Toilet Use Throughout History

In a traveling life where there was no permanent settlement as a hunter-gatherer, it was possible to get rid of this threat only by moving away from there after leaving the excrement. However, it was not so easy to get rid of this problem after settling down. In settlements that are not very crowded like the first villages, this problem can be solved by digging a well outside the settlement area and covering it after leaving excrement, while with the emergence of large populated cities, toilets and sewerage systems were born. With the known record, the first toilets appeared in societies that lived in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and Anatolia. Later, each community came up with their own solutions and created their own toilet culture.

Oldest Toilet Uses

Mesopotamia

Approximately BC. In the Byblos Ancient City (north of Beirut) in 5 thousand, there are channels built for the disposal of household waste water, but as an architectural element, there are not very definite remains of the toilet.

B.C. In the palace of Akkadian King Sargon I, who ruled in Mesopotamia between 2334 - 2279 BC, 6 toilets and associated sewerage systems were found. The seat of this toilet was made in the shape of a horseshoe, which the user could easily lean on.

Egypt

The first known private toilet in Egypt BC. It is seen in the tombs designed as a house in Saqqara, which dates back to 2890-2636. According to Egyptian beliefs, necessities such as eating, drinking and toilets were also necessary for death, and for this reason, items such as toilets and bathrooms were included in some tombs.

B.C. Some houses in El-Arman, dating back to 1350, had toilets with seats made in the shape of a keyhole, as in today's toilets.

India

BC in India. Well-designed toilets and sewerage systems were used in the city of Mohenjo-Daro, the important center of the Indus Civilization that developed in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Although it was a place defined as a toilet, a toilet was not used as an architectural element.

Anatolia

In the bathroom parts of the Hittite period palaces, which established the first central power in Anatolia about 4,000 years ago, a hole in the middle and seated toilets consisting of four pedestals on which the toilet stone was placed were used.

B.C. A comprehensive sewage system and toilets were frequently used in the palaces and buildings connected to the temple of the Urartu state, which were established around Lake Van in the early 1st millennium and lasted for about 400 years.

Ancient Greek

In ancient Greek societies, toilet training was given to children at an early age, and terracotta potty pots were used for babies.

In ancient Greek culture, the need for toilet was usually met by containers that we can call portable toilets. Men used pots that looked like chubby jars, made of terracotta or metal with handles and holes in the front, while women used boats in the shape of a boat. For this need, one would move to another room or go outside the house. The faeces in these containers would be thrown out of the house.

Sometimes a domestic toilet could be found outside the house by the garden, and these toilets were simply a chair with a hole in the middle.

However, the need for toilet was not always met in such a "gentle" way in ancient Greek society. According to Aristophanes in his work "Clouds", sometimes adults meet their toilet needs just outside the door and keep their babies outside the door to fulfill their needs.

Its people often used water and a common sponge for cleaning.

Although not very common in this period, as in previous periods, toilets connected to the sewage system were found in some cities. And again, although not very common in the city of Athens BC. A public toilet dating back to the 2nd century was discovered.

Ancient Rome

In Roman society, as in the ancient Greek culture, seats in the form of chairs with a hole in the middle or simple clay pots were used in houses. After use, the container was emptied into a general sewer or directly into the street through the window. These cesspools were cleaned at night by the workers, whose money was paid with the city's taxes, and the dirt was transported out of the city by cars.

Many people could become victims at that time due to the throwing of fecal containers on the street. In this case, the victim could take the person who threw the faeces out to the court and collect money for the cleaning and health expenses incurred and for the losses caused by the inability to go to work. It was not always detectable that stool was discharged. In this case, the fines were collected from everyone who lived in the building where the faeces came from. The turmoil caused by the evacuation of feces from the windows of houses is also included in the "Third Satire" by Juvenal, one of the works of the period. The author described this widespread phenomenon as "a thunderstorm from unknown hills".

The Romans even used these portable toilets during feasts. Anyone who came to the toilet at the feasts of the rich Romans could point to his slave and bring a seat or a container with him and get his need there.

In the Roman period, while toilets were located in the homes of almost all of the wealthy citizens over time, public toilets (Latrina) were built for the use of citizens who could not afford to channel their homes. By paying a certain fee, everyone used these public (public) toilets. Wealthy people were also gathering in public toilets and gossiping with their neighbors, discussing politics and making business deals, while meeting their needs.

The Romans built public toilets with marble seats, gods and goddesses on the walls, and mosaics on the floors with scenes from daily life. However, it was not possible to see this meticulousness that the toilets showed to their aesthetic appearance in the field of health and cleaning. The feces of other toilet users were passing through the channel passing in front of the place where they sat and left their feces. In a small pool in the middle or in buckets in front of the toilets, there were sticks with a sponge at the end. After using these sticks they used to clean their backs, they were given to the person to use with him.