As the title of this column points out, there are in this crazy world of ours, and have been for a long time, many examples of both high – and low – technology. Several years ago I ran into an article written by archeologist Carole Raddato, who came very close to raving about what she quite correctly felt was the high technology – for its time – embedded in a Roman latrine located near Hadrian’s Wall.
Here. Want some fun reading? Go see all the photographs that Carole has taken of some remarkable parts of the ancient world.
And if you would like to see what Carole looks like, and learn more about her enthusiasm for ancient buildings, go here. It may surprise you, by the way to find that not all archeologists are grey haired old men. Young, blond, smiling Carole is by no means hard to look at!
Looking at all those pictures of Roman latrines will make you think. To begin with, some of them have side-by-side seating for what looks like up to 60 people. I suspect that some of those were built in or near Roman fortresses, or where the troops – like the ones I served with – were not shy about “doing their duty” in a latrine where there were several other men doing the same thing; and – just as in our times – when many men are quartered in a building there come times when the old saying that “when you gotta go you gotta go” is true for a whole group of people at once.
And you know what really got me as I read some more of what Carole had to say about all this? It was the “high tech” portion of the old Roman latrines; and no, I don’t mean flush toilets or pre-warmed stone seats.
It goes without saying that in AD 122 when Hadrian’s Wall was built to keep the native Scottish warriors fenced out of Roman Britain there was no such thing as toilet paper. So the canny Romans discovered a handy-dandy solution for cleaning themselves after a bowel movement.
Like what?
Like a natural sponge mounted on a stick, a bucket or trough filled with water in which to dip the sponge, and a slot in the front of the stone bench on which a Roman sat, through which the stick mounted sponge could be worked.
Don’t laugh!
Oh, well; go ahead! Laugh! Why not? I did when I read about the crazy sponge-on-a-stick thing.
And guess what?
We still have such things. That’s right; not everybody is as “fit as a fiddle” as people say, so some canny businessman has devised a little gadget that helps the elderly or handicapped to get the job done, as in: “The job ain’t finished till the paperwork’s done.”
All of this reminds me of something I heard about when I was stationed in Iceland; something I wish I had seen.
It seems that a fussy little Second Lieutenant arrived at the Thule, Greenland Airbase and was shocked that the Fleet Service people he had under him did not empty the “stuff” out of the storage tanks on incoming aircraft because it was frozen solid.
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Keep it Clean. Avoid obscene, hateful, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful.
Be Nice. No name-calling, racism, sexism or any sort of -ism degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article. Real names only!