What? So many good things can be found in the toilet? No wonder archaeologists are so serious about it!

Recently, a toilet-like remains dating back about 2,400 years was discovered at the Qin and Han Dynasty Liyang City Ruins in Shaanxi Province.

According to archaeologists, it is not only the first "flush" toilet discovered in my country, but also the only toilet-like remains found in the archaeological excavations of Chinese palaces throughout the dynasties. It is even possible that it was used by celebrities such as Qin Xian Gong and Han Gaozu Liu Bang.

This savory news report quickly attracted the interest of the general public, and also made the people who did not know the truth wonder, "Why do archaeologists not dig for treasures but pay attention to smelly toilets?"

Remains of toilets unearthed from the Qin and Han Dynasty Liyang City Ruins in Shaanxi Source: Author

In fact, archaeology is not about treasure hunting. Its main goal is to obtain information about the ancients and understand ancient life through the preserved relics and artifacts.

In this sense, whether it is a house full of gold and jade or a toilet or a garbage dump, as long as it preserves precious information related to the ancients, it is the content of archaeological research and is an archaeological treasure.

So, what can toilets be researched into? Let's take a look at some examples to experience the unique flavor of toilets!

01

Toilets - Keep the good stuff within the pig farm

The Book of Han records that "pigs came out of the toilet and destroyed the stove of the official". Yan Shigu commented that "toilet is a place for raising pigs". Archaeological artifacts have confirmed the statement in the literature that pigs were raised in toilets.

It can be clearly seen from the unearthed artifacts that the toilets and pig pens in the Han Dynasty were combined into one, divided into two floors. The upper floor was for human excretion, and the lower floor was for raising fat pigs.

That is to say, human excrement can go directly into the pigpen through the manure pit, and be eaten by domestic pigs or used as fertilizer.

Pottery toilet of the Han Dynasty Source: Author

As for the fact that pigs eat human feces, you can imagine it yourself, so I won’t explain it in detail here.

What is manure accumulation? According to the description of the Western Han Dynasty agricultural work "Si Sheng Zhi Shu", people at that time had the practice of fermenting manure in toilets. They would pad the pigsty with soil and mix it with residual weeds, wheat straw and human and pig feces. These mixtures would ferment and form fertilizer after being repeatedly trampled by pigs. This method of fermenting manure is very cost-effective and resource-saving. It is also a true reflection of the fact that ancient my country focused on improving farming technology and attaching importance to agricultural development. Interestingly, in my country's modern agricultural production, there is still a practice of combining pig pens, toilets, and biogas tanks. This may be the development of ancient toilets!

02

Toilet paper - both for wiping buttocks and keeping track of things

For a very long time in the past, our ancestors used bamboo sticks instead of paper to wipe their dirt when they went to the toilet.

In the Hong Kong TV series "A Step into the Past", the modern man Xiang Shaolong is in an ancient time and is anxious to borrow toilet paper to go to the toilet.

The ancient man beside him picked up a piece of bamboo and said, "This is it! Please use it as you wish."

In fact, this plot has some factual basis.

At the Majuanwan site in Gansu, 1,221 wooden slips containing written information were discovered, some of which were mixed with human feces.

Archaeologists believe that these bamboo slips were used and discarded, and then reused as toilet tokens for wiping feces.

These pieces of shit-stirring stuff with records and text were thrown into the toilet after completing their historical mission for the second time.

When they were unearthed, they not only became physical evidence for us to understand the toilet habits of people at that time, but the text on them also vividly recorded a lot of information about the management of beacon towers during the Western Han Dynasty.

As mentioned above, archaeology is mainly for understanding what happened in the past. From this perspective, the discovery of text is equivalent to the ancients communicating and talking directly with us.

Therefore, the importance of toilet sticks, which were used by the ancients to record events and wipe buttocks, can be seen!

Toilet chips and toilet paper Source: Author

03

Poop - accidentally revealing the owner's identity

Remains of a high-grade toilet and septic tank were discovered in a building from the Nara period (710-784 AD) in Akita Castle in northeastern Japan.

After extracting and analyzing the feces at the site many times, archaeologists discovered many rare plant seeds such as rice, perilla, eggplant, cantaloupe, raspberry, wax gourd, wild kiwi, etc. They also found liver flukes in carp and crucian carp, as well as roundworms that eat raw vegetables.

But the only insect eggs found were those associated with the trout and salmon that are abundant in the area.

They concluded that the user of this toilet was very picky about food, not only eating rare fruits, but also meat transported from other regions.

In a broader sense, these feces show the actual conditions of ancient diet and life, and even reveal the luxurious life of the upper aristocratic society.

In addition, archaeologists also detected beef tapeworm and pork tapeworm in feces. However, influenced by Buddhist thought at the time, local laws prohibited the consumption of beef and pork, and beef tapeworm and pork tapeworm have never been found in toilet remains of the same period.

Could this be imported shit? This is a very possible view.

By consulting the literature, the researchers found that envoys from the Bohai Kingdom had come to Akita Castle at that time and stayed at the Honglukan in Dazaifu, Kyushu, which was used to receive foreign envoys.

They were also warmly received by Japanese officials, and there was even an incident at that time where an envoy became sick from pork tapeworm.

It can be inferred from this that the owner of this pile of feces might be the envoy of the Bohai Kingdom, and this building is the Hongluguan of Dazaifu in Kyushu.

The person wearing a red crown in the tomb of Prince Zhanghuai in Qianling Mausoleum, Qian County, Shaanxi Province is believed to be an envoy of the Bohai Kingdom. Source: Author

04

Toilet Revolution: Witnessing the Development of Human Civilization

In her book "Toilet God: The Civilizational History of the Toilet," Julie Holland, a doctor of education in the United States, mentioned that civilization did not originate from the invention of writing.

The emergence of the first cesspool allowed people to stop wandering around to avoid excrement and settle down to form ancient civilizations. I agree with this.

Archaeological discoveries have revealed various types of toilets, ranging from simple to complex, from single to diverse, and some that are not much different from modern toilets.

For example, a toilet dating back about 5,000 years was discovered at the Banpo site in Xi'an.

It is more like a simple earth pit. When it is full, it will be abandoned and a new one will be dug.

Another example is the addition of toilets with septic tank designs during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. This design increased the service life of toilets, but also caused safety accidents such as Duke Jing of Jin who accidentally fell into a septic tank and drowned while taking care of his emergency.

The more complete toilets during the Qin and Han dynasties not only took into account sewage disposal, ventilation, foot pedals and other features, but there was even a double toilet design for men and women in a tomb in Xuzhou.

These toilets, along with the toilet tokens, feces, funerary objects and other relics and remains in them, tell us stories of the past;

It tells the down-to-earth stories of the past, such as "military history of defending the country", "diplomatic history of being on high alert", "the experience of getting rich through recycling", etc. It also witnesses the human beings' step-by-step progress towards civilization.

References:

[1] Chen Mo, “Toilet Culture in Ancient my country”, Encyclopedia Knowledge, 2018, 8.

[2] Zhao Lu, “Escape to the Toilet” and Toilets in the Han Dynasty, Journal of Tianjin Normal University, 2018, 5.

[3] Zhang Tongyao, Research on the Concept of Creation in Ancient Chinese Toilet Culture, Qingdao: Qingdao University of Technology, 2019.

[4] Peng Wei, “Toilets and Related Sanitary Facilities in the Qin and Han Dynasties”, Searching for Roots.

[5] Zhu Chenlu, “A Brief Discussion on Toilets in the Qin and Han Dynasties”, Qin and Han Studies, No. 11.

[6] Xie Shanshan, Archaeological Research on Han Dynasty Toilets, Nanjing: Nanjing University, 2020.

[7] Julie Holland, Toilet God: A Civilized History of the Toilet, Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Publishing House, 2018.

[8] Wang Zhixuan, “Miscellaneous Studies on Toilet Treasures”, Chinese Archaeology, No. 1, 2010.

Produced by | Science Popularization China

Author: Shen Shen, Ma Yiming, Zhao Qianru (Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology)

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