A Matter of Convenience by Christine A. Powell "The air is already saturated with the sounds of wailing voices, crashing waves, splitting timber, falling masonry and, most disturbing of all, the pervasive roar of the earth itself. Clouds of dust drift over the street from the collapsed buildings, carrying the stench of ruptured privies and newly opened garbage heaps."-- George R. Clark II The destruction of Port Royal, Jamaica, on 7 June 1692 was accompanied by the smell of ruptured privies, not the sound of broken water mains. This was a town of its time--a time when sanitary arrangements in most urban settings were very nearly at an all-time low. Port Royal, as a densely populated town with a tropical climate, irregular water supply, and poor drainage, must have been at least as bad as contemporary cities in Great Britain. Studying the historical background of sanitation in the 17th century may help us to understand this important factor in colonial Jamaican life. Historical Background In the earliest times, human beings were so thinly populated that there was no need for special sanitary facilities. As migratory hunters and gatherers settled down to live on fixed farmsteads, the need emerged. Some of the earliest evidence for domestic toilet arrangements was found in a group of Neolithic huts on Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands. These stone structures had recesses in the walls with drains leading to what appears to be a crude sewer system (Colman, 5). From the beginning of civilization, there were two basic types of toilet, depending on whether they required a squatting or sitting posture. For example, although the Babylonians used "Eastern-style" toilets, an opening in the floor, the Assyrian palace of Sargon II had a "Western-style" sit-down toilet (Colman, 8). "Toilets" in most non-Western cultures today consist of a simple hole in the floor. This forces one to assume a full squat posture, which gives the stomach muscles proper support during the defecation process. The development of less biologically efficient sit-down toilets may be related to changes in clothing styles. Where loose robes are the standard form of attire, these can be gathered up around the waist to leave the legs free. Where some form of trousers, leggings, or hose have become standard, they interfere with the ability to squat without soiling oneself or one's clothing (Kira, 118-19). Efforts to adopt the western style in eastern lands have often been frustrated by the tendency for users to climb up on the seat and stand there while doing their business (Pudney, 52). At about 2500-1500 BCE, the Indus Valley civilization appears to have had latrines that hand-flushed into the street drains (Wright, 10). The drain system emptied into a main cesspool that was apparently cleaned out regularly by public workers (Colman, 14). The mechanical flush toilet was invented for the first time about 2000 BCE. The ground floor of the Palace of Knossos in Crete had a latrine with a wooden seat, an earthenware pan, and a reservoir for flushing water (Wright, 7). The water closet was not invented again until Sir John Harington developed a valve toilet in 1598, one of which was installed in the palace of his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, at Richmond (Wright, 75). The idea was then almost forgotten again for over a century, and water closets remained very rare in England until almost 1800 (Wright, 103-07). Incidentally, although Thomas Crapper actually existed, he was not the inventor of the modern toilet. [He did, however, receive nine patents between 1861 and 1907 (Colman, 63). Thos. Crapper's basic contribution was the valveless flushing mechanism generally used with an overhead cistern (today's siphonic toilets have returned to the earlier design with a stopper). Mr. Crapper held Royal Warrants as "Sanitary Engineer" to Edward VII and George V, and designed the fixtures for Sandringham House. However, he was never knighted for his services. The story that "Sir Thomas Crapper" invented the toilet is a myth that was evidently spread during World War I, when many American soldiers' first encounter with a water closet involved a product of Crapper's firm. See generally Reyburn.] An idea related to the flush toilet was to situate privies over a natural or artificial water channel to carry the waste away. This was a common design in Roman times (Wright, 21). The well-known Latrina at Ephesus is built in this way (Erderngil, 72). It was also the usual arrangement for the rere-dorter, or sanitary wing, of medieval monasteries. The availability of water for sanitation was a major factor in the location of religious houses (Wright, 50). The convenience of sewage disposal was one reason for the popularity of the 138 houses located on London Bridge--although this popularity posed risks to boatmen passing beneath (Wright, 50). Since Port Royal had no streams, this option was not available there. Dry Land Disposal It was more common to dispose of human waste on dry land. The Romans used large public lavatories only in major centers. Elsewhere, they used seats over cesspits or channeled the waste to individual soak-aways. A Romano-British site at Neatham in Hampshire has yielded the remains of a large number of pits and several fragments of a wooden toilet seat (Redknap, 287-88). This method was continued in and after the medieval period. Castles and manor houses were generally equipped with garderobes with stone or wooden seats above a shaft within the thickness of the wall (or occasionally above an open drop in a projecting turret). The waste was directed to the moat or into a pit that had to be cleaned out at intervals (Wright, 49). In medieval cities, garderobes sometimes overhung a street with a central open sewer, although the authorities much preferred the use of pits. A pit of about 80 cubic feet emptied every three months could accommodate the sewage, rubbish, and ashes generated by two households (Pudney, 43). However, privy pits were often either too small for their contents or too infrequently cleaned out. People walking down the street often had their clothes stained by the material flowing out of an adjacent privy--particularly at night when the flow could not be seen (History of Plumbing). Cesspits were also used for the communal privies provided for the majority of the population without indoor facilities. The contents of these pits were cleaned out at intervals and hauled out of the city (Wright, 52). It took 13 men 5 nights in 1281 to clean the privy at the Newgate Gaol. The "nightmen" or "gong fermors" who performed this task received about three times the prevailing wage for unskilled labor (Pudney, 50). Due to negligence or false economy, sometimes considerable amounts of material were allowed to accumulate in communal or private facilities. It was not unusual for someone to fall through rotten boards in a privy and drown in the pit (Harris, 18-19). The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I had to be saved from such a fate at Erfurt in 1184. One of his companions, who perished, had been in the habit of swearing, "If I do it not, may I sink in a privy." (Putney, 92-93) Sanitation did not improve with the end of the Middle Ages--quite the contrary--and the use of privies continued. Brooklyn, New York, had one of the world's first municipal sewer systems, which came into use only in 1857 (History of Plumbing). In 1871, most houses in the Burford District of Oxfordshire were using privies very close to the houses, with plank vaults that allowed penetration into the surrounding soil. In many cases, four houses shared a single privy, often adjacent to both a pig pen and a well (Harris, 26). About that same time, Birmingham had "huge, wet, fetid middens, uncovered, undrained, unemptied, some of them as deep and big as the foundations of an ordinary cottage. Few of them are covered, the inspector of nuisances thinking they are better left open." (Medical Officer's Report quoted in Pudney, 43) As late as 1914, there were still large English cities that relied in part on privy middens that were emptied less than four times a year (Daunton, 230). Privies were not uncommon in many parts of rural and small-town England in the 1950s. A team researching old outhouses found an entire village in the Cotswolds still using bucket privies in 1984 (Harris, 26). Actually, the use of privies is not necessarily a bad thing (quite apart from their value to archaeology; due to the wet, anaerobic environment, privy pits often preserve fragile organic materials that would perish elsewhere (Hume, 139). Human waste can provide valuable fertilizer. Concentrating the dung in a common area was actually safer than the competing custom of flushing sewage into a river that served as a water source... without treating either the sewage or the drinking water. As early as 1388, English law forbade throwing filth into ditches, rivers, or waters, and by the 16th century London ordinances forbade burying dung within the City. Instead, it was to be hauled away for burial or use in agriculture. However, the frequent renewal of these laws suggests they were often broken, as does the high death rate from dysentery and related diseases. Bad sanitation was probably the leading factor in the astronomical infant mortality rate. Failure to sweep rush-covered floors as they accumulated rubbish was a leading offender. The development of multi-story tenement houses near the end of the Middle Ages aggravated the sanitation problem, not only because of higher density, but also because the residents on upper floors were far enough from the ground to be tempted to empty their waste out the window (Mumford, 290-92). In Renaissance Scotland, the housewives threw their chamberpot contents and slops out the windows with the cry "Gardy Loo!" (This evidently derived from the French "Gardez l'eau," meaning "Look out for the water!") Unfortunately, the sound of the cry and the discarded material often arrived simultaneously. Woe to the one who looked up to see what was happening. It is believed that this may be the origin of the British term "loo" for a toilet (Pudney, 28-9). The high-rises of Edinburgh were hardly the only places in Europe to present a sanitation problem during this era. Indeed, the period from 1550 to 1750 has been called the "two rather insanitary centuries." When the court of Charles II spent the summer of 1665 in Oxford, the local diarist Anthony à Wood observed they were "nasty and beastly, leaving at their departure their excrements in every corner, in chimneys, studies, coalhouses, [and] cellars." Contemporary accounts and engravings frequently illustrate the morning ritual in English and Scottish cities of emptying one's ordure out of upper-floor windows into the streets beneath (Wright, 75-8). It was not until the mid-1800s, when Dr. John Snow proved the connection between cholera and sewage-polluted drinking water, that cities began to control their waste (Colman, 46). There is no reason to suppose that Port Royal and other contemporary cities in the colonies were any cleaner than those in Europe during the "insanitary centuries." Chamberpots The common alternative to a fixed privy has been some form of removable vessel. Unfortunately, the humble chamberpot is an item poorly represented in collections (Draper, 6). This has perhaps caused modern people to underestimate the popularity of this means of waste disposal. An example of this form of latrine was found at the 14th-century BCE Egyptian site at Tel-el-Amarna. A sand-filled vase was placed below a keyhole-shaped opening in a limestone toilet seat (Wright, 11). In ancient times, the invention of the chamberpot was attributed to the Sybarites, who were notorious for their luxurious lifestyles (Lambton, 3). A number of Roman glass "boat models" have now been identified as probably female urinals. Similar objects shaped like sauce boats were used for the same purpose in the 18th and early 19th centuries (Whitehouse, 133-35). The chamberpot in something like its best-known form first appeared in the fourteenth century, and was commonly made of metal. Examples are known of tin, lead, pewter, copper, silver, and even gold. Earthenware models are recorded from at least 1418, although it is hard to distinguish them from cooking pots, which were of identical form (Wright, 122). The pots were often placed within a closestool with a hinged top and padded seat. Louis XIV had 264 closestools at Versailles (Colman, 45). The chamberpots used in Colonial America were originally patterned after silver models, but pottery was of course the most common material. Earthenware chamberpots began to be mass-produced by the Staffordshire potteries in the mid-17th century. In fact, chamberpots are among the most frequently found items at colonial sites dated after about 1640 (Hume, Guide, 145). The most common materials were earthenware and delftware, although gray stoneware from the Rhineland appears in England and America about 1700. Most chamberpots were made of coarse, lead-glazed earthenware. Although these vessels are "coarse" as compared to delft, they are actually of a fine, hard fabric with a little fine sand temper. They are much finer than the earlier ceramics that used large grit or ground shell for temper. Glaze was nearly universal on these vessels. The body of the pots is red, reflecting the oxidizing atmosphere of modern kilns, as distinguished from the black or dark brown products of sealed medieval kilns. The earthenware mass-produced by the Staffordshire potteries was so inexpensive and common that it is rarely even listed on English probate inventories (Draper, 7). During the course of the 17th century, chamberpots tended to get smaller and flatter (Lambton, 12). Shapes varied during the century, but had settled down to a fairly common design before 1700. This was squat bodied with a flat rim about an inch in width angled slightly upward. Pots were frequently decorated with a small cordon about an inch below the rim. The single handle was attached to the underside of the rim, drawn out as a strap and anchored to the lower body with little ornamentation apart from reeding on the handle. The color of both the body and the glaze differed widely (Hume, Guide, 146). Delftware chamberpots began to appear after 1650, and were originally very broad-rimmed and squat. By 1700, they were taller and the flat rim had been replaced by a gently flaring rim folded over (this style was later adopted for earthenware chamberpots). The cordon below the rim remained common until about 1735. The handles of delftware pots were generally anchored with a square thumbed terminal. Most delftware chamberpots were undecorated, with a slightly pinkish white glaze. However, some were elaborately decorated in cobalt in the Chinese manner (Hume, Guide, 146-47). During the 18th century, decorated chamberpots became very common, with a portrait of the king being a frequent subject. Sanitation in Jamaica At the time of the 1692 earthquake that submerged much of the city, Port Royal was probably the largest English city in the Americas, and certainly the most wealthy. It had at least 6500 inhabitants occupying at least 2000 buildings. Some of these were substantial brick structures four stories tall (Hamilton, 40). All these people lived and worked entirely within a very restricted area of less than 60 acres. Commercial and residential structures and their associated yards and outbuildings were crammed into virtually every foot that was not occupied by a street or alley. Crowding was the major factor that influenced everyday life (Pawson and Buisseret, 93). There is no reason to suppose that Port Royal had better sanitary arrangements than comparable English cities. Indeed, there are at least two reasons to suppose that they were worse. First, the tropical heat would have greatly accelerated the putrefaction of excrement and other organic waste. Second, there was the absence of any organized water supply or drainage. Most British towns had rudimentary water distribution and drain systems as early as the Middle Ages, fed by rivers or springs. Due to Port Royal's position at the end of a long, flat peninsula surrounded by salt water, there was no way to deliver pressure to a waterworks before the development of modern pumping engines. Fresh water came from cisterns or by boat from the mainland, since salty water lay only a few inches or feet below the surface over the entire town (Pawson and Buisseret, 94). This water-saturated sand was the major factor in the liquefaction that caused most of the damage during the 1692 earthquake (Clark). Most fresh water was brought in great casks from the mouth of the Rio Cobre, but this was downstream from Spanish Town and the water was suspected of carrying the flux. A better water supply was at a spring called the Rock near Kingston, but this was not regularly used until the Royal Navy established a watering station there after the earthquake. Most residents of Port Royal avoided the problem by drinking wine, beer, or rum (Pawson and Buisseret, 102). Due to the high water table, privy cesspits--where they existed--would thus have to have been either very shallow or watertight. Nor was there much of a slope to promote drainage if slops were thrown on the ground. The residents had to rely on tropical rainfall to wash rubbish, animal droppings, and sewage from the streets into the sea and harbor. The streets of Port Royal were surfaced with loose sand. Only the parade ground near the town gate was paved with brick (Pawson and Buisseret, 82). It would therefore have taken a great deal of rainfall to clean the streets. This situation should have promoted the use of chamberpots or bucket privies that could be dumped into the sea or harbor. We know that there were chamberpots in use on Jamaica. The evidence is both historical and archaeological. Chamberpots are occasionally mentioned in probate inventories. For example, the 1675 inventory of Captain Thomas Barrett lists 4 chamberpots with a collective value of ten shillings, as well as a bedpan (Wallace). The 1674 inventory of a Port Royal tavern owned by Thomas Taylor lists "two old chamber-potts" among the furnishings of one of the bar rooms. Sir Thomas Lynch, the Governor who died in 1684, owned a 5 shilling "close stool" among his very few personal items at the King's House in Port Royal (Pawson and Buisseret, 108-09). One would have expected the contents of these pots to have been disposed of in a safe place. However, five years after the earthquake, Edward Ward visited Port Royal and observed that the inhabitants were then depositing their waste in midden heaps on the seaward side of the settlement. As Ward wrote: In the Afternoon, about four o'clock, they might have the refreshment of a sea breeze, but suffering the Negroes to carry all their nastiness to windward of the town, that the nauseous effluvias which arise from their stinking dunghills are blown in upon them. Thus what they might enjoy as a blessing, they ingratefully pervert by their own ill management (Ward, 15). Note that Mr. Ward does not fault the Jamaicans for leaving their excreta exposed, but only for leaving them upwind of their homes. It is clear that in 1697, at least, the contents of Port Royal's chamberpots (and possibly the privies) were being deposited into nearby open pits, rather than being disposed of at sea or hauled some distance for burial. If this was true then, it is even more likely to have been the case before the earthquake, when there was much more land area available for disposal. We know from contemporary documents that a privy, known as a "house of office," was an almost invariable feature of a Jamaican yard, whether of a private residence or of a commercial establishment. This was a portable wooden structure measuring perhaps three by four feet, and resting on sills, sometimes stabilized by wooden corner posts. Some scholars have assumed that these outhouses covered pits almost as big as the structures and up to four feet deep (Pawson and Buisseret, 106). This was the practice elsewhere; from time to time, a new pit was dug in the yard, the house of office moved to cover it, and the excavated material used to fill the old pit (Hume, Historical Archaeology, 139). It seems highly unlikely, however, that pits could have been used over such a high water table as existed at Port Royal. A four-foot hole in wet sand would have filled quickly. Recent excavations have recovered a wooden toilet seat, presumably from one of these houses of office, in the northwest corner of Yard 5 associated with Building 5. Since this yard was brick-covered, it seems more likely that it used buckets or chamberpots, rather than a large pit. The yards excavated along New Street by Priddy were also brick-paved, with the foundations of privies still evident above the paving (Brown,155-156). The observations by Thomas Ward quoted above suggest that most waste was hauled away to surface middens, rather than left in on-site cesspools. In the decades immediately before the earthquake, yards in Port Royal were repeatedly subdivided as population density increased. It would therefore be hard to move the outhouses to an unused location. If pit privies were used, this would tend to mix fecal material pretty thoroughly into the sand of the yard, which was also the location of the cook-room and cistern. Studies of intestinal parasite remains in the soil of colonial homes in Newport, Rhode Island, show a similar pattern. Wealthier homes tended to have fecal material concentrated in a single area, with a minimum of associated tree pollen. This suggests use of a covered privy that was emptied, rather than moved. Poorer homes had a broader distribution of feces and pollen, suggesting that chamberpots were emptied into an open pit in the yard or even spread around as fertilizer (Reinhard, 34). The distribution of parasites in Port Royal was probably similar to these patterns, depending on the wealth of the Jamaican householder. With these conditions of sanitation, it is not surprising to find from contemporary (and even from more recent) accounts that public health in Jamaica left something to be desired. Dysentery was very common, particularly among the slaves. Yellow fever was the most dangerous disease among the whites (Stewart, 46). At the time, it was widely observed that the fever was most common after long droughts and especially in the neighborhood of stagnant marshes (Stewart, 51). In fact, it was spread by mosquitoes. The cesspits, like other standing water, provided a fertile breeding ground for these insects. Port Royal was considered fairly healthy from the viewpoint of fever, but gastrointestinal illness was a major cause of death, particularly in the early days of the Jamaican colony (Stewart, 52). Those who had been on the island for a while developed some immunity to the bacteria that caused dysentery, but newcomers very often suffered an attack on their arrival. After about four days, they either recovered or died. Drunkenness seemed to aggravate the flux, and also exposed the drinker to "the dry gripes," heavy-metal poisoning from rum distilled in lead pipes (Pawson and Buisseret, 101-102). The treatment of these conditions was sometimes almost as bad as the disease. One doctor (Trapham, 137) prescribes an enema of molasses ("which may well forward a beneficial Stool and the quieting of the Bowels"). The Building 5 Privy In addition to the written evidence concerning sanitation in Jamaica, there is the testimony of archaeology. Besides the ceramic artifacts discussed below, the most important of these finds was the wreckage of an actual "house of office" found in Yard 5 of Building 5. This was excavated by Texas A&M University and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology in 1990. Comparable privies had also been excavated during the course of the New Street excavations of the 1970s. The remains consisted of one brick wide foundations measuring about 2 by 3 feet over the brick paving of the yards of several buildings. No wooden parts of the outhouses themselves survived on this terrestrial site. There was one privy associated with each building, except for a tavern that had two privies to accomodate its patrons (Brown, 155-56). Since there were no pits, and since there were associated chamberpot fragments, these appear to have been bucket privies, rather than pit privies, for the reasons discussed above. This Building 5 structure was set at an angle against the Northwest corner of the junction of the south outside wall of Room 1 of Building 5 and the yard wall. A one-inch thick covering of plaster was found on the outside of the south wall of Room 1. The bottom edge of this plaster extended from the midway Course 4 (header course) of the bricks; it then continued up for approximately 3 feet. The exterior edge of the plaster reached just past stretcher #6 (out from the exterior corner of the south wall). The plaster had a rounded corner in the lower right area, and an inscribed one-half to three-quarter inch line around the plaster edge. This inscribed edge appears to have been where the wood for the seat platform had been located. A cut out area can be found about 2 stretchers back from the right edge of the plaster; this seems to be a space for some sort of insert into the plaster, possibly the seat. There was no break in the brick paving of the yard to allow for a privy pit or cesspool. A number of items were found that identify this area as a privy. Short wooden planks were discovered in the area of the "house of office." There was a complete chamberpot and a number of chamberpot sherds in this excavation square, several pieces of wood that fitted together to form a platform with two circular openings, and what appeared to be a 30 cm diameter wooden lid with a central knob. The wooden items were swept to the east along the south wall away from the corner when the yard wall collapsed at the time of the earthquake or later. This can be seen in the site plan. Since the diameter of the openings is only slightly less than that of the lid, it seems likely that this was a toilet lid to fit one of the privy seats. This would have been helpful to reduce flies and odor. Since there is no provision for a cesspool, and there is so much evidence of chamberpots, it would appear that this was a "bucket privy." Waste was deposited in containers that were later taken away to be dumped in a midden, as described by Edward Ward in 1698. The average house of office found in the New Street excavation was only large enough to accomodate a single user, while the Building 5 privy is a "two holer." It is thus resembles the New Street tavern, which had 2 privies in its yard. Is it possible that Building 5 was also a commercial establishment that needed to accomodate customers? The layout of the building, with two doors to the street -- one leading to a large room with windows and the other to a windowless room, supports this possibility. The large oven in back was surrounded with artifacts associated with baking. If the building was a bakery, cakeshop, or tearoom, it might have had many female customers. Historically, two-seat privies have often been used by mothers and children. Many examples from England even have the second seat at a lower height. This might explain why Building 5 has a single two-holer, rather than two separate privies as at the tavern. At this point, any conclusion would be speculative, as it is still possible that this was merely a very large household that needed extra toilet and baking facilities. Port Royal Chamberpots Besides the actual privy discussed elsewhere, ceramic artifacts identified as chamberpots provide the most important archaeological evidence of sanitation in colonial Jamaica. Although these differ from one another, all fit the standard description of a typical chamberpot. Each is "a handled vessel with convex sides and a sturdy flared rim or brim" (Beaudry, 67). The article by Beaudry, et al., sets out a typology for ceramics (based on excavations in tidewater Maryland and Virginia) called the Potomac Typological System (POTS). This is based primarily on vessel shape, although the function of the artifact also plays a role (Beaudry, 58). Chamberpots have a distinctive shape, in addition to their distinctive function, so they are relatively easy to distinguish from other types of ceramics, such as pitchers. The "recognition chart" for POTS shows three chamberpot shapes commonly found in the Chesapeake region (Beaudry, 67). The chamberpots found at Port Royal have similar shapes, but there are too few examples (as yet) to form a rigid typology. The following two chamberpots were found during the early 1970s excavation by A. J. Priddy along New Street. The context suggests that they were associated with a tavern, and may have been provided for the convenience of the customers (Brown, 9-11). This would have been common for a commercial establishment in this era, just as providing a customer toilet is mandatory today. In addition to these chamberpots specifically from the pre-earthquake period, about ten others were found on the site of this tavern that continued to operate until the second half of the 18th century (Brown, 220). NS.2.A6.1c. This chamberpot was found in several fragments. The context indicates that it was deposited in the early 18th century (well after the earthquake). It is made of red paste, with an interior glaze that is also found on part of the handle and exterior. The glaze is of yellow over a white slip. The shape is somewhat unusual, with a rim that angles back toward the handle. The chamberpot has a chamfered base. NS.2.A56.2a. Chamberpot found in a 17th century context. Of red paste with an interior glaze that is also found on the rim. Rough exterior surface with a yellow to brown glaze. Decorated terminal at the base of the handle. Chamberpots were a fairly commonly found item during the course of the excavation of Port Royal by Texas A&M University and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. The chamberpot remains found during the underwater excavations of Port Royal prior to 1990 include the following: PR87 415-10 An almost complete chamberpot with the handle missing and some damage to the rim. Found in square 410 of the underwater excavation in 1987. Made of coarse earthenware with an interior lead glaze. This chamberpot is less tapered than most of the others and has a broader base. The rim diameter is 18.9 cm and the base diameter is 14.5 cm. PR89 642 Chamberpot rim sherd of whiteware. Found in 1989 in Layer 2 of square 640. PR89 678-2 Approximately 20 sherds that form an almost complete plain white delftware chamberpot. The base of the handle ends in a rolled pillow or scroll with a central thumb impression. The rim is not flat, but rather flares out only slightly. The glaze was originally cream-colored, but it is now very gray and cracked due to exfoliation. The chamberpot was originally about 5.3 inches high, with a rim diameter of 8.2 inches. The base diameter is 5.5 inches, and the base edge 3/10 inch wide and high. The following chamberpots and fragments were found in the 1990 excavation season: PR90 102 Whiteware chamberpot. Found in Layer 2 of square 100. PR90 104-5 Coarse earthenware chamberpot. Found in Layer 3 of square 100. Has a rim diameter of 22 centimeters. PR90 469-6 Complete refined earthenware (borderware) chamberpot. It has a green glaze on both the interior and exterior, although the glaze is irregularly deposited on the latter. There is very slight ridging around the circumference, not uncommon in cheap, coarse pottery. Found in Layer 3 of square 460 in Building 4. It may have come from a privy in one of the yards associated with that building (of course, the dynamic forces at work at the time of the earthquake and over the past three centuries may have moved all these artifacts somewhat from their original positions). PR90 908-6 Complete refined earthenware chamberpot . Found in Layer 3 of square 900, very near the privy. 14.1 cm high with a 19 cm diameter rim. Has a dark brown interior glaze and a very light -- almost white -- exterior glaze with patches of beige to light brown discolorations. There is a thumbprint decoration just below the handle. PR90 912 Whiteware chamberpot sherd. Found in Layer 2 of square 910. Base is 16 cm in diameter. Appears to be the sort of chamberpot used in hospitals (such as the nearby Naval Hospital on shore). PR90 942 Coarse earthenware chamberpot. Found in Layer 2 of square 940. Rim diameter is 24 cm. PR90 944-1 Tin enameled (delftware) chamberpot. Found in many pieces in Layer 3 of square 940, Building 5. Includes the rim, body, and base. Diameter estimated from the largest fragment of the rim was 19.5 cm. Base diameter 10.35 cm. The handle is one inch wide and grooved, as if someone ran their thumb down the handle prior to firing. A wide ceramic band surrounds the top, ending in an everted edge. Most of the glaze has exfoliated off and the remainder is discolored and cracked. (This chamberpot was originally catalogued as PR90 644-13 and PR 90 644-19.) PR90 946 Red coarse earthenware possible chamberpot sherd. Found in Layer 2 of Square 940 in Building 5. Triangular sherd was 13.6 centimeters long along the top edge by about 8.8 cm along the broken lower edges. The lip had a depth of 6.6 cm and the body thickness was 0.8 cm. The pot had a green lead glaze on both the interior and exterior and incised decoration. Rim diameter of 24 cm. PR90 3031 Whiteware chamberpot fragment. Found in two pieces in Layer 1 of square 3031. A triangular-shaped part of the chamberpot rim, measuring 17.1 cm by 11.4 cm. The most interesting feature of this artifact is the decoration of yellow and pink flowers with green stems and leaves. Interior rim has two pink lines, and the exterior has one. Conclusions The archaeological evidence is thus consistent with the historical sources -- colonial Jamaica used much the same methods of human waste disposal as were current in contemporary England. During the "insanitary" 17th and 18th centuries, elimination was not seen as a major public health problem. Until the work of Louis Pasteur and John Snow in the 19th century, only the vaguest connection was understood between fecal contamination and disease. Open middens of raw sewage were still seen in modern cities until the early 20th century. Most towns relied on privies and chamberpots until the widespread adoption of the water closet. Despite its tropical climate, dense population, and unsuitable soil for proper cesspits, Port Royal was no exception. The evidence shows that the Jamaican "house of office" was much like contemporary English privies. However, there are strong indications that many -- if not most -- of the facilities in Port Royal relied on the use of chamberpots or buckets to handle the waste, rather than local pits. This follows from the sandy soil and very high water table under the town. The best-preserved outhouse from before the earthquake is built on a brick pavement, with no possibility of a cesspit beneath. The New Street privies also have brick floors. A few years after the catastrophe, nightsoil was being hauled away to open dunghills on the seaward side of the settlement. It seems almost inescapable to assume that this was also true before 1692. Further excavations at Port Royal may find privies associated with additional buildings, and reveal whether they have the same features as the outhouses already explored. One possibly significant sign would be the presence of multiple privies or multiple-user privies. These may be the mark of either an unusually large household or of a business. This was certainly true of the New Street tavern, and (as suggested elsewhere) may also have been true of Building 5. At this point, there is simply not enough data to enable firm conclusions. However, we can expect further excavations to remedy this situation. The historical sources suggest that virtually every dwelling and commercial establishment had its own house of office, so additional archaeological evidence should still be there to be found. There should also be a great many more chamberpots at Port Royal, since this useful item is among the most common colonial artifact, even at sites that could rely on pit privies. When enough chamberpots have been collected to provide a reasonable statistical sample, they may allow a view of where the Caribbean fitted into the world competition between Staffordshire and Rhineland potteries at the dawn of the Industrial Age. The chamberpots may also allow some economic analysis of their owners. Thus, further research will shed more light on what contemporaries regarded as merely a matter of convenience. Bibliography Beaudry, Mary C., et al. "A vessel typology for early Chesapeake ceramics: the Potomic Typological System." In Documentary archaeology in the New World, Mary C. Beaudry, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1988: 51-67. Brown, Maureen Jeanette. "An Archaeological Study of Social Class as Reflected in a British Colonial Tavern Site in Port Royal, Jamaica." Unpublished Master's Thesis. San Antonio: University of Texas at San Antonio, 1996. Clark, George R. II. "Swallowed Up" Earth: The Science of Our Planet, April, 1995 (Also published on the Internet). Colman, Penny. Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers. New York: Atheneum, 1994. Daunton, M. J. "Public Place and Private Space." In The Pursuit of Urban History, Derek Fraser and Anthony Sutcliffe, eds. London: Edward Arnold (1983), 212-33. Draper, Jo. Post-Medieval Pottery 1650-1800. Aylesbury, Bucks: Shire Books, 1984. Erdemgil, Selahattin. Ephesus: Ruins and Museum. Istanbul: Net (1986), 72. Hamilton, D.L. "Simon Benning, Pewterer of Port Royal." In Text-Aided Archaeology, Barbara J. Little, ed. Boca Raton: CRC Press (1992), 39-53. Harris, Mollie. Cotswold Privies. London: Chatto & Windus, 1984. Hume, Ivor Noël. Historical Archaeology. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969. _______________. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. New York: Borzoi Books, 1970. Kira, Alexander. The Bathroom. New York: Viking Press, 1976. Lambton, Lucinda. Chambers of Delight. London: Gordon Frasier, 1983. Mumford, Lewis. The City in History. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1961. Pawson, Michael and David Buisseret. Port Royal, Jamaica. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975. Pudney, John. The Smallest Room. London: Michael Joseph, 1954. Redknap, Mark. "A Lavatory Seat from Neatham, Hampshire," Britannia 7 (1976): 287-88. Reinhard, K. J., S. A. Mrozowski, and K. A. Orloski, "Privies, Pollen, Parasites and Seeds: A Biological Nexus in Historic Archaeology," MASCA Journal 4, no. 1 (1986), 31-5. Reyburn, Wallace. Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971. Reynolds, Reginald. Cleanliness and Godliness. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1946. Simmons, Joe J. III. Those Vulgar Tubes: External Sanitary Accomodations Aboard European Ships of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. College Station: Studies in Nautical Archaeology 1, 1991. Stewart, J. A View of the Past and Present State of the Island of Jamaica. New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969 (reprint of 1823 edition). Trapham, Thomas. A Discourse of the State of Health in the Island of Jamaica. London: R. Boulter, 1679. Unattributed, "A History of Plumbing in America." Plumbing and Mechanical Magazine, July 1987 (Also published on the Internet). Wallace, Jason. Unpublished Term Paper, Historical Archaeology Course at Texas A&M University, 1996. Ward, Edward. A Trip to Jamaica (1698), reprinted in Five Travel Scripts Commonly Attributed to Edward Ward. New York: Columbia University Press, 1933. Whitehouse, David. "Roman Glass Boats." Journal of Glass Studies 37 (1995): 133-35. Wright, Lawrence. Clean and Decent. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960. Glossary A-C Bucket privy A facility in which the user defecates or urinates into a bucket or other vessel placed beneath the toilet seat. The contents may be covered with ashes or sand at the time of use. From time to time, the contents of the vessel are removed and disposed of by burial, disposition in a midden, or by some other means. Cesspit, cesspool A pit, pool, or tank (often under a privy) into which human waste is deposited for temporary or permanent storage. Unlike the case of a septic tank, no sewage treatment is intended. The pit is either emptied periodically or abandoned when full. If the walls are permeable, untreated sewage seeps into the surrounding soil. Chamberpot "The eventual repository of the contents of [every other ceramic form]" (Beaudry, 67). .A relatively small vessel of metal, ceramic, or some other material used for the deposition of human waste, particularly urine. Particularly useful on a cold night when the privy is outdoors. Cholera A very dangerous disease (characterized by high fever, diarrhea, and dehydration) spread by feces-contaminated drinking water. Major epidemics during the 19th century killed hundreds of thousands of people. Cistern A pit dug in the ground for the storage of water, particularly rainwater. Closestool A piece of furniture with a lid and seat used with a chamberpot as an indoor bucket privy. D-F Delftware A form of ceramic developed in Delft, Holland, which uses a tin glaze to provide an attractive near-white appearance Dysentery, flux A number of diseases (caused by bacteria, protozoans, or other parasites) characterized by violent gastrointestinal upset, excessive or uncontrollable defecation, and dehydration. Usually spread by contaminated water or food. Earthenware A basic, inexpensive form of pottery. Eastern-style toilet A sanitary facility which the user -- male or female -- must stand or squat to use. Consists primarily of a hole in the floor. Effluent Liquid sewage (often treated to reduce its disease potential), including liquid human waste and liquid products of decomposition, together with dissolved and suspended solids. Flush toilet, water closet A human waste disposal facility, most recently invented by Sir John Harington which relies on a flow of water to remove the urine or feces deposited by the user. Today's toilets rely on a siphonic action in the bowl to pull the waste out from below. Earlier designs, such as the model forever associated with Thomas Crapper, relied on a strong rush of water from an overhead cistern to wash the waste away. Flux An older term for dysentery. G-I Garderobe An indoor facility which disposes of waste down a shaft or exterior port, either to a cesspit or directly into the environment. Commonly used in medieval castles and other structures. Gardy loo! Cry of Scottish housewives when dumping their cooking slops or chamberpots out an upper-floor window overlooking a public street or byway. Probably derives from French "Gardez l'eau," "Watch out for the water." Gong fermor Medieval term (derived from Anglo-Saxon) for a "nightman," one who cleans privies and hauls away their contents. House of Office A euphemistic name for an outhouse or privy. This was the common term used in documents from Port Royal. J-L Latrine, Latrina Latrina is the common Latin term for a toilet facility, now "Englished" as latrine. The Latrina at Ephesus in Asia Minor is one of the best preserved ancient sanitary facilities. Lavatories Primarily a "washing facility," such as a bath, but also used euphemistically for toilets. Liquefaction A process by which formerly-firm soil can turn into quicksand. This often happens during an earthquake, when wet sand grains that are loosely bound together flow over one another, depriving anything (and anybody) standing on the surface of all support. Liquefaction was a major factor in the destruction of Port Royal in 1692. Loo A British colloquialism for a toilet, perhaps derived from "Gardy loo!" M-O Midden A refuse heap. A privy midden is a heap of human waste, a dunghill, deposited either directly or by the emptying of privies or chamberpots. P-R Privy, outhouse A facility for human elimination, often located in a small separate outbuilding. Waste is generally deposited into either a removable vessel (a bucket privy) or a cesspool (a pit privy). Privy pit The cesspool used for the temporary or permanent storage of human waste from a pit privy. Under favorable soil conditions, the pit can be dug, used for a period, and then filled in while the privy is moved elsewhere. Rere-dorter The lavatory facility associated with a monastic establishment; generally situated behind the "dorter" (sleeping quarters). S-U Septic tank A modern device (consisting of a watertight concrete or fiberglass tank) used for the anaerobic decomposition of sewage. Human waste is flushed into the tank from water closets, together with the drainage from sinks, baths, and appliances. The treated effluent is then dispersed to the soil through a drain field, while the sludge is periodically removed (generally by a vacuum truck). A septic tank is an active treatment device, not a cesspool. Soak-away A pit where liquid waste and effluent is deposited for dispersion into the soil. Toilet A facility for the deposition of human waste through defecation or urination; includes both privies and water closets. Found in both Eastern-style and Western-style varieties. Urinal A place or device dedicated to the excretion of the liquid human waste generated by the kidneys. V-Z Water closet See Flush toilet. Western-style toilet A sanitary facility which allows the use of a sitting posture, as distinct from squatting, during defecation or female urination. Footnotes The following fall outside the main thread of the story concerning sanitation in 17th century Port Royal, Jamaica, but seem too appropriate to leave entirely aside. No need for special facilities There are many parts of the world in which it is still true that dedicated sanitary facilities are the exception, rather than the rule. The story is told of a Paris policeman approached by a tourist, who asked where he could find the nearest public convenience. The policeman quickly responded, "But, sir, there is all of France!" (Pudney, 40) Sir John Harington Harington was Queen Elizabeth's godson and step-nephew (his father's first wife having been one of Henry VIII's unintended byproducts). The drawings of his invention show all of the characteristics of the modern flush toilet. It was a truly brilliant accomplishment. Unfortunately, there were no respectable academic journals, or even plumbing magazines, to publish his discovery. Instead, Sir John wrote a book, The Metamorphosis of Ajax, full of some of the most puerile potty humor that has ever seen print. Nobody took his invention seriously (except the Queen, who had a water closet installed at Richmond shortly before her death). It took two centuries before Harington's discovery overcame its guilt by association (Reynolds, 76-80). Thomas Crapper Mr. Crapper did not invent the toilet. He did, however, receive nine patents between 1861 and 1907 (Colman, 63). Thomas Crapper's basic contribution to toilet design was the valveless flushing mechanism generally used with an overhead cistern (today's siphonic toilets have returned to the earlier design with a stopper). Mr. Crapper held Royal Warrants as "Sanitary Engineer" to Edward VII and George V, and designed the fixtures for Sandringham House. However, he was never knighted for his services. The story that "Sir Thomas Crapper" invented the toilet is a myth that was evidently spread during World War I, when many American soldiers' first encounter with a water closet involved a product of Crapper's firm. See generally Reyburn. Privies not uncommon in the 1950s. The story is told of the rural Englishman who was asked a question about the W.C. in a neighboring house for sale. Never having used a water closet himself, he mistook the question as referring to the local Wesleyan (Methodist) Chapel. "Well, sir, I don't go much myself. It is three miles down the road, and gets almighty cold in the winter. When I was last there six months ago, fifty people were crowded in and I had to stand up for four hours!" (Harris) Bad sanitation The connection between fecal contamination and disease remains obscure to some people. Two workers were on their way to lunch when one of them stopped off at a privy. After a very long time, his companion went looking for him and found him trying to fish his jacket out of the cesspit where it had fallen. "But Jack, you'll never be able to wear that thing again." "I know, but it's got my bread-and-cheese in the pocket!" (Harris) John Snow The incidence of cholera in the 19th century constituted one of the worst epidemics in Western history between the Black Plague and the Spanish Influenza. It was a mystery how the disease spread, since there was no apparent connection between many of the victims. The brilliant Dr. Snow discovered that the link was drinking water contaminated with the feces of prior victims. This discovery motivated the amazing growth of sewage and water treatment facilities in the later 1800s, and forced the disease to retreat to the undeveloped nations, whence it still sometimes emerges. ------------------------------------------ Last Modified: 1 December 1996 Christine A. Powell Nautical Archaeology Program Texas A&M University Home Page: http://nautarch.tamu.edu/