Biblical Toilets, New Testament

These nice marble-topped public toilets are near the Library of Celcius in Ephesus, Asia Minor at the time, Turkey today.

Yes, that's me sitting on it. And my mom standing nearby — I was taking my parents around Turkey, and my dad took this picture.

This category of toilet generally means public ones of Greek design. These were communal — no private stalls, but instead several closely adjacent seats on long benches. The flat-topped bench was executed in a variety of materials, although marble highly polished through use was perhaps the most elegant.

See the essay on "Privies, Privacy and Power" for an explanation of how this communal design was actually for the elite of the period, when using the toilet in front of or in the company of others was a privilege of royalty and nobility.

In the bench you find one horseshoe shaped hole per "station".

Below the bench was a channel for carrying away wastes. The channel varies widely in depth from one site to the next.

Immediately in front of the bench was a shallow channel carrying (relatively) clean flowing water for washing one's hands. Compare this to the copper tubes on modern Turkish train toilets.

This large public toilet at Ephesus had approximately twelve seats on each of three sides of a room, so it was a 36-holer! Well, Ephesus was the major city of Asia Minor. It also has a remarkably deep waste channel, from about two meters deep (in the section shown at right here) to perhaps twice that on the other side of the room. Note how far the water channel is in front of the seat, one would have to lean very far forward to utilize it.

These toilets date from when Luke, Paul, John, et. al. were in Ephesus. The wealthy Ephesians would send their slaves down early to warm up a seat for them. That's a luxury the apostles didn't have. Or, for that matter, today's Muscovites stuck with those nasty seatless Russian public toilets.

The settlement in that area was founded in the 10th century BC, but was relocated to its final location in 292 BC. The Goths destroyed the city in 263, but it was rebuilt under the Byzantines and was the second most important Byzantine city in the 5th and 6th centuries. It was sacked by the Arabs in 654-655, 700, and 716, after which it declined to a small village by the time the Seljuk Turks conquored it 1071-1100. The Byzantines recaptured control in 1100, changed its name to Hagios Theologos, and kept control until 1308. But crusaders passing through found only a small village called Ayasalouk. See my travel page for more information and pictures of Ephesus.

These surprisingly scenic urinals are at Maryemana, on a mountain above Ephesus. Also see the Middle Eastern section of this site for other Turkish plumbing. Someone else has photographed this one for a web site, and they have a better image at: http://www.urinal.net/svm/

These are much rougher marble public toilets next to the main processional way from the harbor gate, in Korinthos, Greece.

These also date from when Paul was here, attempting to turn people away from the mountaintop debauchery at the Temple of Aphrodite, visible on the mountaintop in the distance. Presumably, the toilets were better enclosed back then. On the other hand, given that it took Paul two letters to work in all his exhortations about debased lifestyles in Korinthos, maybe they weren't.

Korinthos was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and re-founded in 44 BC. It was destroyed by earthquakes in 375 and again in 551.

These are interior and exterior views of the public toilets at Hierapolis, then Asia Minor, now Pamukkale, Turkey.

Hierapolis was the site of the martyrdom of the disciple Phillip, and was also discussed in the closing chapter of Paul's Letter to the Colossians. Colosse, Hierapolis, and Laodicea were within 10-15 km of each other.

The interior image shows the construction method clearly, as the bench seat is missing. This provides a clear view of the rather shallow drainage channel, against the wall to the right, and the cleaning water channel immediately in front of the seats. It obviously would have been more convenient to wash your hands in the Hierapolis facilities, although the deeper waste channel at Ephesus would have its own advantages.

Click here for lots of pictures and descriptions from my page of travel to Colosse, Hierapolis, and Laodicea

The Phrygians (and see the page on Hittite/Phrygians toilets) built a temple here in the early 200s BC. It was destroyed from time to time by earthquakes and Persian armies. See my Turkish travel pages for more on Hierapolis.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box. [....] Poor sanitation, bad hygiene, and unsafe water — usually unsafe because it has fecal particles in it — cause one in ten of the world's illnesses. [....] Diarrhea — nearly 90 percent of which is caused by fecally contaminated food or water — kills a child every fifteen seconds. The number of children who have died from diarrhea in the last decade [1998-2008] exceeds the total number of people killed by armed conflict since the Second World War.

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

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