PARASITES & THE POTTY
YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY WERE EXPOSED TO.
Ancient toilets and their sanitation issues
“[M]odern studies have shown that sharing latrines
may actually be worse for the spread of disease than a
lack of latrines.” – Marissa L. Ledger
Figure 1 | Public Roman Latrines
Figure 2 | Xylospongium
Ancient toilets and what?
While some may have general knowledge of how and where the invention of toilets became known, there are other factors that relate to the infamous toilet. Sanitation became quite a problem when the first toilets were starting to be used. Sanitary issues varied from not a sufficient amount of space within each latrine, not enough depth of stream to latrine hole, not enough space for public restrooms, no efficient way of ridding waste, and more, it was a constant worry and quite frankly, a killer among communities. After doing some research on ancient and traditional toilets and toilet systems, sanitation and potential diseases or parasites became a curiosity.
cleaning methods and a stick?!
Today, most people generally use some form of toilet paper when using the restroom. When public latrines started becoming more apparent and used by many, some form of wiping after defecating, for obvious reasons, became necessary. Ancient Roman latrines started to use and provide few to one stick with a sponge stuck at the end of it. This sponge on a stick is now referred to as a xylospongium. What common folk would do is take the xylospongium out of a bucket filled with water, use it to wipe themselves, and then proceed to stick it in the same bucket. This action was then repeated throughout days if not weeks, by different passerbyers. This was most likely a factor within the spread of typhoid and cholera diseases (Docevski.) Not only did multiple people use the same device to clean themselves, but the distance between each latrine hole did not help the sanitation issue (Ledger, 12).
where were the parasites?
In Marissa L. Ledger, Erica Rowan, Frances Gallart Marques, John H. Sigmier, Nataša Šarkić, Saša Redžić, Nicholas D. Cahill, and Piers D. Mitchell’s, Intestinal Parasitic Infection in the Eastern Roman Empire During the Imperial Period and Late Antiquity, sediment samples were taken from Roman cities in Anatolia and the Balkans to determine what kind of parasites ruled over the Roman Empire due to the unsanitary ways of the people who used these ancient latrines.
It was no surprise when Ledger and her team found that defecating in the street, ‘wilderness,’ or in any non-shared space, would have led to less death and exposure to parasites. They found that people using these latrines one after the other, led to more exposure of skin to skin contact with fecal matter and the parasites that came along with it (Ledger, 12.) One would presume that more privately used latrines would be safer to use, but even those had their flaws and were possibly almost just as bad as the public ones. A sample was taken from urban centers that were mostly used by the elite, which had private latrines. These particular latrines would have to be emptied by slaves, and to dispose of the waste, slaves would dump waste either directly outside of the home or building, while other latrines offered the possibility of having a poorly designed drain that led to a sewer nearby. Either way, slaves would have been in contact with this waste and exposed to the parasites that come with it and the latrines that had the drainage system would allow for parasites from the sewer to come into the home or building, potentially having parasitic eggs hatch within the household ( Ledger, 13.)
what was found?
Parasites such as Capillaria worm, lancet liver fluke, Entamoeba histolytica, Fasciola liver fluke, whipworm, beef/pork tapeworm, and roundworm were found in the Roman Provinces within or near the latrine stations (Ledger, 14.) There were parasites and diseases within each latrine area but the amount found within each one varied. This was due to the overall population within each city.
It would be interesting to note how these parasites might have transferred into different locations and maybe even certain objects or food, if we know for a fact that these critters made themselves into households.
Figure 3 | Private Latrine
Figure 4 | Roundworm egg
Figure 5 | Capillaria worm
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Docevski, Boban. “People Used Magic to Get out of Roman Toilets Alive and Other Revelations about Daily Life in Ancient World.” The Vintage News, 1 Dec. 2017, www.thevintagenews.com/2017/11/30/wacko-facts-ancient-rome/.
“Intestinal Parasitic Infection in the Eastern Roman Empire During the Imperial Period and Late Antiquity.” American Journal of Archaeology, 14 Sept. 2020, www.ajaonline.org/article/4180.