Sewer History: Photos and Graphics

Private latrines and bathrooms in the ancient world
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge image)

The first known flush toilet (of sorts) was in the Royal Palace at Knossos on Crete (circa 1700 BCE). It had a latrine on the ground floor with a rooftop water reservoir that collected rainwater for flushing. The Indus River Civilization (2600-1900 BCE) had latrines in many houses that connected to street drainage systems. A toilet with running water was recently found at the tomb of a Chinese king of the Western Han Dynasty dating from 206 BCE.

The Roman Empire is best known for its public latrines and baths, but private baths could also be found in many homes. Direct connection of homes to the sewers was not mandated until nearly 100 CE. (Cost was a factor; also mandating such a connection was then considered an invasion of privacy.)

See Tracking Down the Roots of Our Sanitary Sewers, and Links to toilet history sites.


	Queen's bathroom, Crete. From the Minoan Civilization (3000-100 BCE) Source: Unknown.
	Bath area, Mohenjo-daro (Indus River Civilization, 2600-1900 BCE). Almost every house unit at Mohenjo-daro was equipped with a private bathing area with drains to take the dirty water out into a larger drain that emptied into a sewage drain. Many of these bathing areas had water-tight floors to keep moisture from seeping into the other rooms nearby or below. Source: Courtesy of Professor Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, University of Wisconsin - Madison. See www.harappa.com
	Row of private baths, Lothal. (Indus River Civilization, 2600-1900 BCE) Source: Courtesy of Professor Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, University of Wisconsin - Madison. See www.harappa.com
	Several sump pots and latrines built one above the other were uncovered on Mound ET at Harappa (Indus River Civilization, 2600-1900 BCE). A small water jar dropped into one pot was never retrieved. The hole in the foreground is the beginning of another latrine that turned out to be a complete black-slipped jar. Source: Courtesy of Professor Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization (Karachi: Oxford University Press,1998), p. 60.