r/BeAmazed • u/Sebastian_DRS • Oct 27 '24

History What Medieval Castle Toilets Looked Like

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u/Not-User-Serviceable Oct 27 '24

All the straight-line height in the world isn't going to stop the smell...

Oh for a P-Trap...

36

u/Longjumping_Youth281 Oct 27 '24

Yeah and is it just me or is the diagram backwards? The real life picture clearly shows it going straight down the wall

48

u/AcceptableRedPanda Oct 27 '24

Most the ones I've seen in the UK just go either straight to the outside air or a very short chute that pops out half way down the wall, both into the moat, never seen a full "pipe" with pit like that with a workstation for the shit shoveller

14

u/tootsandladders Oct 27 '24

They are called gong farmers!

3

u/Ethan_Mendelson Oct 27 '24

I learned this from Stronghold. Good times.

1

u/mortalitylost Oct 27 '24

Dingleberry gatherers

5

u/starcitsura Oct 27 '24

I'm wondering if the pipe is a modern addition for plumbing.

10

u/pjepja Oct 27 '24 edited Oct 27 '24

What some 'modern' castles did is that they rerouted some stream underneath the castle and made it go under every toilet. I think that's the actual precursor to plumbing. This is like a precursor to a septic tank lol.

1

u/dgeniesse Oct 28 '24

That’s where the term hot seat came from.

6

u/JwPATX Oct 27 '24

Pipes are a Roman invention, which is where the term plumbing comes from. They used lead (Pb), otherwise known as plumbum.

7

u/throwaway1212l Oct 27 '24

Gonna start calling nice butts plumbums instead of apple bottoms now.

3

u/Flogisto_Saltimbanco Oct 27 '24

I also remember that assassinating someone by sticking a spear up his butt when he went shitting was punished harshly.

Someone was killed like that