Although the daily life of people who lived in ancient times and our current life differ greatly, you probably did not even think that things would come to urine and feces. But in Ancient Rome the situation was quite different from what you might expect.
If you have stuffed your nose, let’s look at what the people of that time used feces for.
Let’s start with the urine, the smell of which we cannot tolerate.
You’ve probably heard that urine contains ammonia. If the urine is kept outside for a certain period of time, ammonia, which is used as a cleaning agent, separates from this liquid and becomes a substance that can easily remove stains.
Based on this idea, the Romans used their own urine as a kind of mouthwash and saw that their teeth whitened and their cavities decreased. Also, according to the Romans, the best quality urine on the market came from Portugal, and it was claimed that its urine was the strongest liquid in the world.
Of course, the only substance in the urine is not just ammonia. This liquid also contains certain amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus.
The Romans also thought that these substances in the urine would be very beneficial to their plants and began to water their flowers with urine as well as water. Also, a Roman writer, Columella, suggested that human urine, which has been kept for a long time, is very useful for growing pomegranates, thus making the pomegranates more flavorful and juicy.
Urine, which we consider quite disgusting, was the raw material for cleaning clothes for the Ancient Romans!
People of that time used the ammonia contained in the urine to clean their togas (Roman clothing) in places called çhahane (in a way, laundry). In this two-stage cleaning, first of all, men would move as if they were a washing machine and jump with all their might on togas in barrels filled with urine.
After this process, the clothes washed with urine were covered with ashes and thus the laundry was considered cleaned. Ancient Romans thought that with both treatments, the oils in their clothes were dissolved and they had a brighter appearance.
What if we told them that human urine was given to them to drink, with the thought that it would cure some of the diseases of animals?
If the sheep of one of the Ancient Romans was sick and its complaint was thought to be a pain in the bile, this animal was given urine to drink and it was thought that the disease would go away. Again, although the problem was not in the bile but in the lungs, this time the urine was given to the sheep through their nose. Even sick bees were sometimes given human urine, and warm urine was rubbed into the beaks of birds with the flu.
In addition to all these, people of that time used dog and human feces, especially urine, to care for their skin. The ancient Romans left the skins in the urine for quite a long time, allowing the hairs on them to decompose more easily. They thought that the enzymes produced by bacteria in the stool softened the skin and made it more flexible.
Another place where the ancient Romans made use of human urine and excrement was the fields.
The Roman people saw their urine and feces as a source of phosphorus, nitrate and potassium that they could use in their gardens rather than waste, and they thought that the plants in their gardens would be much healthier in this way.
There were also excrement collectors and sewer cleaners, known at the time as the Stercorarii. These people sold the excrement they obtained and contributed to the public’s use of them for the purpose they wanted.
Eventually, so much urine was collected that Vespasian, known as the emperor of that time, imposed a urine tax on the people in 70 BC. It is even thought that the phrase “money does not smell” arose from the importance given to feces by the Ancient Romans.
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