Sponge On A Stick Roman Toilet

ξύλον xylon with a sea sponge greek.

Sponge on a stick roman toilet.

After the collapse of the roman empire toilet technology came to a bit of a standstill the book reads. In ancient rome these were used to wipe yourself after going to the toilet. But what most romans used was something called a spongia a sea sponge on a long stick. Here s how it worked.

The stick was long because of the design of roman toilets. Horrible histories if you owners want to removed this video please contact us directly. A tersorium is an ingenious little device made by attaching a natural sponge from the mediterranean sea of course to the end of a stick. Here is a picture of an ancient roman restroom to help with the imagination and here is a 2 minute smithsonian video with some riveting information and visuals you will notice that the roman toilet opening extended downward in a keyhole shape which allowed for insertion of the famed sponge on a stick for wiping.

Sponge on a stick the roman toilet paper. The xylospongium or tersorium also known as sponge on a stick was a hygienic utensil used by ancient romans to wipe their anus after defecating consisting of a wooden stick greek. Roman public toilets consisted of a long marble bench with holes at the top to sit on and holes at the front for the sponge sticks. Public facilities had a long marble bench with holes on top for the obvious thing and holes at the front.

You had a sponge that was on the end of a stick. When you finished doing your business you took the sponge on a stick wet it in the fresh water that flowed in that channel we spoke of on the floor. Toilet paper did not exist in roman times so the romans used a spongia instead. If you look carefully at the illustrations you can see the gutters just in front of the seats where sea water ran continuously so they could rinse their.

The most famous example of ancient toilet paper comes from the roman world. One of the things they used to wipe themselves was a sponge on a stick which was. Well you could use a leaf a handful of moss or your left hand. To clean the sponge they simply washed it in a bucket with water.

The stick has a loop of leather at one end. We will respectfully remove it. But instead of reaching for a roll of toilet paper an ancient roman would often grab a tersorium or in my technical terms a toilet brush for your butt. This was a sea sponge attached to a long stick.

In absence of toilette paper the butts cleaning device was a wooden stick with a sponge attached at one of the ends often literally a sea sponge or some type of cloth or animal wool.