User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 9 of 9

Thread: Of Cesspits and Sewers

  1. #1
    Points: 665,257, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 90.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433311
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,549
    Points
    665,257
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,983
    Thanked 80,900x in 54,717 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)

    Of Cesspits and Sewers

    Just a sampling from Of Cesspits and Sewers: Exploring the unlikely history of sanitation management in medieval Holland:

    ...Not far from the Castle of Leiden, a rounded stone structure erected in the eleventh century, van Oosten locks up her bike and heads into a stately brick building that holds the city’s archives. In a hushed room, surrounded by scholars cloistered in study carrels, she lays out a series of pamphlets on a table, each of them centuries old, yellowed and brittle at the edges. They bear such names as “Inspection of the Ordinances on the Subject of Privies” and “Rules and Orders on Privy-Cleaners and Nightworkers.” By examining documents such as these and amassing a large database of excavated cesspits—104 from Leiden alone—van Oosten has been able to reconstruct the intricacies of waste management in vivid detail.

    In the archives for an almshouse in Leiden called Sint Agnietenhof, she discovered 34 written permits, each of which describes the cleaning out of a private cesspit by a team of nightmen. The 400-year-old paper trail reveals a fastidious process, each step of which was administered with precision. On September 20, 1603, she reads, in the backyard of a small house on the Rapenburg Canal in the center of the city, a nightman named Baernt Robberechtsz removed 95 tubs of waste from the cesspit of an aging widow by the name of Sara de Haen. According to city regulations, Robberechtsz and his team would have guided their barge into the city after 10 p.m., so as not to offend the sensibilities of the citizenry. Upon mooring at the bank of a canal, the nightmen proceeded to the backyard of Sara de Haen’s home. The “hole-man” climbed down into the privy and scooped out waste—known as “night soil”—which two men on the surface transferred to a wooden tub or barrel. The “tub-men” then undertook the task of carrying the vessel and its sloshing contents back to the barge. Robberechtsz and his crew followed a path through the streets and alleys so exact that their salary was calculated according to how many steps they took. Finally, the crew entered the barge by way of a gangplank and by the light of an oil lantern in order to prevent any spillage in the river. And they did so quietly—if the nightmen were loud, drunk, or sloppy with the night soil, they could be prosecuted. Records show that unscrupulous nightmen in Leiden were punished on at least two occasions. Upon completing the job, before they could be paid, their supervisor checked the cesspit to make sure it had been properly emptied. Even centuries later, it is clear that such punctilious lawmaking and record keeping were not the work of a society ignorant of decency, cleanliness, and order.

    As it turns out, archives all over Europe hold documents that reveal long-ignored systems of public health and hygiene. In cities throughout the Netherlands, going back as far as the thirteenth century, so-called mud officials patrolled the streets, doling out fines to citizens who disposed of their waste inappropriately. Other cities benefited from the services of “waste citizens,” who were enlisted to clean specific places in the city in exchange for citizenship. The Belgian city of Antwerp employed men who monitored the city’s freshwater supply, while a brigade of “dung carriers” (moosmeiers) in Bruges removed waste from cesspits to beyond the boundaries of the city. London was voided of its waste each night by so-called gong farmers.

    The city of Ghent—one of the larger urban centers of the late medieval period, with a population of 40,000 by the seventeenth century—employed an especially versatile sanitary official known as the “King of Dirt.” As decreed by the city, the King of Dirt, along with a group of underlings known as the “King’s Children,” would patrol the city, punishing citizens for unsanitary behavior....
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  2. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Chris For This Useful Post:

    Captain Obvious (12-29-2018),Helena (12-29-2018),Mister D (12-29-2018)

  3. #2
    Points: 34,178, Level: 45
    Level completed: 16%, Points required for next Level: 1,272
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    50000 Experience PointsVeteranYour first Group
    jimmyz's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    176619
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    11,597
    Points
    34,178
    Level
    45
    Thanks Given
    0
    Thanked 6,315x in 4,381 Posts
    Mentioned
    84 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Your OP is why we love you here Chris. Thank you.

    And thank you underground sewage systems enjoyed in the First World.
    " I'm old-fashioned. I like two sexes! And another thing, all of a sudden I don't like being married to what is known as a 'new woman'. I want a wife, not a competitor. Competitor! Competitor!" - Spencer Tracy in 'Adam's Rib' (1949)

    Art thou every retard among us related to thine uncle or mistress by way of moral or illegitimate rendezvous? Thus, we are one side of the other's coin by luck or pluck. - Jimmyz

  4. #3
    Points: 665,257, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 90.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433311
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,549
    Points
    665,257
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,983
    Thanked 80,900x in 54,717 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by jimmyz View Post
    Your OP is why we love you here Chris. Thank you.

    And thank you underground sewage systems enjoyed in the First World.

    You just love my $#@!, don't you!
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  5. #4
    Points: 34,178, Level: 45
    Level completed: 16%, Points required for next Level: 1,272
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    50000 Experience PointsVeteranYour first Group
    jimmyz's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    176619
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    11,597
    Points
    34,178
    Level
    45
    Thanks Given
    0
    Thanked 6,315x in 4,381 Posts
    Mentioned
    84 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    You just love my $#@!, don't you!
    It aint $#@! brother (lol @ the pun) . It is an education. Even though you are read, do not discount appreciation based on thread activity and thanks.
    " I'm old-fashioned. I like two sexes! And another thing, all of a sudden I don't like being married to what is known as a 'new woman'. I want a wife, not a competitor. Competitor! Competitor!" - Spencer Tracy in 'Adam's Rib' (1949)

    Art thou every retard among us related to thine uncle or mistress by way of moral or illegitimate rendezvous? Thus, we are one side of the other's coin by luck or pluck. - Jimmyz

  6. The Following User Says Thank You to jimmyz For This Useful Post:

    Chris (12-29-2018)

  7. #5
    Original Ranter
    Points: 297,690, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 41.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassOverdrive50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Mister D's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    416526
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    117,863
    Points
    297,690
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    25,299
    Thanked 53,471x in 36,446 Posts
    Mentioned
    1102 Post(s)
    Tagged
    1 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by jimmyz View Post
    It aint $#@! brother (lol @ the pun) . It is an education. Even though you are read, do not discount appreciation based on thread activity and thanks.
    But what's his position on Medieval Dutch sanitation? Why so coy?

    Sorry, couldn't resist.
    Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.


    ~Alain de Benoist


  8. #6
    Original Ranter
    Points: 297,690, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 41.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassOverdrive50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Mister D's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    416526
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    117,863
    Points
    297,690
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    25,299
    Thanked 53,471x in 36,446 Posts
    Mentioned
    1102 Post(s)
    Tagged
    1 Thread(s)
    Good article. I mentioned before that public baths were actually quite common in Medieval Europe yet myths regarding the Middle Ages (almost all of which originated during the Enlightenment) abound among the general public.
    Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.


    ~Alain de Benoist


  9. The Following User Says Thank You to Mister D For This Useful Post:

    Chris (12-29-2018)

  10. #7
    Points: 665,257, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 90.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433311
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,549
    Points
    665,257
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,983
    Thanked 80,900x in 54,717 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Mister D View Post
    But what's his position on Medieval Dutch sanitation? Why so coy?

    Sorry, couldn't resist.
    Position? Squatting.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  11. #8
    Original Ranter
    Points: 314,886, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 0.2%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second Class50000 Experience PointsOverdriveVeteranYour first Group
    Captain Obvious's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    773942
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Posts
    80,473
    Points
    314,886
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    30,199
    Thanked 40,087x in 27,208 Posts
    Mentioned
    1041 Post(s)
    Tagged
    1 Thread(s)
    What a $#@!ty thread
    my junk is ugly

  12. #9
    Points: 665,257, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 90.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433311
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,549
    Points
    665,257
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,983
    Thanked 80,900x in 54,717 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)
    Don't get it sent down to that cesspool, the Hole.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts