A small vial of red cosmetic preparation was found among numerous looted and recovered artifacts in the Jiroft region of Kerman province, southeast Iran. It contains a dark red preparation that is likely a lipstick or lip paste.
Analysis identified the mineral components of the reddish substance as hematite, darkened with manganite and braunite, and traces of galena and anglesite, mixed with vegetable waxes and other organic substances. The mixture notably resembles recipes for contemporary lipsticks.
The results date the pigment to the early 2nd millennium BCE during the Bronze Age, a time consistent with various mentions of the powerful Marcaši civilization in eastern Iran in contemporary cuneiform texts from Mesopotamia, as well as with its emerging archaeological image.
According to researchers, it may be the oldest analytically identified lipstick found to date. But who used it and why? To understand this, researchers studied the historical and archaeological context.
Jiroft belonged to the Marcaši civilization, mentioned in ancient Mesopotamian texts as a powerful kingdom during the time of the early city-states.
Similar jars are often found in graves from this period, some containing white lead-based makeup, a material that could be dangerous in lipsticks. But the one found in Jiroft used less lead, suggesting its creators were aware of its risks.
Why did they use it? Possibly, emphasizing the lips had aesthetic and social significance; marking differences between classes could reinforce the elite’s status. And in societies where inequalities grew, makeup could become a symbol of power.
It may also have had a ritual role; coloring the lips could help a person retain their identity after death. In fact, offering cosmetics to the dead was common at the time.
The Halil Rud valley, with its complex geological formation and variety of mineral resources, favored the development of relatively complex cosmetic recipes in the ancient Marcaši civilization, now identified with the Jiroft culture of the 3rd millennium BCE.
This discovery expands the record of cosmetic practices in ancient Iran and may represent the oldest lip cosmetic found to date, providing new insights into the complexity achieved in this technology by the Middle Bronze elites of South Asia.
Sources
Eskandari, N., De Carlo, E., Zorzi, F. et al. A Bronze Age lip-paint from southeastern Iran. Sci Rep 14, 2670 (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52490-w
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