European trade goods (thanks to Nebraska Game and Parks Division) North American people made rapid scientific advances in the course of the 1500s AD, inspired by contacts with traders and [...]
A sewer from ancient Urartu (800s BC, now in eastern Turkey) As early as 800 BC, people in West Asia were digging ditches that led from their houses through the city streets [...]
History of Dysentery: Dysentery came from germs in your drinking water. Here people are washing clothes in the river (India) What is dysentery? Dysentery means having trouble with your insides [...]
Woman using chamber pot (Athens, Greece, ca. 480 BC. Now in Berlin) Where did people go to the bathroom? Imagine if you had to leave your house and walk to [...]
A Roman latrine, feeding into the Roman sewers. Why did the Romans build aqueducts and sewers? In larger Roman towns, people often got sick or died from drinking water that had sewage [...]
Roman mold-blown glass (100s AD) West Asian/African science under Roman rule What we call Roman science is a mixture of two different things. The first is the discoveries and inventions [...]
Aqueduct in the city of Rome - Roman aqueducts brought clean water to the people of Rome Why did the Romans build aqueducts? As Roman towns got bigger under the Roman [...]
Ancient Greek sewage: A child's high chair/potty seat (Athens, ca. 580 BC) Chamber pots and latrines Most Greek towns had no sewage system, and just latrines for bathrooms. According to Aristophanes, [...]
Han Dynasty model of an outhouse (ca. 100 AD) People in China, like other people around the world, used human poop to fertilize their fields and grow more food. In [...]
