Hi, I'm Fashion Historian Amber Butchart
Today we're here at Wroxeter Roman City, which is cared for by English Heritage
During the third century when
Britain was part of the once powerful Roman Empire, this was one of the largest
cities in the country. From tradespeople to trendsetters, Wroxeter was a thriving
metropolis of power, politics and pampering. Today we're going to be
exploring the Roman beauty trends that quite literally changed the face of
Britain. We're going to show you how you can recreate a Roman-inspired look at
home, and we're going to be taking a look at some makeup artefacts found right
here at Wroxeter.
So what are we waiting for? Let's explore Roman Britain
Rebecca, hello!
Hi Amber, it's nice to see you again
Nice to see you too. Now today is very exciting. Britain was a province of the
Roman Empire for around 400 years from 43 AD. Today we're here at
Wroxeter Roman City which was the fourth largest city in Roman Britain,
comparable in size to Pompeii in Italy. So it was a really busy, bustling
thriving place to live and work. Now what's especially exciting for us is
that there have been a lot of cosmetic artefacts found here on the site as well
so we'll be looking into those later. Now tell me about the Roman look that we're
going to recreate today.
Well we know the Roman Empire was big and it existed for a long time.
So we decided to take a starting point and our starting point is
a woman called Julia Domna. She was the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus in the
3rd century AD and we're going to be creating a Roman style look on our
beautiful model Sarah - hello - and let's get started
Great
Now many people in Roman Britain would have known about Julia Domna due to her
status as the Empress, the Emperor's wife. So how are we going to bring this look to life?
Well we're going to start at a point that I always think of when I think of
the Romans and that is bathing and cleanliness
The Romans were famous, I guess, for their bathing process and actually it's really
interesting because if you've been to a spa or you've been to a hammam a lot of
the processes you see in spas today are really, really similar to what
the Romans were using. So you would have cold rooms, steam rooms, saunas, warm rooms
and massages and maybe some beauty therapists
Sounds lovely doesn't it?
Yeah, I'm glad I came
So we're going to start our
first step in the Roman bathing ritual by massaging Sarah's arm with a little
bit of oil. We're using just a cheap olive oil
At this stage I would like your arm please, yes
So oil is what helps to start the cleaning process. So we'll massage it in
While I'm doing this I think it's really interesting to think about how
important appearance was to Romans
Well appearance, bathing, grooming all of these
things are really important for Roman and Roman British identity and all
aspects of the way you present yourself could sort of signal things like gender,
maybe your rank if you were in the military, amulets might be worn for
protection so a variety of different things
Now also something that really shows the importance of grooming is toilette sets
that have been found including things like tweezers and nail cleaners as well
which people might wear on their person. So it just really shows the importance of
keeping a clean body
Yeah it's really interesting that tools for beauty seem
to be really important part of the Roman process and there's one tool that I'm
excited to be using
On me?
Yeah, on you!
This is a strigil and this was used by slaves in the baths to clean the skin
So once you've massage oil into the skin, maybe then you'd go off and do some more
bathing or some exercise or some swimming, and then your slave would take
the strigil and they run it down the skin and this removes the oil and the grease
and the dirt. Oil is a really effective cleanser we still use it today
and most modern skincare line-ups have an oil cleanser because oil is lipophilic
and that means it attracts like, it attracts itself and it tracks dirt so
it's super, super effective way of cleansing and also exfoliating the skin
So in the age before YouTube and Instagram and magazines how did the
Romans get their information about new trends and styles?
Well luckily for us we do have quite a few images of Julia Domna
One source in particular that
we can draw on is coins. Now coins were a great way for the ruling family to
disseminate their image, to show how they wanted to be presented to really relay
their power. Women on coins tended to be either goddesses or empresses like Julia
But what's particularly useful for us is that it also shows us what
hairstyles were current as well
Well, we'll do the next step in our Roman
skincare regime and I'm going to moisturise your skin using something
which we know as lanolin. Now lanolin is the grease from sheep's wool which
sounds a bit disgusting, but it's an incredibly effective moisturiser it's
really, really emollient and you can feel it's really quite heavy and sticky but
it actually contains a lot of ingredients that in modern day skincare
we really look out for. So it's got a AHAs and BHAs - alpha hydroxy acids, beta hydroxy acids
These are incredible for your skin, so your skin will feel
fantastic. But it might be a little bit smelly
A couple of writers in Rome complained about the smell of their wives and
girlfriends using lanolin on their skin
But you might be pleased to know that this
is not the smelliest or weirdest ingredient that we could have used on
you today. In some parts of the Roman Empire there was an ingredient
called 'crocodilea' that was used. Reports vary as to whether that's the
intestines of a crocodile
or the dung of a crocodile - oh no! - that you would spread on your face
I don't want to be a Roman
But it would tighten and tone your skin, interested yet?
No!
Ok!
Now one thing we should keep in mind is that as with today women in Roman Britain do not form
a homogeneous group. The Roman Empire is huge geographically and there's a lot of
movement within it as well. So we've got people coming here from the
Mediterranean, from the Middle East like Julia Domna from Syria and from North Africa
as well. And that's on top of the groups who are here already when
the Romans arrived like the Cornovii tribe who were living around the area of Wroxeter
The Roman Empire was really international wasn't it?
It really was and we see that in some of the textile fragments that remain as well
For example we see Chinese silks or silks made with Chinese yarns that have been
found on sites in Colchester, just incredible. And it's thought that
cosmetics could have been imported from as far away as Egypt which was also a
Roman province at the time as well. So travel and trade was really, really
extensive at this point
It's incredible how far things could travel within the
Empire. But there's something that we have that I think is really exciting that is
we think exclusive to Britain. It's a Roman cosmetics grinder. This is a replica.
It's so fascinating! So you would take your mortar and into your mortar
you'd put a piece of charcoal or perhaps antimony or maybe even soot, which is
what some Romans use to create an eyeliner or a kohl. And then you would
take your pestle and you'd grind it up to make a powder,
you'd perhaps put a drop of oil or fat into there, and then this grinder is so
specially shaped that it fits on the eye so you can use this actually as your
makeup applicator
Now this look in particular that we associate with Julia Domna;
the dark eyes, the dark brows, we see this in depictions of women in
the later Roman era as well throughout the empire, so it was clearly very popular
Well I'm going to leave you getting to grips with that, and I'm going
to go and find out more about the cosmetic artefacts that have been found
here at Wroxeter so I will see you later
Have fun!
Cameron tell me about your work as a Curator with English Heritage
I'm the Curator of Collections for the West Midlands. I look after the things that
are on display at the sites in the various site museums and for the large
collection of material that is held in warehouses across the country
Now you've done some work specifically looking at Roman cosmetics that have been found
here at Wroxeter. Tell me how that came about
The first proper excavations took place here in the 1910s and the 1920s, and that material hadn't really
been re-examined for a long time. And when I recently came back to go
through those collections, I found three items that had previously been described as 'lunate pendants',
the kind of thing that would hang from a necklace
And now we know that those are actually little cosmetic sets, grinding
sets that were used for eye makeup in the Roman period
Amazing and are they specific to Britain?
They are specific to Britain, yes, and you start to see
them in the 1st century AD and they do seem to be a response within this
country to the import of cosmetics and ideas about personal beauty that
coming here from the Mediterranean
I'm really excited to see some of these
objects, what have you brought with you today?
Well here are two components of two different cosmetic grinder sets they
come in little sets but you tend to find them individually because people take
them apart from each other to use them
What other cosmetic items do we have?
We have a surprising number of cosmetic items. We have nail cleaners, a wide
variety of nail cleaners; we have tweezers, depilation was a big thing
hairlessness was was very attractive and one of my personal favourites is this
little perfume bottle, we have loads of perfume bottles
What else do these discoveries tell us about Roman life?
I think they really tell us that Roman life was urban life
and that when the Romans came they brought with them this
whole range of new influences and new materials and new consumer goods that
simply did not exist before in this country
Cameron thank you so much
We're midway through our transformation so I'm going go and see how they're getting on
Thank you
Bye
Oh wow! Look at that, it's so bright
I love it!
We're finally using some colour, I'm very excited
We've got some written evidence that suggests that Roman women would use
ground-up precious stones or minerals to create eyeshadows,
so maybe using lapis lazuli or malachite
or azulite, sometimes even saffron as well, ground-up maybe with a touch of
oil to create you know an eyeshadow
Now I did do some grinding. I ground some lapis lazuli
and this is what you get. It's a really, really beautiful color
But I'm not actually using it on Sarah because I didn't actually want to put granules of rock on
her eyes because my grinding skills are not the best, so I'm using a modern
equivalent which is a brightly coloured pigment powder
So gorgeous!
And it looks amazing
I'm applying it with my finger and I also mocked up a bit of speculation as to
what a Roman eyeshadow blender might look like. This is bit of lamb's wool
with some wool lashed onto a stick - lovely! - for blending out the edges
Incredible! Well the Roman world would have been a really vibrant place. We tend to think of
people as just wearing white at this time and I think there are a couple of
reasons behind this. Firstly it's because of statues which now are white, but at
the time would mostly have been painted in quite bright colors but this has kind
of tainted our idea of what the ancient world looked like. In fact we have
writing from Ovid in 'The Art of Love' and he talks about woolen clothes in a
number of different colours; saffron, amethyst, green, sky blue, watercolor which
sounds lovely, chestnut, almond - it really would have
been a rainbow, bright, vibrant place to live
Let's finish this look off with
some lips and cheeks and I'm adding a small amount of colour
This is modern, safe version of vermillion, mixed with goose fat and beeswax
So hairstyles were a really important aspect of display in the Roman world
What are you going to do to Sarah's hair today?
We're going to be using a wig
today and it's not necessarily the case that every single woman would have used
a wig to get these elaborate styles, but wigs were used in the Roman Empire
Well hairstyles were clearly very important in Roman Britain because hair pins are
one of the most common sight finds that we find around the country and this
actually started to die out towards the end of the 4th century and
it's been suggested that that could be because it was at this period where
Christianity began to become quite widespread so ideas around modesty and
display change and it's thought that women maybe started covering their heads
so there are fewer of these very elaborate hairstyles. While you work your
magic I'm going to go and find out more about Wroxeter as a Roman city. See you later!
Andrew, tell me about your work as an English Heritage Historian
Well I'm a Properties Historian at English Heritage and I have a special interest in Roman sites
which are spread across the country, and my job is to research the history of our
sites and help present them to the public
Now we're standing among these
Roman ruins but it would have been a really bustling, thriving, busy place to
live and work. Can you paint a picture of what it would have been like here in the 3rd century?
Wroxeter was founded as an army fortress on land taken from
the Cornovii tribe as part of the conquest of the North-West of Britain
By the 3rd century it's developed into a thriving city and much like any other city in the
Roman Empire you would have a whole range of different people from across
the Roman world some would be of very high status so the rich men that served
on city council, others might be craftspeople or traders, farmers and of
course slaves they did a lot of the unseen hard work
Where exactly are we right now?
Right now we're standing in Wroxeter's famous
public bathhouse. 1800 years ago you would be able to smell the fires burning in the furnaces
that heated the baths, you'd be able to
hear the chattering of the bathers and perhaps the cries of the vendors
selling their wares in the marketplace next door
So bathing was really important for the Romans, talk me through how these baths would have been used
Well bathing was an essential part of Roman life. Every Roman citizen rich
or poor; man, woman or child would expect to bathe as a daily part of their ritual
And we're not talking about a quick wash, we're talking about a series of quite
involved elaborate processes. So you'd start in the coldest room, the frigidarium, and
then you moved to the tepidarium, which is a warmer room, before finally going to
the caldarium, which was the hottest room where you'd be able to get a hot bath
Once you'd had enough of the heat, you'd go back to the beginning and take a
cold plunge in order to refresh yourself
I love a plunge pool, this all sounds amazing, sign me up!
There's plenty to do here. Bathing was quite a social process so you'd come
here maybe to meet friends or to do business deal and there's also a lot of
ways to spend your money and occupy your time. So in the basilica there would have
been a space for people to provide services perhaps there might be
someone to do your hair or to do your makeup and just next door was a
small market where it might well have been possible for you to buy the latest
trends in makeup or jewellery or textiles for your clothes
So our look today is inspired by the Empress Julia Domna, wife of Septimus Severus, how did they
come to be in Britain?
In 208 AD Septimius Severus the Roman Emperor
comes to Britain in order to mount a military campaign to the north of
Hadrian's Wall. With him is the Empress Julia Domna and their sons and so for a
short period of time the Roman Empire is ruled from Britain
Thanks so much Andrew
They should be finished with the makeup now so I'm going to go and check out how
they're going. Thank you
Rebecca this is incredible! How have you created this hair, it's so elaborate?
Thanks! It was so much fun to do. We've taken the two front sections of the wig,
plaited them and then two of the back sections we've drawn out into long, thick
plaits. Then I sewed those together and then placed them onto the top of the head
and then sewed that onto the top of the wig. And it means that you get this
hairstyle that is completely invincible, it's held up with no hair pins it's just
held up with sewing and it means that these elaborate hairstyles can then stay
up for maybe a week or so at a time
Wow! So it's like going to get your hair set at the hairdresser's, that kind of thing?
It's kind of exactly that because you
can't really sew your own hair so this kind of hairstyle means that you have
to go to a hairdresser to get it done
It just looks absolutely incredible!
Thank you! I think the outfit looks amazing as well, but I have to say it's not what I
was expecting from a Roman outfit
Well we have modelled what Sarah is wearing
here on a bas relief of Julia Domna from the Arch of Septimius Severus in
modern day Libya. Now she's wearing a short-sleeved tunic which would have
been the height of fashion and this cloak, known as the palla as well
Now what I really love about it is the colour, I think that's what we're not
necessarily expecting. This is linen we've got here and wool. Wool takes colour
really, really well. Now it's likely from the elaborate folds in the bas relief
that she probably would have been wearing silk as an empress but here
we've gone for a bit more egalitarian linen and wool, which were really
important fabrics in Roman Britain. But it is the colour that's fantastic
Now this purple I love. Purple was a really important colour in the Roman
world you could create a really vibrant, bright purple using the secretions of a
sea snail, which was very, very expensive but to create it here in Roman Britain
You could have used a plant like madder for red and woad for blue for example
It wouldn't have been quite as bright but would have given us a kind of
purple. Yellow you could create with saffron,
with weld or even with onion skins you can use as a natural dye as well
And moving further down. The shoes, I love the shoes that Sarah is wearing! These
are really similar to some Roman shoes that were found near Hadrian's Wall
Now trends in shoes could change relatively quickly, it could be much
quicker than clothing itself. And the Romans actually introduced the
technology of proper leather tanning to Britain as well so waterproof shoes
begin to exist for the first time
That is amazing! So what would the Romans ever done for us?
Dry feet! Exactly, exactly and it also means that we have a load of
Roman shoes to use as sources as well
Incredible! And we've got a lovely bit of jewellery on here
Tell me about the jewellery that Sarah is wearing
Here we've used a pearl necklace. Pearls were the most luxurious, most expensive jewels in the Roman
Empire. We do have an image of Julia Domna where it looks like she's wearing
a pearl necklace so that's what we've gone for here. Jewellery could be worn by
all levels of society though because you've got such a range of materials
that you could use. For example if you were very wealthy you may wear emerald
but if you were less wealthy you might wear green glass beads instead
Tell me, how do you like your Roman look?
The garments are quite heavy but I think the
overall look, I really like it. It's very regal
You look amazing!
You look fantastic, it really suits you!
Thank you for being such a brilliant model
Thank you!
This tutorial was brought to life by artefacts found here at Wroxeter Roman City
These objects, cared for by English Heritage, show just how
conscious the Romans were of their appearance and give us remarkable
insight into their daily life. But the conservation of incredible sites like
this is not possible without your support. To find out how you can support
the Charity click the link on the screen now. Until next time, I'm Amber Butchart
and thanks for joining us for another English Heritage History Inspired Makeup Tutorial