ABSTRACT
Early hunter-gatherers have left little evidence for how they approached the disposal of human waste, but using modern knowledge of how sanitation affects our risk of contracting infectious diseases we can create a theoretical model of past health scenarios. Archaeological study of the early civilisations of the Middle East region has shown how sanitation technologies developed there. In ancient Greece the earliest sanitation dates from 2100-1600BC in the Minoan civilisations on Crete. However, comparison with ancient Rome found that medieval London had broadly comparable facilities and regulations in place to address sanitation problems. In York we have seen how sanitation evolved in the same town over nearly two thousand years as shown from excavation of Roman, Viking, medieval and Victorian latrines and rubbish tips. In the Viking age there was no use of a sewerage system, and while cess pits were common, human waste was frequently detected across the town.
