Privies are unlikely to be found immediately adjacent to houses in
rural settings. The reason would be obvious, I believe.  We did a
study of privy and well locations, and found that privies virtually
always were located farther from the house than the wells.

A well-built privy will be vented through the roof, to carry gasses
from the privy vault to the outside, bypassing the area of human
occupancy.  This was the primary odor-control strategy, not lime.
During the thirties the government issued plans for the beloved WPA
privy, which had (has?) a vent "pipe" made of lumber, whereas today's
porta-potties have PVC pipes.

Whitewash was lime with a medium, often casein or just plain milk,
that was applied with a brush. When whitewash comes off, it often
spalls, which should be detectable in the archaeological deposit as a
sort of layering.

Having said that privies were isolated, it is my duty to report that
some architects during the latter nineteenth century issued plans for
houses with privies attached.  We're talking about elegant suburban
villas here. The bathrooms, with central hot water and all, were
inside, but the crappers were in little wings off the porch.  The
toilet did not move into the house right away, after plumbing was
available.

So one might find a privy pit concurrently with indoor plumbing.


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