bunnyjadwiga

Frank Muir. An Irreverent and Almost Complete Social History of the Bathroom. New York: Stein and Day, 1983.

In ancient times, before the invention of paper, the cleaning-off problem was solved in a number of ways. Water was the answer where water existed. Failign that it was a matter of using a scraper or an abrasive.
The Romans favored a kind of minature hockey-stick (in wood or precious metal according to the user's status, or a sponge on the end of the stick . . .
In desert areas it was normal to use sand, powdered brick, or earth. A book on Muslim law published as late as 1882 . . . recommends using stones: 'There shall be three stones employed or three sides of the same stone'.
A favourite scraper throughout the ages, probably because of its convenient shape and easy availability, was a mussel shell.</blockquote. Aside from the Muslim law text, of course, Muir gives no sources. *rolls eyes* though he does quote a mention of the mussel-shell in a 1751 text, which doesn't date it to our period.