More than 50 tweezers found during excavations of a 2000-year-old Roman settlement (5 photos)

Archaeologists have found more than 50 tweezers during major excavations in Roxeter City, Shropshire, one of the largest settlements of the Roman Britain. Now we know exactly who to blame for the fashion for sleek and hairless body! It's all the fault of the ancient Romans.





The Roman city of Roxeter (or Viriconium Cornoviorum, as it was originally known) is one of the best preserved Roman cities in Britain. It was as big as Pompeii during the period its heyday.

The discovery in this place of a large number of such cosmetic tools, like tweezers, suggests that the Romans were obsessed with plucking body hair (such as under the armpits).

Beauty requires sacrifice. In this case, for sure! The Romans were obsessed with cleanliness, went to baths and baths daily, many had personal body care kit. It included a skin scraper, ear scoop, tweezers, nail cleaner.



Tweezers were used not only for plucking eyebrows, as we can imagine today. The Roman Britons preferred purely shaven face - after all, it was necessary to differ from the "barbarians" and follow fashion in Rome. However, plucking hair was painful, and often slaves were engaged in this execution.

British State Commission on Historic Buildings and Monuments of England English Heritage announced that it will exhibit the found exhibits in the recently renovated museum. "We can trace modern obsession with hair removal from painful wax procedures and annoying shaving to the distant times of Ancient Rome, ”says the English Heritage message.





An English Heritage curator examines the tweezers used to remove armpit hair from Roman men and women.

There will be over 400 exhibits on display in Shropshire, including including items that shed light on bathing and beauty practices in the Roman Britain. Some tweezers found more than fifty! It's amazing a lot of. But this is strong evidence that the accessory was extremely popular.



Reconstruction of the Roman body care set: strigil (skin scraper), oil bottle, nail cleaner and tweezers

It may come as a surprise to some that in Roman Britain body hair removal was common for both men and women women. Particularly in sports such as wrestling, society expected that men who engage in physical exercise requiring minimal clothing, prepare by removing all visible body hair.

During the excavations, other accessories were found for care of that era, including an ear-cleaning scoop and a device for cleaning nails. In addition, glass perfumes, oil for bathtubs and even bottles of cosmetics for makeup.



The ancient city of Roxeter (Viriconium Cornoviorum), the fourth largest city in Roman Britain