This is a terrible article.
To understand why, I refer everyone to the amazing Youtube channel of Isaac Moreno Gallo.
https://www.youtube.com/@IsaacMorenoGallo
There are several videos with English audio if you do not understand Spanish.
Here's a representative sample:
"The most ancient engineering told to the most modern engineers"
https://youtu.be/pk4xa6Tzwvk
"How the Romans screwed up and how those who interpret them screw up."
https://youtu.be/uwZbHPmcO7M
"Roman Engineering 1 of 4"
https://youtu.be/SdU6FSjdFag
Isaac also created a TV programme about Roman Engineering for RTVE that you can find on YouTube.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX9K6BsUtIfJaMieISPGbsNLs...
It's Spanish only AFAIK, but worth watching for the commissioned 3d renders of the different devices and techniques.
TL;DR We need more engineer archeologists to avoid misinterpreting archeological evidence
Isaac is a civil engineer for the Spanish government, and an amateur historian that focuses on Roman technology and civil engineering, particularly roads and hydraulics.
There are a number of tropes and myths about Roman technology that stem from the fact that archeologists are very unlikely to have an engineering background and thus lack the knowledge to correctly interpret some of what they uncover.
As Isaac explains and shows in his videos, Romans supplied their cities with fresh water from springs only, never from rivers, rain or any other still water. They possessed the topographical and geodesic knowledge required to map terrain precisely and route both roads and aqueducts for hundreds of miles with the necessary and adequate slope.
Furthermore, they understood pressure and routinely siphoned water across significant elevation differences and their pipe engineering was able to handle several atmospheres.
They always captured the entire stream and dumped the excess flow directly into the sewers which were kept clean with running water. There is evidence of several of these distribution points in different cities.
With all of this in mind, I'm skeptical of the dating precision of the sites. I find it suspicious that there is absolutely no difference between health in the Imperial heyday and health in late-empire times when maintenance was deficient and water supply irregular and thus no permanent running water in the sewers, thus rats, thus diseases.
I would guess the samples are actually of the same times or at least from places with deficient sanitation for whatever reason.
Some other article tropes he specifically addresses are:
- lack of toilet privacy: they likely built stalls in wood like we do now; they just did not last
- the shared sponges: these were likely for dislodging stuck material and cleaning the toilet, not the body; again, just like we do nowadays
Isaac also created/maintains two websites:
http://www.traianvs.net/index.php - the scholar version of his channel with articles and papers
https://www.viasromanas.net - a GIS-based site to map, identify and promote Roman roads in the Spanish region of Castilla y León