Nails would have been rather rare in that time period (or any time up to about 1700).
They did exist, but weren’t generally used as they weren’t very strong (wrought iron is.. well, not steel) and had to be made by hand
Erfurt Latrine Disaster
21–30 of 45 posts
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#22Interesting to think about the horrible ambient smell that must have existed even in these noble-class locations at the time. A wooden floor built over a giant open sewage pit.
Something smells off about this story. It’s got linked references but I can imagine this ending up being disproven as one of those fictitious Wikipedia articles.
The primary sources, both chronicles, are cited in the article, reproduced in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (a series of edited Medieval texts, known for being carefully edited). There could be issues, of course, like the original authors of the chronicles making up the stories, but this isn't just a baseless Wikipedia hoax.
The Chronicle of Reinhardsbrunn, at least, does make specific mention that the nobles fell into a cesspit (cloaca) and died miserably by suffocating in the filth (sceno suffocati miserabiliter interierunt).
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something smells off about this story. It’s got linked references but I can imagine this ending up being disproven as one of those fictitious Wikipedia articles.
The primary sources, both chronicles, are cited in the article, reproduced in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica (a series of edited Medieval texts, known for being carefully edited). There could be issues, of course, like the original authors of the chronicles making up the stories, but this isn't just a baseless Wikipedia hoax. The Chronicle of Reinhardsbrunn, at least, does make specific mention that the nobles fel…
I was half joking. You just can’t make this stuff up though.
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#24After that happened, I wonder how the peasants were able to recognize a king
King of the who?
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#25 > A feud between Landgrave Louis III of Thuringia and Archbishop Conrad of Mainz, which had existed since the defeat of Henry the Lion, intensified to the point that King Henry VI was forced to intervene while he was traveling through the region during a military campaign against Poland. Henry decided to call a diet in Erfurt, where he was staying, to mediate the situation between the two and invited a number of other figures to the negotiations.
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#26The key is they broke the second floor, fell down through the first floor, and into the cesspool.
Likely most were knocked unconscious by the fall (that's gonna be anywhere from 15-30 feet) and then drowned.
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#27Somehow nobody thought this could have been an assassination. The convenience was there. It must have been a relief for King Henry, too.
Do the history books tell if there was a sufficiently anal investigation and whether they ever got to the bottom of it?
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#28Somehow nobody thought this could have been an assassination. The convenience was there. It must have been a relief for King Henry, too. Do the history books tell if there was a sufficiently anal investigation and whether they ever got to the bottom of it?
ಠ_ಠ
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#29> King Henry was said to have survived only because he sat in an alcove with a stone floor.
I cannot stop imagining this event from his perspective and wondering what words might have been spoken just before the collapse.
Re: Erfurt Latrine Disaster
#30Posts like this making it to the front page are why holidays are my favorite time to read HN