Latrinae: Roman Toilets in the Northwestern Provinces of the Roman Empire

Latrinae: Roman Toilets in the Northwestern Provinces of the Roman Empire' presents examples of Roman toilets from a wide area in northwestern Europe comprising Austria, Belgium, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands. Seven papers consider ‘typically Roman’ stone channel toilets, while five papers discuss the actually much more common wooden toilets of the cesspit type. Some studies concentrate on a single installation, others present a number of installations in their architectural surroundings. In addition, Roman chamber pots, which could be used either solo or in a toilet chair, are presented in two papers. A further paper on stercus, usually connected to latrine duty in the Roman army, questions this interpretation and offers a different meaning of the word. This book is the first collection on Roman toilets of the northwestern provinces, and gives a good overview of the possibilities for human waste removal in Roman times. The volume provides a fascinating introduction to this under-researched group of Roman installations.

Table of Contents

Introduction – Stefanie Hoss

Sewers or cesspits? Modern assumptions and Roman preferences – Gemma Jansen

The latrine at the Roman fort on the Antonine Wall at Bearsden – David J Breeze

Flushed with success – a Roman flushing installation in the latrines of the Great Bathhouse of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana near Xanten (D) – Norbert Zieling

The latrines of Roman Aachen – Andreas Schaub

An outhouse in the garden? – Looking at a backyard in the vicus of Bonn – Jeanne-Nora Andrikopoulou-Strack, Manuel Fiedler and Constanze Höpken

A bath with public toilets in the vicus of Bonn – Gary White

The Roman public toilet of Rottenburg am Neckar – Stefanie Hoss

Latrines connected to bathhouses in Germania inferior – an overview – Michael Dodt

Roman toilets in Nijmegen, Oppidum Batavorum and Ulpia Noviomagus, the Netherlands – Elly N.A. Heirbaut

Arlon, apport des découvertes récentes dans le vicus à l’examen des latrines gallo-romaines – Denis Henrotay

A Roman latrine near St. Kolumba in Cologne and its remarkable contents – Michael Dodt

Latrine pits in the Roman vicus of Vitudurum / Oberwintherthur (Switzerland) – Verena Jauch

A Roman cesspit from the mid-2nd century with lead price tags in the civil town of Carnuntum (Schloss Petronell/Austria) – Beatrix Petznek

Roman chamber pots – Beatrix Petznek

A Roman ‘Toilet bowl’ from Speicher (Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) – Bernd Bienert

The meaning of stercus in Roman military papyri – dung or human faeces? Or: who is supposed to clean this shit up? – Kai Juntunen