Ancient Roman laundrymen plied their trade under the patronage of the goddess Minerva, whose symbol, the owl, perches on a wicker frame in this fresco from Pompeii’s largest laundry. (Soiled clothing in need of bleaching was placed on a conical frame over a smudge pot with burning sulfur.)
The entire laundry process was a noisome affair. Containers standing outside the laundries served as convenient urinals for male passersby and provided launderers with a key ingredient in first-century A.D. detergent. Human urine was combined with potassium carbonate (or potash, from wood ashes) and mixed with hot water in large tubs. Dirty clothes were steeped in the tubs and then trampled by laundry workers before being rinsed, wrung out and dried in the sun. An absorbent clay known as “fuller’s earth” was used to de-grease clothing that was too delicate for such vigorous washing.
Laundry workers would then card the cloth, brushing it to raise the nap before shearing it smooth. Wrinkles were minimized by pressing the clothes in a vise. Laundry workers paid a stiff price for their fellow citizens’ sartorial splendor: Prolonged exposure to urine, fuller’s earth, water and sulfur fumes would have caused infections and respiratory ailments.
It’s not surprising that ancient Pompeians relied on their launderers. Togas, after all, were heavy garments, sometimes 20 feet long and 10 feet wide. Moreover, although ordinary citizens dressed in low-maintenance, off-white togas and tunics, patrician Romans wore pure white togas that required frequent cleaning.
Ancient Roman laundrymen plied their trade under the patronage of the goddess Minerva, whose symbol, the owl, perches on a wicker frame in this fresco from Pompeii’s largest laundry. (Soiled clothing in need of bleaching was placed on a conical frame over a smudge pot with burning sulfur.) The entire laundry process was a noisome affair. Containers standing outside the laundries served as convenient urinals for male passersby and provided launderers with a key ingredient in first-century A.D. detergent. Human urine was combined with potassium carbonate (or potash, from wood ashes) and mixed with hot water in large tubs. […]
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