Archaeologists excavating an ancient site in Kerman province in southeastern Iran found a tube of red lipstick in a looted gravesite in the Jiroft region in 2001. Recent radiocarbon dating has revealed that the cosmetic artifact was made between 1936 and 1687 B.C., making it the earliest reported lipstick. The details of the discovery are discussed in a study called "A Bronze Age Lip-Paint from Southeastern Iran" by Nasir Eskandari, Eugenio De Carlo, Federico Zorzi, Stefano Dall’Acqua, Claudio Furlan, Gilberto Artioli, and Massimo Vidale, which was published this month in Scientific Reports.
The researchers say that the small vial of deep red paste was housed in a decorated stone tube and could be nearly 4,000 years old, making it one of the earliest ever discovered.
According to the report, the reddish substance's mineral components were identified as hematite, darkened with manganite and braunite, and traces of galena and anglesite, mixed with vegetal waxes and other organic substances. The mixture is very similar to contemporary lipstick ingredients.
After almost four thousand years, the residue from the lipstick appears as a fine purple powder inside the small, decorated chlorite container it was found in. Among the various ingredients, hematite is known for its intense red colour, and it was darkened using braunite and manganite. The researchers also found traces of anglesite, galena, and other organic substances. There were also vegetal fibers in the lipstick, possibly added for their aromatic properties, as well as quartz particles from ground sand or crystals.
The team believe that the pigment found in the vial may have originated from the Marḫaši civilisation, a dominant ancient civilisation from eastern Iran. Mesopotamian texts suggest that the Marḫaši civilisation was very powerful. The age of the pigment is not surprising to scientists, given the well-established technical and aesthetic traditions in cosmetology that existed in ancient Iran. "The vial displays intricate craftsmanship, featuring fine incisions, and bears resemblance to a marsh cane segment, a type of container which was commonly used in various proto-urban societies in the Middle Asia and the Ancient Near East regions," says the report.
