And lastly, things could be deliberately hidden in the latrine – more than one medieval murder victim has been found stashed in the toilet. This could even be valuable items such as full money purses and the like – perhaps this was the origin of the proverbial spendthrift ‘pissing his money away’ ( Geldscheisser in German). On the other, often things were simply lost in the ‘smallest room’. On the one hand, kitchen waste and general garbage are deliberately disposed of in these ‘universal waste disposal units’. Today’s archaeologists are only rarely bothered by the smell of the erstwhile contents, since the composting process is usually complete – unless the latrine was below groundwater level, in which case archaeologists can justifiably speak of an ‘indescribable aroma’!Īt first glance, it may come as a surprise how many of these finds ended up in a latrine. This dirty job was done by a separate occupational category in its own right, of lower social status, whose practitioners were also referred to, not without irony, as ‘gold diggers’. These shafts, which were widespread in the late Middle Ages, had to be emptied at regular intervals. ‘Latrines’ are shafts or pits reinforced with walls or timberwork, which received the refuse from lavatories (‘privies’). The ‘double seat’ of the lavatory is clearly visible in the centre. One hundred or so latrines were excavated during digs in Lübeck city centre between 20, including this privy dating from the early 13th century. Waste is a mirror of the society that makes it, and the archaeologist’s task is to unscramble this distorted picture through the filter of its often very haphazard preservation, and the cultural distance of several hundred years. Much more often, it deals with lost and discarded things: broadly speaking, waste. So, in methodological terms, archaeology as a discipline lies somewhere between the natural sciences and the humanities.Īrchaeology rarely deals with structures damaged by chance – the evidence of natural disasters such as the volcanic eruption that buried people and houses in the Roman city of Pompeii – or deliberately hidden objects. If written and pictorial sources are available, these will also be taken into account. But nonetheless, archaeology asks historical and sociological questions, and tries to answer them. The tools and procedures used by archaeologists on a dig are more like those of geologists than historians. It relies on the extraction of its most important sources – found objects, deposits and remains of building structures and deposits – from the soil. The following are photos of an old-fashioned Vespasiano, or public urinal, still in use in the tiny town Morcone, province of Benevento.Archaeology can justifiably be described as probably the ‘dirtiest’ of the historical sciences. Today the Latin phrase is used to mean that the value of money is not tainted by its origins and even though public urinals have become a rarity, to this day they are still known in Italy as Vespasiani (Vespasians). With the introduction of public urinals, the liquid waste could be collected and sold as a source of ammonia, which was used for tanning leather and by launderers to clean the patricians’ white woolen togas. Up until then, Romans had simply urinated into pots that were emptied into cesspools. (The first public toilets ever, by the way, were introduced by Vespasian in 74 A.D). His famous aphorism “ Pecunia non olet” (Money does not smell) refers to the terse response he gave to his son Titus, who was complaining about the unpleasant nature of the Urine Tax his father had imposed on the product of the city’s urinals. Not a lot is known about the Emperor Vespasian’s life and brief rule, except that he was a highly competent general who built the gigantic Flavian Amphitheatre, better known as the Roman Colosseum.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |