Today, one could not imagine a house without a toilet, a place where the natural needs of human beings can be met. But you only have to go back a few centuries to realize that toilets, as we conceive them today, are a real luxury: in the olden days, having private toilets was only for the rich, but even the latter wasn’t so good. subdivided judging by the sewer systems of the past. Here are some curiosities about how people used the bathroom in the past.
#1. In medieval castles there were baths for personal use.
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It was only in the castles that one could enjoy certain privacy and use a waste collection system. In medieval castles, the sewer network is still visible from the outside today. The toilets were connected to canals which carried the waste to the collection holes: cleaning them was really a dirty job!
#2. However, even in medieval castles, the size of the toilet did not exceed the bare necessities.
image credit: Father Igor / Wikimedia
#3. The cesspools could descend to the ground or stop in a void
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He was not always sure to build a channel from the latrine to the ground: it was a weak point in the castle, from which enemies could enter.
#4. In ancient Rome, public toilets were places where privacy was totally absent
image credit: Fubar Obfusco/Wikimedia
Individual latrines were not equipped with dividers; the people who used them found themselves doing their business next to each other and, presumably, chatting together.
#5. Medieval London had a sewage system built by the Romans, but it fell into disuse as people threw rubbish wherever they wanted
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In 1357, a punishment was proclaimed for anyone who dumped rubbish in the Thames; people began to collect trash out of town, but soon the habit of simply leaving it where it was spread.
#6. At night, the needs were collected in vases
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However, sleeping with unpleasant smells was not appreciated even by people in the Middle Ages. Instead of risking venturing into the darkness of the streets, people often put the vase outside the window or, in the worst case, emptied it straight out onto the street. In addition to thieves and malicious criminals, another danger in the alleys of medieval towns was getting a chamber pot knocked over your head!
source used: healthyway.com