OMG! You guys! I cannot believe my luck. Somehow, while searching for information on the first toothbrush, I found a YouTube video funded in part by the Chinese government showing a collection of…wait for it…ANCIENT CHINESE TOOTHBRUSHES! Pinch me. I must be dreaming.
Since I do not speak, or read Chinese I used the wonders of the internet to network out to my group of friends to find someone who could do the translations for me. I wanted the labels shown of each toothbrush translated so I could research their time periods more and determine which toothbrush I would use for the great toothbrush making experiment. Because, yes, I am that crazy person who is going to learn how to bone carve in order to make an ancient toothbrush. So, I owe a big thank you to Susan and Jeff! I owe you both a beer. Or a toothbrush…
The Video
Click here for the video I will be referencing throughout this blog, and probably in future blogs. Have I mentioned how insanely happy this makes me?
While I will talk about each of the time periods referenced in the video, I have decided to recreate one of the toothbrushes from the Tang Dynasty. It is the one labeled 025 at 1:06 in the video. I selected it because it is small, with fewer holes that need to be bored into it.
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was founded in 618 by Li Yuan and lasted until 907. There are quite a few examples of Tang Dynasty in the video. 020 is made of bronze and bone. 021 is made of bone. 025 is stated to have been made of tiger bone. Brush 026 was made of bone. Toothbrushes 028 and 029 were made of donkey bone.
Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was founded by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC and lasted until 207 BC. The toothbrushes shown in the video are labeled 003 and 004. These were constructed from bronze. If you look at the video (55 seconds in) you will see that they were long handled with a round cup at the end. This would have closely simulated the close bristles of the miswak chewing stick.
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was founded by Liu Bang in 202 BC and lasted until 220 AD. The toothbrushes in the video from the Han Dynasty are 013 and 014 and are also made from bronze. The construction of these are nearly identical to that of the Qin Dynasty; a long handle with a deep cup at the end.
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty began in 1271 and ended in 1368. The video has 5 toothbrush handles shown, numbers 127, 136, 137, 146 and 148. All were made of bone. 136 and 137 are cited as made from donkey bone, while 146 and 148 are believed to have been made from leopard bone. The basic toothbrush design has not changed, though as you can see, toothbrush 136 is significantly larger than 137. The video suggests that the collection is made up of toothbrushes designed for men, women, and children, which could easily explain the drastic difference in handle size, as well as the quantity of holes on the head of the toothbrush.
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty took place between 1368 and 1644, and was founded by Zhu Yuanzhang. The toothbrushes in the video from the Ming Dynasty are 189, 190 and 205. As you can see, these brush handles are more elaborate than that of previous dynasties. Each of these brushes were made of bone, though only example 190 is stated to have been made from donkey bone.
Qing Dynasty
The final Dynasty referenced in the video is the Qing Dynasty, which ran from 1644-1911. Brushes 384, 393 and 394 are from this dynasty and are all made out of bone. I will not be doing additional research on these, as they fall out of period.
Next Steps
The next step in this project is to research what types of bristles would have been used. My first attempt to make a toothbrush using bamboo and boar’s bristles was unwieldy. The bristles were too stiff, and I was afraid that if I tried to use it, I would cut my gums. I then realized, and had it confirmed by a friend, that the boar has different hairs on its body, some being more coarse than others. So, if my academic research yields no results, I will try to obtain hairs from different parts of the animal and try a practical experiment. It was also recommended that I attempt to get anthropological data on any wear patterns on teeth of the time period and region to see if there are any signs that a brush made marks on the teeth.