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What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

nautil.us

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Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#31

Post by pkd »

grosswait wrote: post #23
throwmex wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Indian, I too had this WTF moment. It makes me wonder why paper is still used in the western world. Makes one wonder if there is a TP lobby out there ? We used to make jokes what if a TP user have diarrhea, how many trees will that be ? If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water damn it. Cheap, hygienic, no left overs and green too !

Water is not universally abundant though and much more costly to transport than paper or wood.

It's pretty abundant in developed countries that primarily rely on toilet papers, one would presume.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#32

Post by sokoloff »

grosswait wrote: post #23
throwmex wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Indian, I too had this WTF moment. It makes me wonder why paper is still used in the western world. Makes one wonder if there is a TP lobby out there ? We used to make jokes what if a TP user have diarrhea, how many trees will that be ? If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water damn it. Cheap, hygienic, no left overs and green too !

Water is not universally abundant though and much more costly to transport than paper or wood.

Transporting water in pipes under pressure does not seem that expensive intuitively.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#33

Post by asimpletune »

Maybe it’s possible that the shared poop cleaner had some unknown health benefits as well. Obviously we all understand the risks, but there are potential upsides as well. I’m not familiar what they could be precisely, but I know there’s a lot of ongoing research into stool transplants and other poop-related remedies.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#34

Post by pksadiq »

icebraining wrote: post #25
throwmex wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Indian, I too had this WTF moment. It makes me wonder why paper is still used in the western world. Makes one wonder if there is a TP lobby out there ? We used to make jokes what if a TP user have diarrhea, how many trees will that be ? If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water damn it. Cheap, hygienic, no left overs and green too !

> green Well, increased water consumption has a lot of ecological problems as well. Plus most of us westerners would probably balk at using cold water, so we'd waste a lot of energy heating it up too.

> Well, increased water consumption has a lot of ecological problems as well.

Well, using paper costs more water than using water itself. Also, the ecological problems of using paper is far worse than using water alone[0][1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper#Environmental_con...

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#37

Post by stoppergoo »

mhb wrote: post #16
adminu wrote: post #10

I wonder why so many articles today have so many words but yet so little content? This one has a mile-long introduction. The headlines question could have been answered in rather few words. I feel a short answer had satisfied me. To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that... I said I wonder why, I guess that was a…

I enjoyed your comment, but would have appreciated it even more if some of the words had said what the Romans used instead of making me look at the TFA.

Oh you made a meta comment on his comment. Inception

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#38

Post by Endy »

mhb wrote: post #17
mhb wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed your comment, but would have appreciated it even more if some of the words had said what the Romans used instead of making me look at the TFA.

OK here: But instead of reaching for a roll of toilet paper, an ancient Roman would often grab a tersorium (or, in my technical terms, a “toilet brush for your butt”). A tersorium is an ingenious little device made by attaching a natural sponge (from the Mediterranean Sea, of course) to the end of a stick. Our ancient Roman would simply wipe him- or herself, rinse the tersorium in whatever was available (running wate…

Thank you for posting this - you added more value than that entire article.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#39

Post by huffmsa »

adminu wrote: post #10

I wonder why so many articles today have so many words but yet so little content? This one has a mile-long introduction. The headlines question could have been answered in rather few words. I feel a short answer had satisfied me. To make it even more frustrating to me the article teases different but-wiping techniques used today without telling me which ones. Thanks for that... I said I wonder why, I guess that was a…

You prefer 10 Ways Roman toilet practices were weird! Number 2 will shock you!?

No thanks, I like a conversational story. This Wis written like how the author would tell it live. Humans remember things best when there is a bit of narrative to root the facts to.

Re: What Ancient Romans Used Instead of Toilet Paper

#40

Post by taivare »

throwmex wrote: post #15
rayiner wrote: post #3

When we moved from Bangladesh to the US in the late 1980s, there were a couple of things that made us go “WTF?” One was the taste of chicken. In Bangladesh, you go buy a scrawny live chicken from the market and butcher it. It took me the better part of a year to be able to stomach American chicken, which tastes like wet cardboard in comparison. The other “WTF” thing was toilet paper. In Bangladesh, you rinse with wat…

As an Indian, I too had this WTF moment. It makes me wonder why paper is still used in the western world. Makes one wonder if there is a TP lobby out there ? We used to make jokes what if a TP user have diarrhea, how many trees will that be ? If a bird shits on your hand will you use paper or water to clean it ? Its just that simple to comprehend. Just use water damn it. Cheap, hygienic, no left overs and green too !

Here's my WTF moment. My grandmother told me, she was born in 1901 as a kid on a rural PA farm. They used pages from a Sears wish book or dried corn cobs,out at the old out house!
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