Historical Toilets

This page provides a very brief overview of toilets throughout human history.

Click on any of the pictures or descriptions to see many more pictures and detailed explanations of toilets and other plumbing from the various periods.

The toilets here are arranged by the starting year of each period, starting all the way back in the Stone Age. But the impatient can jump ahead with either the menu at left or the table of contents.

10,000 - 2100 BC
Neolithic Era

The Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae, in the Orkney Islands off the northern coast of Scotland, includes what are believed to be toilets attached to each of the eight interconnected dwellings.

The Neolithic Era, literally meaning "New Stone Age" and referring to a period of a common technological level, extended over approximately 10,000 to 2100 BC in Orkney. Skara Brae itself was occupied from 3100 to 2500 BC. See the Neolithic Toilet page for several more pictures and further details.

2100 - 1100 BC
Mycenaean Greece

Mycenae, or Μυκήνες in Greek, was first settled by Neolithic people in the 6th millennium BC. It's in the Peloponnese, south of Korinthia and southwest of Athens in what today is southern Greece.

Between about 2100 and 1900 BC, during the Old Bronze Age, Indo-European people crossed Anatolia, moved through Troy and on to the west and south through Greece. Existing settlements in the mainland were primitive, and the new arrivals brought an advanced culture. A number of small kingdoms were established.

The kingdom of Mycenae became the most powerful by far, leading to the entire civilization of that area being called Mycenaean. For the 400 years from 1600 to 1200 BC, Mycenae was the most powerful kingdom in Greece.

It's hard to distinguish history from myth in Mycenae. But somewhere around the 14th Century BC, there really seems to have been a King Agamemnon of Mycenae. Agamemnon's brother was Menelaus. According to Homer, Menelaus' wife Helen was abducted by Paris of Troy and taken back to his city on the northwest coast of Anatolia. Agamemnon then commanded the Achaean forces (what we often mis-label as "Greek" today) in the Trojan War.

Meanwhile, back in the royal citadel of Mycenae, the above pictures shows King Agamemnon's innermost royal chamber, and therefore the location of his chamber pot. Make that his Royal Chamber Pot.

At right is the public latrine in the nearby fortress of Tiryns.

See the detailed Mycenaean toilet page for many more pictures and historical details of the two powerful city-states.

1600 BC - 395 AD
Delphic Greece

Delphi, in Greece northwest of Athens, was a religious center for two millenia, from 1600 BC until 395 AD. By 1600 BC a shrine had been erected for Gaia, the Mother Goddess of west Asia, Then the myth held that the office of Oracle was held by the goddesses Themis and Phoebe. Later, the site was believed to be sacred to Poseidon, the deity of earthquakes known as "Earth-Shaker". During the Greek Dark Ages (11th-9th century BC), the temple was turned over to Apollo.

Here is the main temple in Delphi, the Temple of Apollo. The entrance to the temple was at the far or left end in this view.

The Sanctum Sanctorum, the Holiest of Holies, was at the opposite end, nearest the viewpoint in this picture. This was where the Oracle of Delphi sat on a tripod above a crevasse that emitted ethylene gas leading to the Oracle's strange mental states.

The Oracle would babble semi-coherently. Her ravings would then be "translated" by the temple priests into elegant hexameters.

The south side of the temple, the long downhill face, has a small passage leading back toward the area underneath the Oracle's seat! You can crawl back in there, I have pictures from inside that passage on the dedicated page about Delphi. But I had no visions.

Visitors did not just casually wander in to Delphi. Pilgrims would land at the Gulf of Corinth, several miles away, proceeding several miles up the valley toward the sacred site. They would purify themself on the way toward the sacred precincts.

The Castalian Spring and the sacred bathing area for cleansing purposes date back to Mother Goddess days, long before the Delphi of Classical Greek tradition.

The detailed page about Delphi provides many more pictures and background.

1400 BC - 328 AD
Biblical, Old Testament

This pit toilet has been constructed from local loose stones, just below the summit of Mount Sinai, Egypt.

The mountain has been a major pilgrimage site at least since when the Byzantine Empress Helena (ruled 313-328 AD) established a monastery at the base of the mountain.

1200 - 700 BC
Phrygian / Hittite

The capital of the Hittite Empire was at Hattuşaş, next to today's small Turkish farming village of Boğazkale. After the fall of the Hittite Empire around 1200 BCE, the Phrygians established a capital there.

This sewage drain dates from the Phrygian occupation of the site about 1200-700 BCE.

The Phrygian people had a series of kings alternately named Gordias and Midas, as in the mythic Midas of the Golden Touch and the Gordian Knot. Phrygia itself fell under the Cimmerian invasion around 700 BC, becoming part of Lydia, ruled by the proverbially wealthy King Croesus.

900 BC - 100 AD
Delian Greece

After the Greek Dark Ages and the emergence of the Ancient Greek culture, the island of Delos became dedicated to the Ancient Greek religion. These are the famous lion statues on the Terrace of the Lions near the Sanctuary of Apollo. They were dedicated to Apollo shortly before 600 BC by the people of Naxos.

Delos was a major cult center from 900 BC to 100 AD. It went through a number of cycles in which businesses would be established around the pilgrimage activity. At times it had the largest slave market in the region, and a number of large homes were built during these periods. But then the island would be "cleansed" of economic activity and re-dedicated purely to religion.

The Delian League started meeting here after its foundation in 478 BC, after the Persian wars.

Other pictures of plumbing from the time of the sacred use of Delos include the large latrine of the House of the Trident, seen here, the latrine of the Lake House, an underground sewer channel, buried beneath one of the main streets, and a system of aquaducts and cisterns used to collect the rare drinking water on the arid island.

See the dedicated Delos page for those further details.

625 BC - 1000 AD
Magna Graecia

Magna Graecia was the Latin for "Greater Greece". The people who settled it would have called it Μεγαλη Ελλας or Megale Hellas, "Greater Greece".

Greek settlers colonized southern Italy and Sicily in the 8th Century BC. It was absorbed into the Roman Republic after the Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC).

A major city was Ποσειδονια, or Poseidonia, called Paestum in classical Roman times and today. It's south of Salerno, an easy day trip from the Amalfitani coast.

At left above is the Temple of Athena and one of the public pools or baths.

At right is a drain from either a smaller bath or a public latrine.

Many more pictures and historical details are included on the dedicated Paestum page.

509 - 27 BC
Roman Republic

The city block of Rome between Largo di Torre Argentina and Via Florida on the north and south, respectively, and Via di Torre Argentina and Via San Nicola da' Cesarini on the west and east, respectively, contains a number of plumbing-related Roman ruins.

The Statio Aquarum or the Office of the Department of Water Distribution are located here.

Also, the portico of Pompey, formally known as Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, was located here. It served as the Roman Senate house. The Senate met there, and it was where Julius Caesar was assassinated on 15 March 44 BC.

A large public latrine is in the northwest corner of this excavated block. This would have been the toilet used when the Roman Senate took a bathroom break, since the Senate met in the building adjacent to the south side of this large latrine.

A long row of seats, now missing, would have been directly over the large channel. Users would have been seated facing toward our right in this view, or toward the more recent brick wall, so they could bend forward and dip water from the shallow channel running past their feet.

More pictures and historical details are on the dedicated Roman Republic era toilet page.

292 BC - 700s AD
Biblical, New Testament

New Testament Biblical toilets in my collection include the famous public latrine at Ephesus, seen at left. A settlement was founded in that area in the 10th Century BC, but it was relocated to its final location in 292 BC. Ephesus became the principal city of Asia Minor, so this public latrine was quite large.

These similar marble public toilets are next to the main processional way from the harbor gate in Korinthos, Greece. These date from when the Apostle Paul was visiting Korinthos, trying to turn people away from the mountaintop debauchery at the Temple of Aphrodite, visible on the mountaintop in the distance.

These surprisingly scenic urinals are at Maryemana, on a mountain above Ephesus.

Other New Testament era toilet pictures on the dedicated page include more from both Ephesus and Korinthos, and pictures of the public latrines at Hierapolis in Asia Minor, now Pamukkale, Turkey.

62 AD
Roman (Oplontis)

Roman Emperor Nero had a luxurious villa in the town of Oplontis, the Villa Poppaea. Unfortunately for Nero, his villa was close to Pompeii, and more significantly, very close to Vesuvius.

Nero was born 15 December 37 AD, and ruled from 13 October 54 until his death by suicide on 9 June 68. He had accomplished quite a bit by then, but mentioning that is much like pointing out that Adolf Hitler liked dogs.

In 53, Nero married his stepsister Claudia Octavia. Then, in 58, Nero began an affair with Poppaea Sabina, the wife of his friend (and future Emperor) Otho. He then ordered the murder of his mother in 59 because it did not seem politically feasible to divorce his stepsister and marry his friend's wife while his mother was alive.

After Nero marryied Poppaea Sabina in 59, she used this as her main residence when she was not in Rome. And here we can see the large multi-person latrine inside the villa.

Click here for many more pictures and details about Nero's villa, his career, and this latrine.

79 AD
Roman (Pompeii)

Pompeii was a prosperous Roman city until it was buried in volcanic ash in the eruption of Vesuvius in August of the year 79 AD.

One popular sight in the excavated city is the Lupenaro or home of the "she-wolves", the famous Pompeii brothel.

Here you see the brothel toilet. It's a basic one-hole frame design built of stone. A chamber pot would be placed below the hole, to be dumped into the sewer immediately outside after use.

So, this is an indoor toilet but not indoor plumbing.

One of Pompeii's main products was processed wool. Wool must be fulled, which means cleaned or scoured. The wool fulling process in Roman used human urine. Here we see a wool fulling tank, once filled with urine and used to clean the newly purchased wool.

Other pictures on the Pompeii page show further details of Pompeii, such as the plaster casts of the bodies of victims, more details of the city and the brothel, Pompeii's systems of sewage and drainage, the large city baths, and more pictures of the urine-based wool fulling operation.

122 - 700 AD
Imperial Roman (Britannia)

Hadrian's Wall was built across the narrowest part of Britain just south of the Pictish lands starting in 122 CE, during the rule of the Emperor Hadrian.

These are Imperial Roman toilets at Vercovicium Fort, a part of Hadrian's Wall.

These Roman toilets are at the military garrison at Vindolanda Fort, near Hadrian's Wall and quite close to Vercovicium Fort.

305 - 311 AD
Late Roman (Thessaloniki)

Galerius, formally and fully known as Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus, was born around 260 AD. He was Roman Emperor from 305 to 311.

Galerius based himself in Thessaloniki because, let's face it, Rome was pretty well gone by the early 300s. Constantinople was where you found culture. Since there was an Augustus already ruling in Constantinople, and Rome was a wreck, Galerius had a base in Thessaloniki where several Galerian monuments survive.

One of these is the excavated site of his palace, on today's Plateia Navarinou. Of course it had latrines, and of course I photographed them.

909 - 1171
Fatimid

This fine marble kilga or water jar stand held a babb, a large unglazed earthenware jar. Water was filtered as it seeped through the bottom of the jar, and it collected in the basin at bottom.

This kilga was produced sometime in the 11th through the first half of the 12th century in either Egypt or Syria.

960s - 1539
Arthurian

In 1191 the Glastonbury Abbey in southwestern England was in financial trouble. The abbot directed the monks to dig in a particular spot in the cemetery, where they found a large oak casket holding a man and woman. Obviously this was Arthur and Guinevere! Well, there was a lead cross enscribed in Latin, reading something like Here lies Arturus, king of the Britons. So they were moved to a new tomb in what was then a fairly new cathedral. And so today you can stand in one spot and see two tombs of Arthur and Guinevere.

The abbey ruins include a large plumbing contraption labeled REREDORTER. This obscure term specifically means the latrine associated with a monastic establishment, which is usually located behind the dorter or sleeping quarters.

The Arthurian Toilets page has further details and more pictures of the plumbing ruins of Glastonbury.

1140 - 1518
Medieval Scotland

This is the reredorter at the Saint Andrew Cathedral Priory, a priory of Augustinian canons. Construction on the cathedral began in 1158.

Off the west coast of Scotland, in the Inner Hebrides, the Iona Abbey was built starting in 1203. However, the monastery itself dates back to the arrival in the year 563 of Colm Cille, later known as Saint Columba, with 12 companions. This is the reredorter of the abbey.

The dedicated Medieval Scottish Ecclesiastical page has further pictures and details on the reredorters and other plumbing features of both Saint Andrews and the Iona Abbey.

1402 - 1921
Crusader

Tamerlane invaded Anatolia in 1402, reducing the control of the Ottoman Empire over south-western Anatolia. The Knights Hospitalier, also known as the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, built the Castle of Saint Peter at Halicarnassus, Asia Minor (now Bodrum, Turkey). These are the toilets.

The castle construction started in 1402. Various extensions and reconstructions continued for at least a century.

The castle fell to Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522. It was used as a military base by the Turks through the 1800s. In 1895 it was converted into a prison.

It was an Italian garrison 1917-1921, but the Italians withdrew when Atatürk came to power.

See the Crusader toilet page for more details on the Crusaders, the Turks, and the toilets.

1465 - 1853
Imperial Ottoman

This is the Imperial Ottoman Throne, at least in some sense.

This is the toilet of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the ruler of all the Middle East, northern Africa, and south-east Europe. This toilet is in the harem, the private quarters of the sultan, in Topkapı Palace in İstanbul, Turkey, the official and primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 through 1853.

There's a board over the hole, but you can still appreciate the fine marble and Sultan-level craftsmanship.

The Imperial Ottoman Turkish toilet page has further details on this toilet, and pictures and details of another mid to late Ottoman toilet design from Bodrum.

1600
England

This Shakespearean chamber pot is not The Bard's Own Thunder Mug, but it is a typical English chamber pot from around 1600. This one was brought from England to the English colony at Jamestown, Virginia.

See the dedicated page for further details on this chamber pot.

1750 - 1790
American Revolution

Benjamin Franklin's privy pit can be seen at the site of his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A nearby sign says:

This brick-lined, circular "necessary" (privy) pit was probably built when Franklin expanded his house in 1786-1787. A stone drain connecting to a vertical brick pipe conveyed waste into the pit either from Franklin's "water closet", "bathing room", or "run-off" from the sunken areaway outside the cellar kitchen.

The dedicated page has more pictures and details of this privy pit, a second privy pit, and a nearby well.

1830 - 1835
19th Century America

Edgar Allan Poe moved to Amity Street in West Baltimore in 1832. The home was outside the city then. Now it's in the middle of a pretty awful urban setting. He won an 1833 literary contest for his story MS. Found In A Bottle. In 1835, he married his young cousin Virginia.

Edgar and Virginia Poe, with mother-in-law in tow, later moved to New York. In October, 1849, Poe was passing through Baltimore. On the night of the 3rd, he was found on the streets delirious and "in great distress, and in need of immediate assistance." He was taken to a hospital, where he died on the morning of the 7th without becoming coherent enough to explain how he had gotten into his dire state or why he was wearing someone else's clothes. Delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, meningitis, cholera, and rabies have all been blamed.

American homes did not have indoor plumbing in the 1830s. The Poes would have had chamber pots in the bedrooms and possibly a privy out back. But given the dire financial situation of the Poes, their privy may not have been much.

Here you see a specially made wash stand holding a ceramic bowl and pitcher in the small bedroom on the top floor. This was the state of the art of indoor "plumbing" in America in the 1840s.

The detailed Edgar Allan Poe page has more details on Poe's life and their home in Baltimore.

1854
Victorian London

A cholera outbreak in 1854 killed 10,738 people in London. It was centered on the Soho area.

Doctor John Snow analyzed the available information and determined that the main agent spreading cholera was a public water pump on Broad Street. The spring below the pump had been contaminated by sewage.

Snow didn't know what the contaminant was, but he found that the common attribute of victims was the use of water from that pump. Snow's analysis was one of the first examples of epidemiology. Despite objections, he convinced the government officials to remove the pump's handle. This stopped that outbreak, but it took many more years before there was wide belief in contaminated water as the cause. "Miasma" or "bad air" was the preferred explanation.

See the detailed Cholera Pump page for further details on cholera, this outbreak, and Snow's work and legacy.

1880 - 1900
19th Century Scotland

It is not just random chance that Star Trek featured a Scotsman as an engineer — Scotland has an amazing history of engineering. And of course this includes their toilets!

The national museum in Edinburgh has a great collection of Scottish engineering and manufacturing, including some Scottish toilets from the late 1800s.

This unit is by Doulton and Company, labeled inside the bowl as "The Combination".

The dedicated page has further examples of late 19th Century Scottish plumbing.

1900 - 1950
Early-Mid 20th Century America

Although it's a new country, the United States of America still has a lot of active plumbing from 50 to 100 years ago.

The early 20th century brought marble partition walls, geometric patterns of small floor tiles, and these large freestanding urinals.

The 1950s led into the 1960s with ceramic in various shades of avocado and gold.

The dedicated page has further examples of early-mid 20th Century American plumbing, including that found in Woodrow Wilson's home in Washington, D.C., Depression-era public toilets, vintage mid-century government toilets, and the personal facilities of Dwight Eisenhower.

Other Historical Toilets

Don't overlook the category of the Toilets of World Leaders. Several more toilets and other plumbing with historical connections can be found there, including those of Woodrow Wilson, Leon Trotsky, Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, and Robert Kennedy.

Also, the Toilets of Arts and Letters include the toilets and other plumbing of Vincent Van Gogh, Jim Morrison, Tom Wolfe, and Hunter S. Thompson.

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.

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