Posted on 06/25/2021 9:48:45 AM PDT by Red Badger
At the onset of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, store shelves were quickly emptied of toilet paper, revealing the commodity’s prominent, yet unspoken role in modern-day society. Although humans have cleaned their bottoms for as long as they have walked the Earth, “three-ply” and “extra-soft” didn’t always describe toilet hygiene. Before the introduction of mass-produced, commercially available toilet paper in the mid-1800s and the continued improvements made into the early 20 century, people relied on less luxurious ways to wipe their bums.
From Seashells to Communal Sponges Through history, local customs and climate often dictated how anal hygiene was carried out. Social hierarchy also had in impact on toilet habits. What’s clear is that humans in all time periods have used a variety of natural tools and materials to clean themselves. In very ancient times, wiping with stones and other natural materials and rinsing with water or snow was common. Some cultures opted for seashells and animal furs.
A sponge on a stick, known as tersorium or xylospongium.
D. Herdemerten/CC BY 3.0
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“The most famous example of ancient ‘toilet paper’ comes from the Roman world [during the first century A.D.] and Seneca's story about the gladiator who killed himself by going into a toilet and shoving the communal sponge on a stick down his throat,” says Erica Rowan, an environmental archaeologist and a lecturer in classical archaeology at the University of London. The sponges, known as tersoriums, may have been used once or cleaned in a bucket of vinegar or salt water and reused, or they may have been used more like toilet brushes than toilet paper.
Beyond the communal sponge, Greco-Romans also used moss or leaves and pieces of ceramic known as pessoi to perform cleansing. Pieces of pessoi may have started as ostraca, broken bits of pottery that often had the names of enemies inscribed on them—a proverbial way to soil upon adversaries.
Small fragments of cloth found in a sewer in Herculaneum, Italy, one of the towns buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., could have been used as another form of toilet paper, although Rowan points out, “Cloth was made by hand in antiquity so using cloth to wipe your bum would have been quite a decadent activity. It's the equivalent to using the softest and most expensive three-ply today.”
In 1992, archaeologists discovered 2,000-year-old hygiene sticks, known as salaka, cechou and chugi, in latrines at Xuanquanzhi, a former Han Dynasty military base in China that existed along the Silk Road. The instruments, cut from bamboo and other wood, resembled spatulas. The ends were wrapped in cloth and contained traces of preserved fecal matter.
The Introduction of Paper as a Wipe Although paper originated in China in the second century B.C., the first recorded use of paper for cleansing is from the 6th century in medieval China, discovered in the texts of scholar Yen Chih-Thui. In 589 A.D, he wrote, “Paper on which there are quotations or commentaries from the Five Classics or the names of sages, I dare not use for toilet purposes.”
By the early 14th century, the Chinese were manufacturing toilet paper at the rate of 10 million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets annually. In 1393, thousands of perfumed paper sheets were also produced for the Hongwu Emperor’s imperial family.
Paper became widely available in the 15th century, but in the Western world, modern commercially available toilet paper didn’t originate until 1857, when Joseph Gayetty of New York marketed a "Medicated Paper, for the Water-Closet,” sold in packages of 500 sheets for 50 cents. Before his product hit the market, Americans improvised in clever ways.
"The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."
Library of Congress
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Barry Kudrowitz, associate professor and director of product design at the University of Minnesota, has studied the history and use of toilet paper. Through the 1700s, corncobs were a common toilet paper alternative. Then, newspapers and magazines arrived in the early 18th century. “The ‘legend’ goes that people were primarily using the Sears catalog in outhouses, but when the catalog began to be printed in glossy paper people needed to find a replacement,” says Kudrowitz. Americans also nailed the Farmer’s Almanac onto outhouse walls, leading the company to pre-drill the legendary “hole” into their publication in 1919.
The first perforated toilet paper rolls were introduced in 1890, and by 1930 toilet paper was finally manufactured “splinter free.” Today, softer, stronger and more absorbent describe the toilet paper found in American homes.
Toilet Paper Hoarding Shifts in attitudes and practices over time, including those associated with bathroom habits and hygiene, can help explain why people in modern society feel compelled to have toilet paper on hand, particularly during a crisis. For instance, in the Middle Ages, people considered human waste both good—being valuable and worth money (excellent for crops)—and bad—filthy and disgusting (excellent for humor and insults).
“The good is little accepted today, despite endeavors to [re]use excrement for energy,” says Susan Signe Morrison, a professor at Texas State University and author of Excrement in the Late Middle Ages: Sacred Filth and Chaucer’s Fecopoetics.
A Roman latrine built in stone around AD 124, in part of the Roman province of Britannia.
English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images
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In ancient Rome, public toilets consisted of stone or marble slabs with a series of holes in them. There were no dividers and therefore no privacy. People ended up (quite literally) sitting right next to each other and sharing the communal sponge. Now, most Americans would be embarrassed at the mere thought of running out of toilet paper.
“It’s psychological,” says Morrison. “We hoard toilet paper because we fear having to face our poo. If we run out of toilet paper, how will we wipe our bottoms?”
It’s just weird for me.
On the toilet paper note we had hundreds of rolls in the garage because every time we’d go to Costco we’d forgot we bought toilet paper before and bought another one.
Tools people used in the past were moss, sponge on a stick, ceramic pieces, bamboo ‘spatulas’, and if you’re the Puppetdent of the United States, Dr. Jill.
The ocean is a good one
When you live on the beach. Be like da fish !
one thing bitcoin will never be good for
> and by 1930 toilet paper was finally manufactured “splinter free.”
LOL
That and the bra ads.
Aww, memories.
Our golden retriever with 5 inch thick hair around his butt does not have to wipe.
Defective design in humans.
Leave it to you to find a crappy topic lol
Yes pastel pink blue yellow and green. We had pink at home.
One can still obtain it in France.
If you squat as our ancestors did 10,000 years ago you need little to no toilet paper.
Sitting on a toilet puts you in the wrong position and causes you to have to wipe. The sit down toilet was a defective design since day 1.
Why are the 2 Romans on the left sitting so close to each other with so many available spots to drop the chalupa?
“Now you know what made Sears & Roebuck such a success in the late 1800s.....................”
LOL, Yes, I am sure S & R catalogue pages came in handy when there was not near universal toilet paper.
But, S & R’s real success was they were like a combination of Walmart plus Amazon at one time, and sold many things not sold by either one, including houses and farm equipment like tractors.
But back to Korea.
Yes some places had indoor toilets, even some houses, and of course modern hotels and offices.
But in all the large public toilets in Korea I ever experienced, like at large Korean movie theaters, the stench as so bad I on occasion just skipped the opportunity.
And in our U.S. Army quarters, the toilet part of the “bathroom” quonset hut was much like the picture of the old Roman latrine - a bunch of toilets in a row with no partitions around or in front of them, and our company had just that one toilet area near the quonset huts that were our barracks. The shower was a shower room; just a large totally open square room with showers along the walls and a kerosene heater in the middle of the room.
USMC was the same, even in the US....................
I know it sounds weird, but once you try it you like it.
Maybe they were Greek conscripts......................
Yeah, he just licks his poopy rump and then gives ya a big old kiss.
Probably.
“Yeah, he just licks his poopy rump and then gives ya a big old kiss.”
Nope, clean as a pin after pooping. I rarely see our dogs lick their butts.
“It’s just weird for me.”
Think about it this way...If you accidentally stuck your hand in dog poop, would you wash it with water or smear it around with a tissue?
Honestly, I can’t stand pooping anywhere but home now because of the bidet. Well, except for at work. I like the idea of being paid to poop.
And perfumed!.....................
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