Few aspects of human agency are as sparsely treated in archaeological literature as the act of human defecation in the Ancient Near East, as only a limited number of toilets have been found and...Show moreFew aspects of human agency are as sparsely treated in archaeological literature as the act of human defecation in the Ancient Near East, as only a limited number of toilets have been found and published. This paucity is unfortunate, as sanitary technology as a phenomenon can have implications for a wide range of human socio-economic behaviour. The scarce literature indicates a predominance of squatting toilets, when compared to seating toilets. Based on an overview of the published toilets, this assumption does not bear out, as an overview of the available data suggests that seating toilets were equally “common”. At the same time toilets were not “common” at all: the large majority of toilets were found in urban and elite contexts. As such, the spread of sanitary technology like toilets and especially sewage systems might be indicative of social complexity, starting in Southern Mesopotamia in the 4th Millennium BC, eventually reaching Syria in the 2nd Millennium BC. In Tell Sabi Abyad toilets have been found in an Assyrian Late Bronze Age fortified estate, a so called dunnu, that was the property of an elite Assyrian family. These are the only toilets in the Ancient Near East that have been so far found outside an urban context. Although the small scale of the settlement does not necessitate toilets, its defensive role might. In addition the toilets may well have been part of the habitus of Assyrian nobility. Remarkably, these toilets stayed in use and were even rebuilt long after the dunnu lost its importance and connection to nobility, indicating an emulation of status behaviour, and a transfer of elite values.Show less
