Ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians, in the days of the menstrual cycle, used papyrus leaves as "absorbents"
The life of women in “those days” was not supposed to be easy in the past, given that the use of sanitary towels "Modern" dates back only to the 19th century.
So how did the ladies stop the menstrual flow ?
What did you do for hygiene and to avoid running into embarrassing situations?
A bit of everything in reality, with substantial differences depending on the historical phases, the populations, and sometimes the social classes used as a reference.
In Egypt for example, the ubiquitous papyrus it also acted, when needed, as an absorbent.
To make its leaves more comfortable to wear, they were softened with water.
In general, the fact that menstruation has been considered a taboo topic for centuries to talk about as little as possible, has meant that even the documentation in this regard was rather scarce, a circumstance that prevents us from tracing back to really precise and detailed information.