Ancient Societies and Leather

There is a surfeit of evidence to show that ancient peoples like the Egyptians and the Greeks made ample use of leather for a variety of purposes. Paintings and artefacts found in Egyptian tombs give evidence to show that leather was used for sandals, clothes, gloves, buckets, bottles, shrouds for burying the dead and for military equipment.

The ancient Greeks were the first to record the use of vegetable agents in the tanning process. They used different types of leaves soaked in water as well as bark extracts in the curing and tanning of leather. They used leather to make garments in the times when Homer wrote his famous epics, around 1200BC. In fact, by around 500 BC the leather trade was well established in Greece.

In ancient Rome too, leather was widely used across the vast expanse of the Roman Empire. The Romans made great use of leather for footwear, clothes, and military equipment including shields, saddles and harnesses.

The Native American people also used leather long before the arrival of the white people. They used leather in the making of their tepees, clothing, moccasins (shoes), headdresses, jewellery, ornaments and weapons.