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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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sanitation

Roman bathhouse. Source: 4K_Heaven / Adobe Stock.

Keeping it Clean: A Look at Ancient Hygiene Practices (Video)

From the Sumerians and Egyptians to the Victorians and beyond, humans have been striving to keep their surroundings clean since they first settled down and built permanent homes. Before civilization...
Broken parts of the flush toilet unearthed from the Yueyang archaeological site in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. Source: China Daily.

The Royal Flush: 2,400-Year-Old Toilet Used by Emperors Unearthed in China

Archaeologists have unearthed the bottom half of a manual flush toilet that dates back 2,400 years in the Yueyang archaeological site in China’s Shaanxi province. Yueyang served as a capital city...
Hygiene has evolved over the years, but we’ve been taking showers for centuries. Women bathing in a public gymnasium; Gouache painting based on an ancient Greek vase. Source: Wellcome Collection / Public Domain

Hygiene Through History: How Filthy Were Our Ancient Ancestors?

People in the past have a reputation for being dirty and unhygienic, but is this true? While many aspects of personal hygiene have evolved over the centuries, others have remained surprisingly...
Indus priest/king statue found at Mohenjo–Daro, Pakistan. Some ancient Indus Valley technology could solve practical problems in today’s world.

The Helpful Harappan Explains How Ancient Indus Valley Technology Could Solve Many of Today’s Problems

What was life like in the Indus Valley Civilization? How could someone who lived so long ago teach us anything about how we should manage our lives today? The following is a historical fiction...
Detail of an illustration of a woman emptying her chamber pot out the window. Medieval sanitation wasn’t very sanitary.

Cheerio and Gardi Loo! Words of Warning Prompted By Medieval Human Waste Disposal

In 1775, the Scottish inventor Alexander Cumming was granted the first patent for the design of a flushing toilet. Although the Romans were known for their innovation in sanitation, which included...
Medieval style bathing depicted in calligraphy of a book circa 1400.

Medieval Hygiene Might Have Been Better Than You Think

The Medieval period is usually perceived as a time in Europe during which the greater part of the continent was in decline. In many aspects of Medieval society, the quality of life was inferior as...
Roman baths in Bath, England

Why the Romans were not quite as clean as you might have thought

Prior to the Romans, Greece was the only part of Europe to have had toilets. But by the peak of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD, the Romans had introduced sanitation to much of their domain,...
Ruin of a second-century public toilet in Roman Ostia.

Rats, Exploding Toilet Seats and Demons of the Deep: The Hazards of Roman Sewers

I have spent an awful lot of time in Roman sewers – enough to earn me the nickname Queen of Latrines from my friends. The Etruscans laid the first underground sewers in the city of Rome around 500 BC...