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Jun. 5th, 2007 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaShanks, Hershel. "The Puzzling Channels in Ancient Latrines." Biblical Archaeology Review. September/October 2002, p. 49-51, 70.
Shanks gives us some helpful information here, in discussing a narrow channel that runs in front of the seats in Roman latrines.
Shanks here disagrees with Hodge, feeling that this requires some bodily contortions which seem unlikely, and some peculiarity of the spillage so far from the mark. However,
Apparently, the evidence for this comes from Epistle 70 in Seneca's Moral Epistles, where a slave, being trained to fight animals in the arena and never left alone save in the privy, commits suicide instead. The slave "siezed the stick of wood, tipped with a spong which was devoted to the vilest uses, and stuffed it, just as it was, down his throught; thus, he blocked up his windpipe and choked the breath from his body. That was truly to insult death...."
So, my first thought, he choked to death on a toilet-brush?!
Martial also mentions the results of a sumptous dinner, "nought that the luckless sponge at the end of a degraded mop-stick would discover..."
Shanks also notes that: "Ancient toilet seats have a smaller opening on top than most modern toilet seats and also have an opening in the vertical face..."
The Jerusalem latrine he is discussing also has periodical round basin sections in the flushing runnel in front of the seats, perhaps for rinsing one's sponge.
Shanks also suggests that some Romans may merely have scooped water with the hand from the flushing channel through the vertical face of the toilet in order to clean the affected parts after relieving oneself. (Apparently cleaning with water, or if water is not available, clean dry soil, after evacuation is also suggested by the Quran.
Shanks gives us some helpful information here, in discussing a narrow channel that runs in front of the seats in Roman latrines.
For example, A. Trevor Hodge ... noted in a 1992 book that Roman latrines often contained rows of 10 or 20 or even 40 toilet seats, "allowing the occupants to consort in happy camaraderie." The toilet seat, usually made of wood but sometimes of stone or marble, was mounted above a continuously flowing stream of water "and thus obviated the need for flushing." . . . But then he adds: "This highly hygenic procedure was reinforced by arranging for a small gutter or runnel [what we have been calling the flushing channel] again carrying a continous stream of water, to run along the floor just in front of the seats [emphasis added], in which patrons could bend forward and dip their hands; no doubt it also conveniently carried away spillage, and generally helped in keeping the place clean."
Shanks here disagrees with Hodge, feeling that this requires some bodily contortions which seem unlikely, and some peculiarity of the spillage so far from the mark. However,
Koloski-Ostrow offered the same spillage argument as Hodge in an article she published in 1996-- but then as an alternative explanation added that the channel on the floor in front of the toilet seats may have been "for rinsing out soiled sponges tied to the ends of sticks," which Romans apparently used instead of toilet paper. In a later article, she again says that the sponge, "served as communal toilet paper."
Apparently, the evidence for this comes from Epistle 70 in Seneca's Moral Epistles, where a slave, being trained to fight animals in the arena and never left alone save in the privy, commits suicide instead. The slave "siezed the stick of wood, tipped with a spong which was devoted to the vilest uses, and stuffed it, just as it was, down his throught; thus, he blocked up his windpipe and choked the breath from his body. That was truly to insult death...."
So, my first thought, he choked to death on a toilet-brush?!
Martial also mentions the results of a sumptous dinner, "nought that the luckless sponge at the end of a degraded mop-stick would discover..."
Shanks also notes that: "Ancient toilet seats have a smaller opening on top than most modern toilet seats and also have an opening in the vertical face..."
The Jerusalem latrine he is discussing also has periodical round basin sections in the flushing runnel in front of the seats, perhaps for rinsing one's sponge.
Shanks also suggests that some Romans may merely have scooped water with the hand from the flushing channel through the vertical face of the toilet in order to clean the affected parts after relieving oneself. (Apparently cleaning with water, or if water is not available, clean dry soil, after evacuation is also suggested by the Quran.
