Earlier toilets?

What was the septic/sewer system before modern plumbing/toilets? It's not like disposal was all that sanitary before toilets.
The heck with toilets. What's needed for me to teleport to a life in ancient times is cheap toilet paper. Crapping in a pot is no problem, but the job's not done until the paperwork is finished.
 
What was the septic/sewer system before modern plumbing/toilets? It's not like disposal was all that sanitary before toilets.
The heck with toilets. What's needed for me to teleport to a life in ancient times is cheap toilet paper. Crapping in a pot is no problem, but the job's not done until the paperwork is finished.

Well, the Romans are known to have used sponges.....
 
What was the septic/sewer system before modern plumbing/toilets? It's not like disposal was all that sanitary before toilets.
The heck with toilets. What's needed for me to teleport to a life in ancient times is cheap toilet paper. Crapping in a pot is no problem, but the job's not done until the paperwork is finished.

It really depends. Sewage systems draining into local bodies of water (preferably rivers) were well known since the bronze age.
 
The thing is though most of the time you don't want sewage to leave. Most roman toilets were collected for use as fertilizer. While I suppose a sewer system designed to transport sewage to be used as fertilizer could work I don't think all that water mixed in would be particularly helpful.
 
separating solids from liquids isn't all that difficult. the liquids themselves could be used. Farmers often liquify the animal wastes and spray the slurry on the fields. I'm thinking waste disposal is the least of the troubles, aside from the infrastructure involved.

infrastructure of water in (the whole ability to supply and deliver) and waste out are the problems.
 
Collecting sewage for fertilizer is better than it flowing in to a river, used downstream as a water source. However the problem with using human waste for fertilizer is that, unlike animal waste, all of the bacteria, parasites, and viruses contained in the mix are optimized for humans and disease spread from food grown with nightsoil (human waste) fertilizer is an issue. With proper treatment of the waste and proper cleaning of the food, this is not so much of an issue however we are talking about toilets before either of these is happening.

Supplying water via aqueducts works when you have a lot of water higher than where you want it to go, which does not always apply. Once you get to the end area, distribution without pumps, and likewise removal of waste water is the problem. It all flows downhill, not uphill without a pump.
 
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