Fake History Hunter

For some weird reason some people seem to think that Europeans didn’t care about personal hygiene till relatively recently, others even believe that Europeans never bathed or washed and still don’t.
Yes, I’m serious, there are really folks out there who believe this.

So on this page I’m going to simply collect a list of links related to articles, books & evidence regarding personal hygiene in Europe throughout history.
This will support the fact that Europeans have always cared about hygiene in one way or another.

This list is a work in progress.

Prehistory

• 3000BC: Neolithic indoor toilets at Skara Brae
  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318444431_Waste_Management_at_the_End_of_the_Stone_Age
• 2400BC: possible steam bath/lodge at Marden Henge
  https://www.academia.edu/3050024/Journeys_and_Juxtapositions_Marden_Henge_and_the_View_from_the_Vale
• 2000BC: indoor bath or steam bath in Scotland:
  https://www.bordersofadventure.com/links-of-noltland/
• 16th century BC: A Bronze Age sauna in Nijmegen, Netherlands
  https://www.academia.edu/112022865/A_Bronze_Age_sauna_in_Nijmegen_prov_Gelderland_NL_an_exceptional_site_in_mainland_Europe_with_L_van_Beurden_K_H%C3%A4nninen_C_Vermeeren_
• 4th century BC: Iron Age Saunas of Northern Portugal
  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271081105_Iron_Age_Saunas_of_Northern_Portugal_State_of_the_Art_and_Research_Perspectives
• 4th century BC: Protection and Purity: Symbolic Functions of the Iron Age Saunas of the Iberian Northwest
  https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/protection-and-purity-symbolic-functions-of-the-iron-age-saunas-of-the-iberian-northwest/388D888007F74EC9E7DC5AB04327722A
• 4th century BC: Earliest soap making in Europe
  https://exarc.net/issue-2024-3/at/experimental-exploration-earliest-soapmaking
• Washing and Bathing in Ancient Ireland
• Reconstruction of bathhouse in the Iberian Peninsula, 2nd century BC.

Ancient Greece

Roman era

Romans writing about the hygiene of others:

• Pliny about the Gauls using soap (before 77AD
  “Soap, too, is very useful for this purpose, an invention of the Gauls for giving a reddish tint to the hair. This substance is prepared from tallow and ashes, the best ashes for the purpose being those of the beech and yoke-elm: there are two kinds of it, the hard soap and the liquid, both of them much used by the people of Germany, the men, in particular, more than the women.”
• Caesar about the Germans bathing in 58-49 BC
  “they bathe promiscuously in the rivers”
• Tacitus writing about daily warm baths around 98AD
  “As soon as they wake up usually late they wash themselves oftentimes with warm water like those accustomed to a prolonged winter”
• Aretaeus writing about Celts using solid soap for the body in the 2nd century AD)
  “the Celts, which are men called Gauls, those alkaline substances made into balls, with which they cleanse their clothes, called soap, with which it is a very excellent thing to cleanse the body in the bath”
• Strabo writing about the natives in the Iberian Peninsula:
  “Now some of the peoples that dwell next to the Durius River live, it is said, after the manner of the Laconians — using anointing-rooms twice a day and taking baths in vapours that rise from heated stones, bathing in cold water, and eating only one meal a day; and that in a cleanly and simple way.”

Roman hygiene:

• List of known Roman baths in Spain

Middle ages

• 6th century AD recipe for scented soap using W-European soap & non European ingredients, possibly a Roman recipe.
• 6th century proto-guild for soap makers in Naples
• Medieval Myths Bingo
  https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2019/09/10/medieval-myths-bingo/
• Original 15th century bathhouse in Germany
• 16th century drawing of a bath house
• Het middeleeuwse openbare badhuis, by Fabiola van Dam
• Urban Bodies: Communal Health in Late Medieval English Towns and Cities’ by Carole Rawcliffe
• Ein andechtig geistliche Badenfart, bath house illustrations, 1514
• Monks & toilets
• John of Wallingford’s anti Dane propaganda
• List of medieval conduits supplying towns & cities with clean water
• ‘Von der Badstube zum Badekabinett’ by Daniela Rösing
• 14th century Viennese infanterist’s morning routine
• About medieval people sharing their home with cattle
• Isabella I of Castile rumours & myths
  https://www.elconfidencial.com/cultura/2023-12-02/hedor-mentira-isabel-catolica-musulmanes-limpios_3785560/
  https://www.cope.es/programas/fin-de-semana/noticias/cierto-que-isabel-catolica-olia-mal-lavaba-20210502_1266062
  https://www.elmundo.es/loc/famosos/2021/04/18/6079a4ac21efa0b31c8b45d5.html
  https://www.eldebate.com/historia/20220922/isabel-catolica-biografia-marcada-fakes_61455.html
• Bathing, beauty and Christianity in the middle ages by Elizabeth Archibald
• Scrub-a-Dub in a Medieval Tub
• Daily life in the Middle Ages, by Paul B. Newman
  
• Articles, links & videos about Medieval hygiene
  

Elizabethan

• Elizabeth I bathing habits.
  https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2022/01/14/the-curious-claims-about-elizabeth-is-bathing-habits/
• Isabella of Spain rarely bathing.
  https://www.elconfidencial.com/cultura/2023-12-02/hedor-mentira-isabel-catolica-musulmanes-limpios_3785560/
  https://www.cope.es/programas/fin-de-semana/noticias/cierto-que-isabel-catolica-olia-mal-lavaba-20210502_1266062
  https://www.elmundo.es/loc/famosos/2021/04/18/6079a4ac21efa0b31c8b45d5.html
  https://www.eldebate.com/historia/20220922/isabel-catolica-biografia-marcada-fakes_61455.html

Louis XIV & Versailles

• The Truth About Louis XIV & His Unwashed 🍑
  https://youtu.be/TjOBtUGm3Io?si=jegRRaIHsa_N6rMh
• Louis rarely bathing debunked
  https://x.com/invitinghistory/status/1694769829146726812

My article on the history of soap:

The history of soap

My article on medieval hygiene:

Articles, links & videos about Medieval hygiene