Transcript Roman Water Systems

How did the Romans stay clean?
By Edee Polyakovsky
 Ancient
Roman society became
very dependent on their constant
flow of clean water.
 Water was delivered to cities by the
aqueducts and taken out by their
sewage system.
 The Romans also had communal
bath houses where they went to
bathe and socialize.
 Clean drinking and bathing water is
a crucial to staying healthy.
 The
Roman aqueducts were water
channels built to supply cities throughout
the Roman empire with clean water.
 The word aqueduct comes from the
Latin words aqua (water) and ducere
(to lead).
 They used pipes, ditches, canals,
tunnels, bridges and other structures to
get the water from its natural source to
the cities.
 The aqueducts went underground,
through mountains, and across gaps
using gravity and high pressure pipes as
their only method of propulsion.
 The
Roman aqueducts mostly
supplied the bath houses.
 They also brought water to public
markets, toilets, fountains, and
private houses.
 Some aqueducts brought water for
mining, processing, manufacturing,
and agricultural purposes.
 The first aqueduct was built to
supply a cattle market in Rome.
 By the 3rd Century CE, the city of
Rome had two aqueducts which
sustained 1,000,000 people.
 The
Ancient Roman aqueducts
were a very reliable source of
water to the citizens of the
Roman Empire.
 The aqueduct system spread
through out the Roman Empire.
Almost every major Roman city
had at least one aqueduct
supplying it with clean water.
 Some of the aqueducts were
maintained into the early
modern era and a few are still in
partial use today.
 In
Ancient Rome, communal bathing was a
major aspect of society and culture.
 Bathing was a common, daily activity Romans
of many different social classes practiced.
 The Roman bath houses were very beautiful
places.
 When the bath houses started, they were not
very sophisticated but by the 1st Century BCE
the baths had very advanced heating
systems.
 The hot and warm baths were heating by
wood burning furnaces under the raised
floors.
 The
Roman baths were huge
complexes with many different
rooms.
 Most bath houses had changing
rooms, exercise rooms, an open-air
swimming pool, super-heated dry
and wet sweating rooms, a hot room
with a hot water pool, a warm room
with a tepid pool, a cold room with
an unheated pool and rooms for
massage and other health
treatments.
 The cold room was often in the
center of the bath house.
 The
Romans built both public and private
toilets.
 The Ancient Roman sewers were very
extensive, some even were as big as
modern city's sewers.
 Miles pipes carried waste and rain water
out of Rome to the Tiber river which
emptied into the Mediterranean Sea.
 If it weren’t for the excellent sewer system,
the streets of Rome would be covered
with waste (pee and poop), vomit,
garbage, gross water, rotting fruits and
vegetables, and animal skins and guts
from the nearby street venders.
The picture above shows
what a typical Roman sewer
would look like underneath
the street.
 In
many Roman bathrooms, the
toilets stone had seats. Some
bathrooms also had stone hand
basins as well.
 The way the toilets and drains
were laid out, meant that you
had to sit next to up to 20
people in the public bathrooms.
 The picture on the left shows a
real Ancient Roman public
bathroom in Rome.
 "Ancient
Roman Aqueducts - Crystalinks." Ancient Roman Aqueducts Crystalinks. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 June 2016.
<http://www.crystalinks.com/romeaqueducts.html>.
 "Ancient Roman Baths - Thermae, Baths of - Caracalla, Diocletian, Trajan Crystalinks." Ancient Roman Baths - Thermae, Baths of - Caracalla,
Diocletian, Trajan - Crystalinks. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2016.
<http://www.crystalinks.com/romebaths.html>.
 N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Baths/>.
 N.p., n.d. Web. <https://kidskonnect.com/history/roman-sewers/>.
 Koloski-Ostrow, Ann Olgga. "What Toilets and Sewers Tell Us about Ancient
Roman Sanitation." N.p., n.d. Web. <http://theconversation.com/talkingheads-what-toilets-and-sewers-tell-us-about-ancient-roman-sanitation50045>
I hope you enjoyed and learned something from this presentation