Disposal of human waste in middle ages

Environmental World History Questions

1. The twelfth century witnessed the renewal of urban life in Western Europe. Identify one challenge faced by people living in medieval towns: why was this problematic? What was done (if anything) to try to address it? Was this successful?

2. The 14th century was a period during which Europeans in many ways encountered unprecedented difficulty. Identify one crisis that medieval Europeans experienced in this period: describe what it was and discuss how it impacted both the environment and people.

Medieval Urban Environments

Sanitation

Medieval cities were confined urban spaces, densely packed with people

Most townspeople lived in cramped conditions

Animals lived close to people

Town authorities sought to create a decent environment

Urban concerns included: street obstruction, fire, waste disposal

Towns may have reached the limits of the size that could be sustained by about 1300

The urban population could be fed in normal years, though special measures had to be taken when harvests were severely deficient

Towns offered people a way to make a living

Most medieval towns were located close to a body of water

Sewers were generally open ditches

Some medieval sewers were covered over by the high middle ages

In the high Middle Ages cities attempted to organize solid and liquid wastes removal

improper treatment of human waste could lead to disease, foul odors and a generally unpleasant environment

a common need to create a system for the proper disposal of human waste

Cities sought to alleviate the filthy sight and obnoxious odor that emanated from human waste

Public health was only really recognized in medieval London as an important issue mainly after the Black Death

In the middle ages it was generally believed that human waste was satisfactorily disposed of when:

1) it will not contaminate any drinking water supply;

2) it will not give rise to a nuisance due to odor or unsightly appearance;

3) it will not pollute or contaminate the waters of any bathing beach, or stream used for public, domestic water supply, or recreational purposes;

4) there will be adequate public facilities available for its disposal; and

5) its removal will be provided by services from the city and with little inconvenience for the individual

Roman London had underground sewers that all connected and emptied into the Thames and its tributaries

By the medieval period these underground passageways fell into disuse

Medieval sewers became open and public facilities were connected directly to streams and rivers

Medieval London had a few public latrines, one of which was located on London Bridge

Waste may also have been tossed directly into the Thames

London Bridge

Dirty rivers helped to spread disease

The city of London did not provide its citizens with adequate facilities for waste disposal

In 1357 a proclamation was issued forbidding anyone to throw any sort of waste into the Thames or any other waterway

A response to these city regulations was an increase in the construction of cesspools

Cesspits had building regulations

Private houses could have latrines

Waste from latrines could be channeled into city ditches

Waste was also dumped out of windows

The city desired that its citizens place their solid waste outside their doors on days when carts were scheduled to remove it

Privacy was more of a concern in the middle ages as opposed to that in the Roman world, for example

Public latrines also needed to be cleaned, particularly if they were not situated over a waterway. For this each London ward had its officially-employed "rayker"

An act in 1388 made it illegal to pollute the rivers, waters, ditches, and to keep the air fresh

in 1477 it was prohibited to build latrines over running water and some courses

Buildings that used cesspools for human waste needed to be emptied periodically, and it would seem that there were private businessmen who carried out these duties

From 1382 to 1419 the city of London began to keep an account of privy cleaning

In 1466 the city authorities granted John Lovegold a monopoly on cleaning the privies

These businessmen could then sell human waste to farmers as fertilizer

Other solutions for waste management were to dump waste into ditches, gutters, streets, streams and the Thames so that it would be taken away

Human waste thrown onto the streets, filling the ditches and waterways was not only a nuisance to odor and sight but also was easily accessible to insects and other vermin. These creatures were then able to carry the bacteria to humans, food and water

The Black Death is one good example of this and, though city officials recognized the dangers of human waste being open to the air, the problems of its disposal still plagued the city. Odor and sight remained a problem and this in tum proved dangerous to public health

London never had clean water because the wells and waterways from which they drew their water were continually polluted by human waste. Liquids seeped into the groundwater while solids were directly dumped into the waterways. The end result was contaminated water