence of synthetic lead white methods has promoted the widespread use of whitening cosmetics and art pigments in Eurasia. Because compared with the artificial synthesis of horn lead ore, the artificial synthesis method of lead white is simple, low cost, and suitable for large-scale production, and its widespread use in China and around the Mediterranean Sea can be called a "cosmetic revolution".
In the Greco-Roman world in the West, archaeology testifies to the widespread use of lead white cosmetics by women, and later by men.
In the East, at least since the Spring and Autumn Period, whitening skin tone has been revered, and relevant descriptions have appeared in classic historical documents, including: "there are women like jade", "skin is like clotted fat" and "the moon rises brightly" in the Book of Songs, "skin is like ice and snow" in "Zhuangzi", "pink and white and black" and "pink and white ink black" in "Liezi", "Chu Ci" and "Pink and white ink black" in "Liezi", "Chu Ci" and "Warring States Policy".
Professor Yang Yimin (left), Dean of the Department of Archaeology of UCAS, and Dr. Han Bin, Special Research Assistant of UCAS, exchanged views together. Photo by China News Service reporter Sun Zifa
Yang Yimin believes that this also gave rise to the huge demand for whitening makeup in the Spring and Autumn Period, especially among the aristocracy, which prompted the world's earliest synthetic lead white technology to appear in China around the 7th century BC. At the same time, although there were many vassal states in the Spring and Autumn Period, both from the documents and archaeological remains, they all reflected that the sense of cultural community of the Chinese nation was forming at that time.
In addition, the large-scale production of vinegar in the Western Zhou Dynasty also had an important impact on the synthetic lead white in ancient China. The discovery of the precipitation method of lead white synthesis at the Liangdai Village site provides direct evidence for the ancients to understand the reaction of vinegar (acetic acid) in dissolving metal oxides for material transformation around the 7th century BC, and it is also nearly 1,000 years earlier than the earliest document in ancient China that recorded the practice of wet chemistry, the Thirty-six Water Method, which will promote the study of the origin of wet chemistry in Asia.
A miniature copper vessel excavated from the Princes Rui Cemetery (M27) at the site of Liangdai Village. Photo courtesy of the Ruiguo Ruins Museum in Liangdai Village
In Yang Yimin's view, the origin of synthetic lead white technology is of great significance to the development of science and technology in ancient China. The discovery of synthetic lead white at the site of Liangdai Village not only pushed the history of the use of "lead flower" forward to the early Spring and Autumn Period, but also further confirmed that the Spring and Autumn Period was the rising stage of China's cosmetics industry and had a wide range of social practicability.
"Whether in the east or west of Eurasia, synthetic lead white is always used first in makeup, which also shows that people's pursuit of beauty has promoted the development of chemistry. Yang Yimin said.
Source: WeChat public account "Wuhan Science and Technology Museum"
Editor: Star City
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