What Did Ancient Humans Use Instead of Toilet Paper?

#AncientHistory #ToiletPaper #History What Did Ancient Humans Use Instead of Toilet Paper? What did ancient humans use instead of toilet paper? Broken pottery, a sponge on a stick, moss, corncobs and a 2,000-year-old stick from the Silk Road that told scientists exactly how far its owner had travelled. Toilet paper is a very new invention, and the way people wiped before it is stranger, more painful and more surprising than you'd think. From Greek pottery shards to Chinese imperial toilet paper and the 1930s "splinter-free" ads, here's the real story. All research and sources are linked below. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 The Empty Roll 0:58 Before Toilets: What We Can't Know 1:52 The Greeks Wiped With Pottery 2:58 Rome's Sponge on a Stick 3:48 The 2,000-Year-Old Toilet Stick 4:57 China Invents Toilet Paper 5:53 A Giant, a Cat and a Goose 6:35 Medicated Paper, Corncobs and Catalogs 7:13 "Splinter-Free" 7:30 Myths: Shared Sponges and Enemy Names 8:17 Back to the Empty Roll 📚 RESEARCH & SOURCES ▸ Early evidence for travel with infectious diseases along the Silk Road: intestinal parasites from 2000-year-old personal hygiene sticks in a latrine at Xuanquanzhi Relay Station in China. Yeh H-Y, Mao R, Wang H, Mitchell P.D., 2016, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/a... Chinese liver fluke found on hygiene sticks 1,500 km from where it could live. ▸ Toilet hygiene in the classical era. Charlier P., Brun L., Prêtre C., Huynh-Charlier I., 2012, BMJ. https://daily.jstor.org/this-is-how-t... Greek pessoi with traces of excrement, the Boston wine cup, and possible health effects. ▸ Toilet Issue: Anthropologists Uncover All the Ways We've Wiped. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar... Overview of wiping materials through history. ▸ Xylospongium (tersorium) and the toilet-brush debate (Wiplinger 2012). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylospo... Why scholars disagree on what the Roman sponge stick was for. ▸ Toilet paper: history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_... Yan Zhitui (589 AD), Nanjing imperial court (1393), Joseph Gayetty (1857), "splinter-free" ads. ▸ Moss used as toilet paper, Whithorn. Future Museum. https://www.futuremuseum.co.uk/collec... Moss sheets with hazelnut shells and blackberry seeds. ▸ The dirty lowdown on Viking lifestyles. TES. https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/... Moss and old clothes found in cesspits in Viking York. ▸ What did people use before toilet paper? Farmers' Almanac. https://www.farmersalmanac.com/before... Corncobs, the Sears catalog and the switch to glossy paper. PEOPLE & SITES Philippe Charlier · Hui-Yuan Yeh · Piers Mitchell · Gilbert Wiplinger · Seneca · Yan Zhitui · François Rabelais · Joseph Gayetty · Xuanquanzhi (Dunhuang, China) · Athens · Nara · York · Whithorn 🎬 WATCH NEXT ▸ What Did Ancient Humans Do Without Soap?    • What Did Ancient Humans Do Without Soap?   ▸ Did Ancient Humans Have Dentists?    • Did Ancient Humans Have Dentists?   ▸ Did Ancient Humans Smoke?    • Did Ancient Humans Smoke?   🔔 Subscribe:    / @ancientansweredtv   #AncientHistory #ToiletPaper #History #AncientHumans #HistoryExplained #RomanHistory #AncientChina