Lye and lard soap has been around since at least 600 BC. The Babylonians made soaps well before that (since circa 2800 BC) Arguably a kind of fat and some kind of alkaline salt gas been around for at least 5000- 6000 years. People have been shaving for about that long also as far as we know. One only has to shave without some sort of emulcifying preparation once to know that soap of some sort has been used for probably nearly as long. My guess is some kind of fat and an ash derivative.