The article outlines the historical development of toilets, illustrating how early civilizations used communal pits and rudimentary systems for waste disposal. It highlights the transition to outhouses about 500 years ago, which improved hygiene by situating toilets away from living spaces. Despite being simple structures, outhouses remained prevalent into the 20th century. The article also discusses chamber pots, convenient vessels used from antiquity through the 19th century, which offered more privacy and were often managed by servants in royal households.
People would have sat over deep pits lined with ceramic, and it was a communal affair, so zero privacy. Other ancient cultures devised ways to incorporate water to carry waste away, but systems were rudimentary and unhygienic with pathogens readily spreading diseases like cholera and typhoid.
Things got a little better with the advent of the outhouse, which helped control the spread of disease by situating the toilet away from the house. It was still rudimentary and not much more than a simple structure containing a hole in the ground or a bucket that would need to be emptied.
Chamber pots were popular from the time of antiquity in Greece to well into the 19th century. They were ceramic bowls, often with handles, that could be stashed in a nightstand or under the bed for convenience.
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