Enough American prudery about the toilet.  Here in Australia we have a healthy, well-developed scatological respect for all things poo-related, doubtless due to the early convicts sent over from England for telling fart jokes.

In Australian inner-cities the general rule seems to be that privies were replaced by more  organised forms of waste collection in the second half of the nineteenth century, generally  night soil collection [the dunny can man or the sanny pan], except where there was an existing sewer system.  As most of the inner suburbs relied on dunny can collection they needed to have either back lane or side passage access behind each house, even rows of terrace houses.  As the collections were generally at night the toilet had to be accessible even though the house was locked up.  

There seems to be a strong correlation between the rise of local government and laying on or extending mains water and sewage schemes, and a few major slum clean ups that tied to epidemics and health scares.  The backyard outhouse was generally just given a toilet connected to the sewer once these were laid on (timing varied wildly even between adjacent areas, but say early C20th).  Many inner-city terraces in the Olympic city that have not been renovated still have most or all of their wet areas (kitchen, laundry, bathroom) in a separate group that can only be accessed by going out the back door of the house.  An Australian architect (?Robin Boyd) wrote about the inexorable forward march of the toilet, starting at the back of the allotment and moving forweard to be connected to the house, then within the house and then being located towards the street front of the house as the rear rooms began to be designed more as a kitchen / family area addressing the backyard.

We got a flush toilet in 1975.  Our family held off getting rid of the outside toilet because of the amount of water that a flush toilet used.  We had a dam but it was for watering crops and there was no way my dad was going to waste a drop of water when the supply was unreliable - even on the fringes of Sydney (dont ask me abouth my childhood bathing habits if you know what's good for you).

Ned raises some important issues about a serious chunk of the archaeological record and we should carry on undeterred to talk about them.

Denis Gojak




>>> LOCKHART BILL <[log in to unmask]> 07/21 11:43 am >>>
Ned (or anyone else interested),

        Here is a small addition to your collection addressing point #2.

> 2. Has anyone studied the movement, concurrent with the introduction of
> running water, of the toilet from the outhouse to the back porch?  When,
> and under what circumstances, did it become acceptable to put the toilet
> inside the house?  We know, from archaeology and documentation, that the
> first plumbed flush toilets were installed outside the house, sometimes in
> the porch and sometimes in the old privies. Has anyone looked at the market
> share enjoyed by frostproof flush toilets that could be installed in
> unheated spaces? That might tell us something about where the potties were
> located when running water became available.


        In a recent excavation in El Paso, Texas, we tested a privy pit that
contained a commode atop a great deal of glass and other artifacts.  A
sanitary sewer line was introduced in "the mid to late 1910's."  The commode
had a manufacturer's mark that suggested "that the retrofit occurred in the
early 1920's."  (P.54)
        Glass artifacts (my contribution to the report) suggest that the privy was
used from around 1900 to about 1930.  I have not seen any other local
reports that deal with the issues Ned raised.

Peterson, John A, Stephen Mbutu, Bill Lockhart, William J. Fling III, Eric
Bangs, and Mark Willis
        2000 The State Office Building Archaeological Project: Testing Report.
Anthroplolgy Research Center, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso.

        When I still lived in Washington, D. C., a story was circulating about the
behavior of Lyndon B. Johnson.  According to the story, LBJ used to hold
conferences in the White House while seated upon (and using) the toilet.  I
have no confirmation for this story and pass it on for what it is worth.

Bill


Bill Lockhart
New Mexico State University
Alamogordo, NM
(505) 439-3732