Tanners would place scraps of hides in a vat of water and let them deteriorate for months. Leftover leather would be turned into glue.
#TANNERY HIDES SKIN#
As the skin was stretched, it would lose moisture and absorb the agent.
In some variations of the process, cedar oil, alum or tannin were applied to the skin as a tanning agent. Also common were "piss-pots" located on street corners, where human urine could be collected for use in tanneries or by washerwomen. It was this combination of urine, animal feces and decaying flesh that made ancient tanneries so odiferous.Ĭhildren employed as dung gatherers were a common sight in ancient cities. The ancient tanner might use his bare feet to knead the skins in the dung water, and the kneading could last two or three hours. Sometimes the dung was mixed with water in a large vat, and the prepared skins were kneaded in the dung water until they became supple, but not too soft. Among the kinds of dung commonly used were that of dogs or pigeons. Once the hair was removed, the tanners would bate the material by pounding dung into the skin or soaking the skin in a solution of animal brains. After the hair fibers were loosened, the tanners scraped them off with a knife. This was done by either soaking the skin in urine, painting it with an alkaline lime mixture, or simply letting the skin putrefy for several months then dipping it in a salt solution. Next, the tanner needed to remove the hair fibers from the skin. Then they would pound and scour the skin to remove any remaining flesh and fat. First, the ancient tanners would soak the skins in water to clean and soften them. Skins typically arrived at the tannery dried stiff and dirty with soil and gore. Around 2500 B.C.E., the Sumerians began using leather, affixed by copper studs, on chariot wheels. Tanning was being carried out by the South Asian inhabitants of Mehrgarh between 7000–3300 B.C.E. The ancients used leather for waterskins, bags, harnesses, boats, armor, quivers, scabbards, boots and sandals. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul-smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used. In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of the town, amongst the poor.
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