M. Vidale, F. Zorzi/Eskandari et al Sci Rep 14, 2670 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52490-w. CC BY 4.0
A small stone tube found among the remains of a mysterious Bronze Age culture could be the oldest known example of lipstick.
The tube, thought to be 4,000 years old, was found among the remains of a powerful people who lived in Iran's Jiroft region in the Bronze Age.
The tube's size and intricate adornments suggest it was likely used by an elite member of society.
They would have held the tube in one hand and used an applicator to apply the deep-red paste with the other, researchers who led the study said in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports,
The paste is remarkably similar to recipes used in modern-day lipsticks, according to the scientists. That could make it the earliest example of lip paint ever found.
"Slowly, we came to compose a pallet of cosmetics, which are very, very similar, according to our reconstruction, to what we do nowadays," Massimo Vidale, an archaeologist at the University of Padua in Italy and an author on the paper, told Business Insider.
The team had previously found traces of green, blue, and yellowish-pink eye shadows and foundation in the area, he said.
"The lip of paint came as the last surprise because we had never found before this kind of very detailed preparation."
F. Zorzi/Eskandari et al Sci Rep 14, 2670 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52490-w. CC BY 4.0
The study of cosmetics in archaeology can provide vital clues about the development of Bronze Age cultures, Vidale said.
To create the pigments found in the tube, people would have had to have advanced knowledge of metallurgy.
"It is a very specialized branch of metallurgy because whatever has to do with colors, to a great extent, is based on metal oxides," said Vidale
"So this really makes the whole thing rather exciting."
Emma Louise Baysal, Associate Professor of Prehistory at Ankara University, who wasn't involved in the study, said: "It is notoriously difficult to know how people enhanced their appearance in the past."
"We have little opportunity to find direct evidence of cosmetic use on bodies, as these are rarely preserved (with the obvious exception, for example of ancient Egypt)," she told BI in an email.
Egyptians and Mesopotamians are well-known to have used eyeliner at the time.
These findings add crucial clues about the way eastern Iranian Marḫaši lived. These powerful people were unknown to archeology until a 2001 flood barreled through the Jiroft region, uncovering 4,000-year-old graveyards.
Since then, archaeologists have been racing to learn more about the culture.
Some archaeologists have questioned the age and authenticity of the artifacts found at the site, but Vidale believes that the concerns have now been dispelled.
"The research we have been doing the following years are completely denying all these doubts about Jiroft being a kind of fraud or forgery," he said.
For Vidale and his colleagues, the design of the tube may point to an early attempt at branding the precious products.
For Baysal, it makes sense that red paste is similar to modern-day cosmetics that would have been found millenia in the past.
"The use of red pigments on the human body dates back to the paleolithic, so it should not be surprising that at this relatively late date in human history a more formalized version of coloring, more familiar to us in the present, was in use," said Baysal.
She said, however, that more research will be needed before we can confidently call the stone tube a lip paint container.
"Although the authors imply that this red color was used as lipstick by females, there is little information on the gendering of bodily decoration," she said, "so it is probably too early to say who may have used this color or indeed how it was applied to the face, particularly bearing in mind that in many cultures past and present, make-up is not restricted only to those gendered female."
Still, having uncovered the container could help archaeologist find other examples and better understand their purpose.
