2,200-Year-Old Flush Toilet Found at Chinese Ruins:
We often consider flushing toilets a modern marvel, rivaled only by other essential comforts such as electricity and on-demand hot water. But while we may have perfected the flushing toilet, it's anything but new technology. Archaeologists in China have uncovered a 2,200-year-old toilet that once flushed, suggesting that the plumbing we often take for granted has existed far longer than originally thought.
A team at the China Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Archaeology uncovered the toilet at palace ruins in Yueyang City. Yueyang is a common tourist destination thanks to its 2,500 years of history, which visitors enjoy through its ancient pavilions and towers. Now Yueyang has one more claim to fame: the oldest-known flush toilet.
[...] The archaeologists reconstructed the toilet. According to ancient tools expert Fan Mingyang, the system was "deceptively advanced," possessing a flush water drainage system not terribly unlike today's toilets. Given the toilet is estimated to be between 2,200 and 2,400 years old, its mechanics challenge commonly held notions about historical plumbing, especially in regard to sewage management. To use the toilet, someone would have sat on or squatted over the seat (the rest of which is still outstanding). After doing their business, someone would have had to pour buckets of water into the toilet to flush away waste.
[...] The team also found four large and intricate tiles in the building where the toilet was found. One tile was found in each corner. So far, no particular meaning has been attached to the tiles' appearance or placement.
(Score: 0, Troll) by legont on Friday February 24, @05:47AM (5 children)
2400 years ago. Anglo monkeys were doing what exactly at that point?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @04:24PM
We Anglo monkeys were throwing monkey poo at the Chins who were jerking off. But we learned, our brains grew, and we far outpaced their advancements, which makes me wonder what happened to them that they stopped advancing 2400 years ago?
(this response is meant to be a reflection of the (lack of) maturity of parent's post)
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Friday February 24, @04:33PM (3 children)
Yes, at some point, other cultures were ahead. For example, in medieval times, the Arab world was leagues ahead of the West in medicine, poetry and mathematics. Lookup the source of our world "algorithm" for some proof.
Then, at some point, they decided to fall into the trap of forgoing science for some ridiculous superstitious nonsense and here we are.
Same for China. Only that they called that nonsense a big leap forward.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday February 26, @08:27PM (2 children)
80% of roughly 2000 years of existence Christian civilization was in chronic decline. In fact it destroyed Roman and Greek achievements. Then centuries after centuries future was always worse than the past. I attribute it to christian culture, mostly.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Monday February 27, @10:46AM (1 child)
I attribute it to religion in general. You can easily see how societies declined rapidly as soon as they developed a strict adherence to some sort of religion, while prosperity came promptly as soon as they abandoned it.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday March 03, @04:59AM
This does not look true for both Buddhist and Muslim words. Recall Sinbad the Sailor. He was traveling all over the world paying for goods with bank's promissory notes. He could not hold gold, obviously, in pirate infested seas. So he traded on trust that Muslim religion made possible. It took Brits another millennia and gun ships in every port to develop a similar albeit inferior system. Fast forwarding to now, Muslims still transfer money across the border on trust alone - both workers and terrorists.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @07:01AM (2 children)
Can only copy western inventions.
It's been the same since forever, Gunpowder, paper, pasta - the list goes on and on.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @07:31AM (1 child)
The mouldboard plough too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plough#Mould-board_ploughing [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_of_the_Han_dynasty#Agriculture [wikipedia.org]
Once each farmer can provide food for more people you can have more people in your population doing other things instead of producing/obtaining food (farming/hunting/fishing). More specialists and experts in increasing numbers of different fields.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination#Precursors [wikipedia.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @09:17AM
Like copying stuff others invented?
(Score: 2) by Username on Friday February 24, @09:49AM
That the plumbing didn't just rot away?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Friday February 24, @10:27AM (3 children)
Chucking buckets of water down after it hardly qualifies as an invention. I bet cavemen did that to send their shit down a channel to somewhere else. Now I would call the pipe involved here an invention - but is this the oldest pipe ever found?
I'll stick with Sir John Harrinton's invention of the flush toilet in 1592. He was said to have demonstrated it to Queen Elizabeth I (personally?) but she did not like it because of the noise it made. Buckets are quieter if you pour carefully and have a flunky to do it after you have walked away.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 24, @11:34AM (1 child)
There aren't many details, so we don't know if there was a water seal, or just an open pipe to flush into. I mean, who wants an open pipe drawing scents from a septic tank, back into the home?
If they had a water seal, I'll credit them with a real flush toilet. If an open pipe, then I would have to mock the claim.
I did a search, clicked a dozen links, all I can find is pretty much the same version of the story, reprinted again and again.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Saturday February 25, @02:31AM
IOW, propaganda.
Roman public toilets at least self-flushed (if only by being a continuously-flowing channel).
Pouring a bucket of water into the toilet is what we moderns do when the water is turned off.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1) by BlueCoffee on Friday February 24, @02:10PM
Right! It's a pretty long stretch to call a hole in the ground that required someone pouring "buckets of water" down it a "flush" toilet. Early paloelithic humans from 300,000 BC probably already figured out that dilution is the key to keeping the area clean.
Might as well call the local stream the world's first bidet, and tree leaves or grass the world's first toilet paper.
(Score: 5, Funny) by stormreaver on Friday February 24, @12:49PM (2 children)
Upon further examination, it was determined that there really weren't four tiles, but three seashells. One of them had broken, leading centuries later to the mistaken appearance of four tiles.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, @01:33PM (1 child)
What I am hearing here is that you don't know how to use the seashells
(Score: 2, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 24, @01:36PM
Everyone knows the seashells are for wiping your bum!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.