the Ancient Romans It is famous for its advanced water supply systems and sanitary facilities, including public baths and toilets. But the first baths built in Pompeii may not have been particularly pleasant, due to dirty, contaminated water being replaced only once a day, according to a new study.
“It is very likely that the bathing experience in this small bathing facility may not have been hygienic and therefore not very attractive,” says the study’s lead author. Rose SourmeilhandiThe geoarchaeologist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, told Live Science in an email.
Sormelihendi and his colleagues analyzed the chemical compound calcium carbonate preserved in crusts at the Republican Baths in Pompeii to investigate the composition of the water supply. Their study was published Monday (January 12) in the journal With people.
The researchers wrote in the study that public baths were an essential part of Roman culture Roman Empire It expanded, and the culture of bathing also developed. At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans “built long-distance aqueducts in order to enjoy the daily experience of bathing and cleansing,” Sormelihendi said.
But in the oldest baths built in Pompeii, which were in use between about 130 and 30 BC during the period… Roman RepublicThe situation was different. Before the city built an aqueduct, bathing facilities were filled with water from wells and cisterns via a single water-lifting machine operated by slaves.
“Water cannot be renewed more than once a day,” Surmelihindi said. “In this situation, I would expect the water to be less clean, especially before the shower water is refreshed again.”
To investigate the composition of bathing water during this period, researchers studied samples of calcium carbonate, a mineral form of calcium. Calcium carbonate is produced when calcium ions in hard water react with carbonate ions, creating scale – a hard, chalky deposit that builds up in boilers, kettles and pipes.
The researchers found that the carbonates found in the Republican baths showed a strong decrease in carbon isotopes (variations of the element with different numbers of neutrons) between the well that supplied the water and the hot pools in which people bathed. The lowest carbon isotope values were found in areas where water was drained, meaning the main cause was likely “introduction of organic carbon from microbial activity and human excreta (e.g., sweat, sebum, urine, and bath oil),” the researchers wrote.
“These bathrooms were an experience that we don’t have today,” said study co-author Sis BashirThe geoarchaeologist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz told Live Science in an email. “People will Do not use soap“But the olive oil is for scrubbing and scraping off the dirt, and some of that oil will fall into the water.”
The researchers wrote that the water in the hot pools of the Republican baths showed “high contamination with human waste,” suggesting that they were not regularly replenished and that they provided “poor sanitary conditions for Pompeii’s bathers.”
The researchers also investigated heavy metal contamination in bathrooms by analyzing traces of elements remaining there. At the Republican Baths, the team identified elevated levels of lead, a toxic element that was likely introduced through the bath complex’s lead piping system. Over time, the gradual coating of the pipes with calcium carbonate would reduce the level of lead in the water.
It’s unclear whether the murky waters would have kept people away.
“Everyone mixed in the hammams, regardless of social class, and the price was low,” Bashir said. But if the water was really foul and foul, he said, the bathrooms would have no customers. “People probably did not spend a lot of time in the warm pools, which were small, but they spent most of the time sitting in the warm air of the hot bath having a conversation,” he said.