Slashdot Mirror
Mayan Plumbing Found In Ancient City
DarkKnightRadick writes "An archaeologist and a hydrologist have published evidence that the ancient Mayans had pressurized plumbing as early as sometime between the year 100 (when the city of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico, was first founded) and 800 (when it was abandoned). While the Egyptians had plumbing way earlier (around 2500 BC), this is the first instance of plumbing in the New World prior to European exploration and conquest."
Actually, until Typhoid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid) struck in the late 19th century, even king's used to defecate in their bedrooms. The stench of feces used to be quite common amongst the civilised.
It usually takes a large amount of death/discomfort/destruction for things to change unfortunately. Especially with such a large public works project such as sanitation and clean water.
All though the Thames still stinks, I'm sure that it used to be much, much, much worse than even India at the time.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Even more important to improving sanitation than death, discomfort, and destruction was the concept of germs which was only just gaining traction in the late 19th century.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
you mean it was re-gaining traction. Funny how it took western civilization over 1500 years to get back to where medicine was at the peak of the Roman Empire. Marcus Varro, 36 B.C. "and because there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases". Other Roman doctors know to use antiseptics and antibiotics, and knew of germs/viruses by indirect means. Of course, 600 years before that, Indian civilization knew and wrote of living infectious agents they couldn't see , and had drugs and procedure to kill them and to inoculate.
But in the mid 19th century U.S. physicians were putting leaches on Abraham Lincoln, the primitive morons.
Last time I checked the Bible, the old testament has passages about to bury your feces, not to make love with a menstruating woman, and some other common sense stuff. Heck, do you have any idea why Jews and Muslims don't eat pork?