KASKAL

Rivista di storia, ambienti e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico
Nuova serie

Bathrooms and Toilets in Babylon-Merkes: Speculation or Reality?

crossmark logo

Abstract

This paper examines the rooms with drainage facilities of the Neo-Babylonian dwellings in Babylon-Merkes, which Reuther interprets as bathrooms or toilets in his excavation report. This interpretation will be reappraised by asking the following questions: is it possible to understand Neo-Babylonian attitudes to hygiene in dwellings in Babylon-Merkes, to identify specific rooms in which measures were undertaken influenced by such attitudes, and to link such precautions to a specific social class? If not, can another interpretation for drained rooms be proposed relying on the Akkadian words used for individual rooms and features? The final aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of the potential functions of drainage systems in residential areas.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Presentato: 18 Luglio 2024 | Accettato: 09 Ottobre 2024 | Pubblicato 19 Dicembre 2024 | Lingua: en

Keywords Hygiene • Soakaway • Neo-Babylonian dwellings • Drainage system • Drained rooms

Copyright © 2024 Svende Bielefeld. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/KASKAL/5235-1939/2024/01/013