Tanning hides is practiced in the ancient world since c. 7000 BCE, in the Indus Valley site of Mehgarh. By 2500 BCE, Sumerians of Mesopotamia are using leather studded with copper on chariot wheels. Ancient hide-tanning methods are smelly and arduous.
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The three most common ancient tanning agents are vegetable tannin, mineral salts such as natron, and fish or animal oil. The tanning process is also used for boats, fishing vessels and hide houses or shelters. Ropes, nets, and sails are tanned using tannin-rich tree bark.
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Vegetable tanning is the oldest tanning method, using extracts from wood and nuts of trees such as Pinaceae (the pines), or pistachio species producing tannins or tannic acid. Tannins occur in turpentine, rosin, resin and oils. Historically tannic acid is used as a poison antidote.
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The oleo-resin of conifers is known as crude or gum turpentine. It consists of rosin and oil of turpentine. Unlike essential oils extracted with steam distillation, oleoresins occur in heavier, more stable, fatty compounds such as resin, waxes, fats and unctuous oils.
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Oleoresins are made from spices such as basil, paprika, cardamom, celery seed, cinnamon, clove, fenugreek, silver or balsam fir, ginger, jambu, labdanum, mace, marjoram, nutmeg, parsley, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme, turmeric, vanilla, and West Indian bay leaves.
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Solvents used to extract oleo-resins may be polar (alcohols) or nonpolar (hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide). Most oleoresins are used as flavors and perfumes, or medicinally, such as cannabis oleoresins.
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Oleoresin of capsicum, spicy peppers found in the nightshade family, is a frequent base of pepper sprays. Other uses of oleo-resins include in manufacture of soaps of cosmetics, and as coloring for food.
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Rosin is the resinous compound of the oleo-resin produced by various species of pine, also called crude turpentine. Separation of the oleo-resin into the essential oil (spirit of turpentine) and common rosin is done by distillation in large copper stills.
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Considered a noxious or odoriferous trade, tanning is relegated to the outskirts of town, away from the noses of the elite. Ancient tanning uses methods causing such a stench the tanneries are isolated from the towns. It's the same today where old methods still are used.
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Today use of tanning chemicals is common, established in 19th century BCE. Chemicals include calcium hydroxide, sodium sulfide, sulfuric acid, formic acid, hydrogen sulfide and aniline-based dyes. Finishing chemicals include formaldehyde, aniline, and resins.
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In early times native North Americans use fatty animal tissues, such as brain, liver and fat in techniques of oil tanning. Many groups, like the Cree, use smoke as well as fatty tissues as a tanning agent.
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Preservation of skin or hide naturally occurs in bodies found in cold alpine mountains, especially in the heights where oxygen is depleted. One example is Ötzi, the 5,300-year-old mummy found murdered high in the Tyrolean Alps.
In ancient Egypt, observation of natural mummification by dehydration in the hot dry climate inspires centuries of experimentation with body preservation. Egyptians preserve flesh of humans and other animals with resinous tannin-rich balms of Pinaceae, Acacia or Pistacia.
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Natural mummification or body preservation also happens in bogs. A combination of highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen preserve and heavily tan the skin of bog bodies.
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