Expert: Irulan Serena - 11/12/2006

Question
I suspect that you have probably never been asked this obscure question before.  I am teaching Minoan civilisation to secondary school students who are fascinated with Minoan technology, in particular their advanced plumbing and of course flushing toilets - a topic of great interest to teenagers.  Since they are so intrigued I spent considerable time trying to find an image of the remains of a toilet since they were apparently found in quite good condition (minus the wooden seat) at a couple of the palaces, particularly Mallia and Knossos.  I have not been able to locate a single photo, only a couple of line drawings of how the plumbing worked, in the R.Castleden book.  Do you have any idea where I might find such an image or if they even exist?  :-) I realise this may be a 'needle in a haystack' search!  Thanks.  Neroli.  

Answer
Hello Neroli,

Not so obscure a question since I had the very same request from my students years ago when I was, like you, teaching classical literature and mythology to my secondary classes as well as my college students.

It will be nearly impossible to find any photographs of ancient Minoan toilet systems, access to the locations are extremely restricted due to safety concerns.

There are, however, a few sites that will give your students an idea what they looked like since Mycenae and Roman toilet systems were very similar to the Minoan systems.

Here are the sites that will, hopefully, help you.

http://www.plumbingworld.com/toilethistoryindia.html   History of plumbing.

http://www.ancient-greece.org/museum/muse-iraclion.html
 
This site is the link to Heraklion Museum which should give you more information if it is available.

http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/classics/photos/index.html

Great site for Classical Studies.

http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~bruceh/cc307/index.html   -

This site may be too advanced for secondary students but it may be of some interest to you.

Hope this helps,

Regards,

Irulan