Roman Mysteries & Western Mysteries | Ten Things Romans Used for Toilet Paper

One thought on “Roman Mysteries & Western Mysteries | Ten Things Romans Used for Toilet Paper”

1. I think between Seneca, the archaeological evidence and practicality of this process it’s a given that the sponge-stick was mainly used by everyone from slave to Emperor.

   They have found large deep tub/basins in latrines that would have held these sponge-sticks in public and private latrines.

   The seat’s construction alone shows that something long with something widener on the end was used o=.

   If something like the hand or hand-held was used there would be no reason make this front opening between the legs that long and in that shape.

   Plus that is a very difficult and impractical direction to go in to do this process compared to our ‘behind the back’ method:-).
   Try their method…once:-)

   As far as luxury and cost of these sponge-sticks which can be repeatedly re-used.

   We have Seneca’s slave/Beast fighter using them, a common soldier’s latrine with basins for these sponge-sticks http://tinyurl.com/d5xkg9w also the Guard Barracks at Hadrian’s Villa and there is pretty good evidence of a large basin (now missing) in Ostia Antica’s public latrines.

   And I assume these basins have also been found elsewhere in the Empire in public latrines?

   Plus they have found private expensive luxurious 1-seat toilets with the same set-up o=.

   http://tinyurl.com/oaseat
   Definitely shows something long was inserted with a wider end.

   And the fresh water channel at the feet would be an excellent method to rinse these long sponge-sticks vs anything handheld.

   If the method was handheld it would be alot easier to just run the fresh water channel behind the seats which the person could easily reach.

   It’s often mentioned that no sponges have been found in the sewers. It’s not like they are coins, jewelry, bones, etc any discarded worn sponges or dropped sponge-sticks will just ‘go with the flow’:-).

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