People are so prissy about bodily functions and genitals and so on these days.
this post was submitted on 06 May 2025
214 points (95.3% liked)
Today I Learned
21843 readers
400 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Nope, the separator structures just didn't survive so we don't know how "communal bathrooms" looked they could have had wooden walls around them but you know wood doesn't last very long.
We have more to go off, though.
Surviving texts speak of the social aspect of shitting.
Yes but Rome was huge to apply one scenario to all the empire is kinda silly.
Is that an opinion among history experts, or a deduction based on your observations? I've never heard this theory before, but I'd love to read more if you've got information.
I too want to read more about historical toilets.
I mean, the spacing looks like it would be pretty squishy if you had little wall separators between each spot
I don't think that's the case here
Really but for most of human history your parents having sex with you in the room or same bed wasn't an issue? People didn't care it's the way things where.
You didn't mention the communal ass wiping sponge!
Imagine:
It's 72 degrees, 9am, blue skies, green trees, you're under just a bit of shade, there's a cool, fresh breeze, and ~~shitting~~ sitting on a bench like the one in the picture with your honey, both giggling while the sounds of a river directly underneath you sweep away and clean all the waste as birds chip and you both talk about something inane like how jjk is just naruto on adderall and what's going to be for breakfast.
We used to have it all
Love me some co-op shitting
Some places in China still have the shitter trough. Pro tip is to sit upstream or else it all goes by you. Last time I went in one of though was in a smaller* town’s bus station. Still cracks me up that two uncles were both using it and one of them got up and turned to the other and said 慢慢拉. This phrase is typically used for something like 慢慢来 to mean take your time but he used it to say poo slowly or take your time pooing. Makes it even better that these squat stalls on the trough were like four feet tall so when you stand up you can see everyone.
Also makes me think of my father’s story from playing football in college. The toilets were facing each other with no stalls so men setup a table and played chess as they pooped. Simpler times.
How long are these people pooping for??
Maybe it’s a quick game. They gotta get back on the field
I haven't seen one in a while but a "two hole drop" is a rural Australian long drop toilet. One bench seat with two pooping holes in it.
In the US that's called a two seater
Dual wielding
The scary part was the communal sponge
You wanted to be first in line for the new sponge, that's for sure.
Current research doesn’t support that.
Most likely, the sponge sticks were used as a toilet brush, and pieces of cloth were used to wipe.
If there is flowing water beneath just rinse it
Flowing water with bobbing turds.
Me using this in Roman times.
Roman 1: Is that poor guy dying?
Roman 2: No that's just him every morning.
Romans had a lot of fiber in their diet from eating a lot of grains.
You misunderstand. I don't have an issue with things not moving enough. Mine is moving too much.
Fiber helps with that as well.
My problems are beyond your fiber's skills or magic. I was born with IBS and I will die with it.
No I'm pretty sure fiber will fix it
True. If your gut has decided that its purpose is to hate you and everything you eat, then no amount of fiber will convince it otherwise.
IBS isn't always lifelong though. I hope you can work out a diet that avoids angering the growling intenstinal gremlins.
load more comments
(5 replies)
And shared a sponge stick to wash their ass.
Current research doesn't support that.
Most likely, the sponge sticks were used as a toilet brush, and pieces of cloth were used to wipe.
Also "without privacy" is also in question, because you could use cloth partitions hanging from a rod; something known to be used in stadiums to separate class.
Afaik there's an original source that makes fun of a guy who hung out on the toilet all day, hoping to strike up a conversation that'll get him invited to dinner.
That would imply it was a social thing.
Source?
"Vacerra spends hours in all the privies, sitting all day long.
Vacerra doesn’t want a shit, he wants a dinner."
(Martial, XI.LXXVII)
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0506%3Abook%3D11%3Apoem%3D77
Thank you for this!
It would imply that guy thought it was a social thing. Y'never know, maybe he was a weirdo even then. He could've been the proto-creeper whose descendants haunt public restrooms to this day.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Good to know, i had a hard time anyway believing that humans of any societal development stage would literally share a feces encrusted rag on a stick, to clean themselves. Certainly would be less nasty to just get up and leave without wiping at all.
load more comments
(7 replies)
load more comments
(7 replies)
view more: next ›