William Lees' contribution to this thread has convinced me to add my
     two-cents' worth. In my work in Antarctica (Catherine Holder Spude and
     Robert L. Spude, 1993, _East Base Historic Monument, Stonington
     Island, Antarctic Peninsula_. US Government Printing Office, Denver)
     we had adequate photographic coverage of the 1939 exploration base's
     privy (you can see it on the cover of the report, in fact). There was
     no privy pit, nor would it have been possible to dig one in a place
     with year-round permafrost and solid rock under the snow. On our 1991
     visit, the only "evidence" of privy use was a cache of 3-gallon metal
     containers originally meant to hold instant mashed potatoes. Let me
     assure you, with no bacteria to speak of below the Antartic circle,
     there was no trouble determining that the containers no longer held
     mashed potatoes, but something else entirely...
 
     Now, personally, I'm not sure I would go outside at 72 degrees below
     zero with 100 mile per hour winds typical of the Antartic winter to use
     the privy (although the camp doctor's report from the expedition did
     note that one unnamed crew member did receive treatment for frostbite
     on a part of the human anatomy exclusive to males...). I suspect the
     rather large mashed potato tins made excellent substitutes for chamber
     pots.
 
     Unfortunately, even though we talked to a number of people who were
     actually AT the base, we couldn't seem to get them to talk about such
     matters. I found it hard to even ask. The best I could get from some
     of the informants was that they stored their "garbage" and dumped it
     in the bay when the ice broke (except for the large trash dumps around
     the base building, and the cache of mashed potatoe tins that no one
     seemed to remember anything about!).
 
     So the folks in the 17th and 18th century probably had equally
     inventive ways of taking care of their waste material, if they
     cared about sitting out in the cold weather. The rest of the
     time...well, they weren't Victorians, so why do you even need the
     woods?
 
     Cathy Spude
     [log in to unmask]
 
 
 
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Chamber Pots and Privies
Author:  William Lees <[log in to unmask]> at NP--INTERNET
Date:    11/12/97 8:32 AM
 
 
You all do realize, I suppose, that not all privies leave an archaeological
footprint?  That is, a very common type of privy had no pit but a pan or
drawer or other device that rested on the ground or such, and that was
cleaned out fairly freqently and the contents disposed of...somewhere else.
 Pit toilets may actually be more of a phenomenon in urban or other dense
settlement situations (forts, for another example) where there is no easy way
to discard of the contents on a frequent basis without really upsetting your
neighbors.
 
These are just observations off the top of my head, as I am really not privy
to the literature on this subject.
 
William B. Lees
[log in to unmask]