Lime used in battle

[Alex Hovorka]

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[Alex Hovorka]

For some reason I have this idea about Celts covering their bodies with lime for battle. I swear I read or saw something on it a long time ago and for some reason can't find any information except it being used in hair. If anyone has an information on covering the skin with lime let me know.

If there is any evidence of this happening I've found some interesting information.

I was limewashing the some mud walls a while back and some lime got into an open wound. The fluids from the wound (blood, puss) became sort of gummy.

Turns out Calcuim (which is the main part of limestone) when introduced to open wound fluids bonds some how and gets thicker and gummier.

I think this is why people in many cultures for thousands of years have put many different types of clay (most of which are calcium based) in open wounds to help stop bleeding. Along with other minerals that help with infection and illness.

My theory is that if you were to cover your entire body with lime and you were gashed it would help slow bleeding and may be one of the reasons why Celts were so resilient in battle.

Might be a bit far fetched but its a theory. I also am not a chemist so I'm relying on some sources that I found on calcium treated gauze and using "healing clay" as a holistic medicine.

[John Olinger]

Maybe it was these guys?
John

[Jeff Scharp]

Yup, and in a Celtic context. "In this article we also suggest a possible ritual use of this paste in the protection of the skin of the Arevaci and Edetani warriors...."

Analysis of a Celtiberian protective paste and its possible use by Arevaci warriors

The use of pastes or body paint by warriors is a cultural phenomenon through space and time that is shared by many cultures. In some situations, such pastes were applied for prophylactic purposes and in others to camouflage the warrior. A paste made of Lepidium sativum L. seed-flour and water was rubbed onto the skin by Ethiopian warriors for warmth on cold nights, for example (Getahun 1976). Pictish warriors in Scotland were reported to ritually apply a blue coloured war pigment known as woad to their bodies, a practice incompatible with wearing clothing or armor, which presumably was thought to protect the user. Chichimec warriors in North America were easily identifiable because they went into combat completely naked, wearing only war paint (Coopwood 1900). Likewise, it has recently been reported that Edetani warriors (neighbours of the Arevaci) went naked (or, at least, barefoot) for ritual reasons, and that they protected themselves with a paste tentatively identified as a manganese compound. Sarriugarte (2003: 1) literally states: "They (the Edetani) went totally barefoot, applying to themselves a product (permanganate) that made the skin wizened when it dried out, and allowed them to walk as if they were wearing some sort of footwear". Eslava-Galán (2004: 166) makes a similar assertion: "It is possible that some naked parts, arms and legs, were smeared with permanganate, which would give them a stiff texture".

The most probable application for the paste residue analysed here by the Arevaci of Ayllón is the areas of religion and/or war. Its use to stiffen the skin of the feet in religious ceremonies and/or battles could correspond to a ritual exigency reported for other Iberian tribes, as has been documented elsewhere (Aranegui Gasco 1983; Ruíz Bremón 1989). Our identification of the perfumed character of the paste supports this interpretation of a ritual use as well (Erard-Cerceau 1990; Faure 1987; Shelmerdine 1985).

On the other hand, applications of such pastes on stone or ceramic materials are also well known in the literature. The investigation of ancient protective pastes on stone has received great attention for over twenty years, both in the area of the conservation of artistic historical heritage and in environmental chemistry. For example, protective pastes on sculptures and monuments include the orange-brown patina of the Venus of Willendorf, the surfaces of marbles from the Parthenon now conserved in the British Museum (particularly the Oinochoai and Dionne groups), and in monuments such as the Propyleos (Acropolis, Athens) or the Olympieion (Polikreti and Maniatis 2003). Brown coloured patinas also cover he Penthelic marble in the base of the Arc of Titus in Rome, where analyses have identified very high amounts of phosphates mixed with a silicate compound (Franzini et al. 1984). The relationship between the ubiquitous presence of phosphates in the patina and the nature of scialbatura was reported by Lazzarini and Salvadori (1989). On the basis of previous data (Del Monte 1987; Franzini et al. 1984; Guidobaldi et al. 1984) and their original findings, the last mentioned authors established that the patinas of monuments in Rome and Verona have an artificial origin and that they should be attributed to the application of protective treatments (Lazzarini and Salvadori 1989). These patinas generally contain amino acids, which are the final stable degradation products of collagen glue from animal skins or other protein glues (Halpine 1992).

The correspondence of composition between the main component of the paste analysed here and the patina on the monuments of the Athenian Acropolis (Polikreti and Maniatis 2003) allows us to trace its origins to the fifth century BC in the Mediterranean under Greek influence. The Arevaci may have had access to knowledge of this paste as a result of their proximity to the Edetani or some other Iberian tribe with known contacts to Greece located between the right bank of the Ebro River and the sea. Nevertheless, to date, no evidence of the use of the paste analysed here has been found on Celtiberian sculptures.

Finally, we cannot entirely discount the alternative use of the Arevacian paste as a nutrient. In this connection two relevant ethnographic references may be cited. The first is that a paste made of Heeria reticulata, bark boiled and mixed with milk, was used by ancient Kenyan warriors as medicine to increase strength (AFLORA 1998). The second is that until very recently, in Sardinia, acorns were crushed, peeled, boiled, ground in a mortar and boiled again in order to produce a sort of purée to which was added powdered bone ash and red clay. Once it had cooled, this paste was modelled and eaten (Mason 1995; Zapata 2000). We know that dried acorns were an important component of the diet of the Arevaci (Juan-Tresseras 2000; Tarancón et al. 2003), but we do not know whether they cooked acorns, as is documented in Sardinia, or whether they only roasted them between ashes, as reported by Pliny. The reproduction of this paste and its analysis by ATR-FTIR will, we hope, allow us to test whether the nutritional hypothesis can be supported.

[Becky Watkins Tien]

Slightly off topic... The acorns from Sardinia would have been boiled (and the water discarded) and mixed with clay to decrease the toxic levels of tannins in the nuts. Native Americans did the same thing. If you eat unprocessed acorns, you can cause kidney failure, so it's unlikely that the nuts were just roasted.

[Jeff Scharp]

On page 285 of the recent woad article it mentions "(staining)...can also be performed using the juice of red berries, many of which turn blue with the addition of ammonia in the form or stale urine...." Could the blue-painted warriors had such a concoction of berry-stained-lime-paste? I wonder what those red berries could be!


Becky, so did they eat the acorns with the clay, or is the clay separated from the acorn and thrown out? I'm guessing the clay was used to leach out the tannins and the clay was not eaten.

[Terry Sebolt]

Just to be clear, it would take a HUGE amount of of acorns to cause any kind of real problem. Tannin is a naturally occurring substance that most of us consume every day. Almost all fruits and nuts contain some amount of tannins. Coffee, tea, wine, fruit juices, beer, berries, all nuts, and many new food additives like soybean and sorgum contain large amounts of tannin. That is the bitter taste in all of those foods.

There is a popular myth that says eating raw acorns will kill you. I think it's related to the cyanide in appleseeds story. While it's technically true, the amount is so trace that you would burst from eating so many long before you would die from the poison. I can say from experience that the reason you don't generally eat raw acorns is the extremely bitter taste. You can bind it with any number of agents (milk or clay, for instance), to reduce the effects of tannin. Tannins bind with most fats and proteins, which is how leather is created, and many dye mordants are created.

Just didn't want to cause any kind of hysteria based on a partially understood chemistry.

Redg

[Becky Watkins Tien]

Everything I've ever seen about cultures that used acorns as a staple of their diet indicates that they leached out the tannins before eating the nuts. The level of tannin varies from species to species in oaks, so some aren't as bad as others. For example, white oak acorns need much less processing than red oak acorns. You could probably get by with eating white oak acorns for a few days without keeling over, but I'm not going to try it. I'd prefer to play it safe and prepare unfamiliar foods the way they've been prepared for millenia by the native cultures rather than assume that it's OK to eat them prepared differently.

The note about milk blocking tannins is good. I've seen that suggested for coffee and tea as well. Supposedly, the milk provides some protein for the tannins to precipitate instead of your mouth and stomach lining. Wine and cheese would work the same way, I guess.

Jeff, the clay in these examples would have been eaten along with the acorns, although I usually see recipes using acorn meal like you would any other nut meal instead of with clay. Some clay is quite edible (with enough water!) and absorbs toxins. It can also absorb nutrients, though, so it's not the most efficient way to do things.

That's an interesting idea about the berry juice. Have you ever put laundry detergent on a berry stain and watched it turn from purple to blue? Would the additive have to be ammonia, or could it be another alkaline substance more conducive to pastiness? Time to bring out the berries, ashes, and chalk dust.

[Becky Watkins Tien]

Could the blue-painted warriors had such a concoction of berry-stained-lime-paste?

Oops - I missed the "lime" part of this. That would indeed be alkaline, pasty, and bring us back to the original topic. I've been looking at getting some calcium carbonate powder for Roman cosmetics. I could try mixing in berries and see what happens. Will probably skip the stale urine and find some regular ammonia. Ah, the limitations of apartment living.

[Alex Hovorka]

Be sure to let us know as soon as your done with that. I'm very curious.

[Andrew Byrne]

I know this may delve off the main topic slightly, but still keeps it in line with the issue.
I have heard, and come across some references which state that early shields were covered in a chalk layer, and kept white, or could have been painted upon.
I have come across to some early medieval references to this, and the editors and translators in their notes merely state that this was a practice carrried out by Continental peoples, including Celts. Does anybody have any info on this practice?