These included sewers through which human waste could be carried away, usually to nearby rivers and streams. The Romans also developed quite complex sanitary systems. ![]() Excavations in the Indus Valley (parts of modern-day Pakistan and northern India) have revealed remains that suggest a number of small sewer systems, which used flowing water to carry waste away to nearby watercourses or into large pits that were periodically cleaned-essentially the same arrangement used in mid-Victorian London, nearly 4,000 years later. ![]() The Mesopotamians, Minoans and Ancient Greeks all developed them for single and communal use. Purpose-built toilets have been revealed in numerous archaeological excavations. In response, some ancient cultures developed approaches that were both imaginative and also prefigure elements of the sewage systems we’re familiar with today. It could be buried, thrown into rivers or used to fertilise an increasing variety of crops.Īs larger settlements grew, the constant production of waste became a more significant problem. 10,000 years ago, when around five million humans lived on the planet, the excrement they produced was quite easily absorbed. Our very success as a species is part of the problem when it comes to managing human waste. Placed in a genetic context, honed by evolution and heightened by social conditioning, this reaction can be seen as an important natural mechanism for self-preservation-an automatic response to the threat of infection and disease.įundamentally, whenever our waste management systems are inadequate, our excretions can become a major threat to health-and so, as the human population expanded, our waste problem became too big to simply avoid. Things we find disgusting often make us ill, and faeces can be teeming with dangerous bacteria and viruses. Of the potential triggers for such a response, human faeces is one that’s common to all human societies.Ī century on from Darwin, British scientist and self-titled ‘disgustologist’ Professor Valerie Curtis was among those proposing a biological reason for avoiding excrement. ![]() The feeling of disgust portrayed in Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, 1872įeeling some level of disgust at the look, smell or even thought of our own excrement probably seems obvious, but it serves an essential purpose.ĭisgust, proposed the great naturalist Charles Darwin, was among the very basic emotions, one his extensive travels suggested was common to all cultures. Image source for An older man screws up his face in an expression indicating disgust
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