Phrygian / Hittite Historical Toilets

Several Neolithic settlements were established during the sixth millennium BC in north-central Anatolia, where a broad valley opened from the mountains into a fertile open plain. There were rich agricultural fields, hills for pasture, and forests providing an excellent supply of timber. One of these eventually became known as Ha-at-tu-ša by the later Hittite people. It's what the present-day Turks call Hatuşaş, variously known as Hattusa and Hattusha by speakers of western European languages.

This sewage drain dates from the Phrygian settlement of Hatuşaş about 1200-700 BC.

The settlement grew into a large fortified city on the side of a mountain, overlooking a broad valley. It was the capital of an empire that controlled much of Anatolia and the Levant.

Hatuşaş, next to today's small Turkish farming village of Boğazkale, became the capital of the Hittite Empire.

The Hittite King Marsili I captured Aleppo in 1595 BC, continuing down the Euphrates River and capturing both Mari and Babylon.

The Great Temple district of Hattuşaş and the Turkish village of Boğazkale.

Here we see the Great Temple district in the lower city, looking over it to the relatively small Turkish town of Boğazkale, adjacent to the ancient site. The city covered 1.8 square kilometers at its peak, with a population estimated at 40,000 to 50,000. The inner city, lower on the slope toward the open valley, covered about 0.8 square kilometers. It was occupied by a citadel filled with large administrative buildings and temples.

One of the more important cuneiform tablets discovered at Hatuşaş describes the peace settlement reached several years after the Battle of Kadesh in what today is Lebanon.

This battle was between the Hittite forces and those of Egyptian Pharoah Rameses II, in the fifth year of Ramesses' rule or about 1274 BC as best as we can tell. There was no clear victor, as the fortunately timely arrival of Egyptian forces prevented a total Hittite victory. The Egyptians then forced the Hittites to take refuge in the fortress of Kadesh, but they were then unable to mount a seige.

The treaty was finalized many years later, in 1259 or 1258 BC, fixing the mutual boundary of Hittite and Egyptian control in Canaan and specifying the marriage of a Hittite princess to Rameses. Click here to read the treaty.

The Outer City was surrounded by defensive walls, with elaborate gateways decorated by sculptures of warriors, lions, and sphynxes. You could go in and out through the defensive wall by way of the elaborate gates, or through tunnels. The fortified gates and tunnels were easily defended.

The Hittite Empire contracted and then the Hittite state itself collapsed as part of a wide-spread trend known as the Bronze Age collapse. The city of Hatuşaş was destroyed around 1200 BC.

Hatuşaş was abandoned for about 400 years, until a relatively modest Phrygian settlement formed there.

The Phrygians came out of the southern Balkans. They moved into Anatolia when Troy was at the height of its power, as either allies or protectees of the Trojans.

The Phrygian people were just tribal village dwellers when they first moved into Anatolia. They increased in organization and power, forming a state of Phrygia in the 8th century BC. Its capital was at Gordium. Their mythic kings were alternately named Gordias and Midas. Yes, as in the Gordian Knot and the Golden Touch respectively.

Those kings were mythic, but there was some truth to them. Assyrian documents from the 8th century BC describe a King Mita of the Mushki, recently identified as King Midas of Phrygia.

Phrygia was a trading partner joining Greece in its west with the neighboring nations to its east.

The end for the Phrygian nation came with the invasion of the Cimmerian people around 700 BC. Gordium fell to the Cimmerians in 696 BC, and Herodotus reported how they sacked and burned the capital.

Phrygia continued as part of the Lydian empire under the 560-546 BC reign of the proverbially wealthy King Croesus.

The Persian ruler Cyrus defeated Croesus in 546 BC, and Phrygian came under Persian control. Darius became Persian Emperor in 521, converting the ancient trade route into the Persian Royal Road. He established satrapies throughout his realm, with a Phrygian satrapy.

Alexander the Great passed through here in 333 BC, famously cutting through the Gordian Knot.

Gauls later moved into Phrygia, making it part of their realm of Galatia. The area came under the control of Rome in 133 BC, control that became that of the Eastern Roman Empire and then the Byzantine Empire.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box. [....] Poor sanitation, bad hygiene, and unsafe water — usually unsafe because it has fecal particles in it — cause one in ten of the world's illnesses. [....] Diarrhea — nearly 90 percent of which is caused by fecally contaminated food or water — kills a child every fifteen seconds. The number of children who have died from diarrhea in the last decade [1998-2008] exceeds the total number of people killed by armed conflict since the Second World War.

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

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