History of Sanitation - part 1

[mrsbrown]

 I need to write up the talk I gave, and I'd really like to set up a Human Sanitation specific blog.  but it's feeling like a big task so I'm just going to tell you about the first part of my talk and tomorrow I'll tell you about the second part and maybe by next weekend I'll have enough content that a blog won't look too silly.

Pre-History
When I started this research I thought that prehistoric people didn't shit in their own caves.  I was wrong.

I think someone linked me to an article about  Hind's Cave.  It's a cave used by a family grouping in Mexico as one of their regular stops on their hunter-gatherer lifestyle.  The cave was in continuous occupation for about 8000 years.

This picture shows a drawing of how they lived and where they went to the toilet.



See?  The latrine is right next to the sleeping area.  I guess at night no-one wants to go far for a wee - the first ensuite bathroom?  It makes sense -  when I'm camping it's a miracle if I make it more than 10m from my tent (unless there are lots of people around and I use my chamber pot).

Comments

[alexbayleaf]

So today I just found out about this: http://lanewaylearning.com ... classes on random interesting stuff held in a CBD laneway venue, for $12 per class. I have put my name down to teach a couple, and I thought maybe you could do your history of toilets? I would definitely like to hear/see it! They have a signup form on their website.

[montjoye]

interesting stuff. I imagine it would have been a bit whiffy. do your sources say whether there is evidence for both #1 and #2 in the latrine areas? or just #1 perhaps?