History Analysis / TheDungAges

It was TheBlackDeath (ironically) that signaled the death of this bathing culture: fear of pestilence closed the public baths, and had a detrimental effect on social conventions like changing one's clothing regularly and concern about body odor.

This led to the genuinely filthy hygiene of UsefulNotes/{{the Renaissance}} and the centuries following it: the spread of plague, syphilis, and the end of the Medieval Warm Period effectively killed the sauna culture everywhere in Europe outside the regions where it was practically a winter survival technique -- Scandinavia, mountainous areas, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. Europe really recovered only with the spread of the modern sanitation in the 19th century, although bathing (now private rather than communal) at least made a comeback during the reign of the obsessively fastidious UsefulNotes/LouisXIV. For a while, it was even fashionable for wealthy ladies to have their portraits painted in the bath.

Similarly, dental hygiene had been a common practice for thousands of years by this point, and continued to be so -- it's not difficult to make the connection between cleaning one's teeth regularly and avoiding bad breath and painful tartar buildup. While proper bristled toothbrushes would take time to spread beyond Central Asia, they were invented in this time period, and the basic concept of scrubbing and picking one's teeth with a stiff feather or frayed stick is mentioned [[OlderThanDirt as far back as Mesopotamian writings]]. Additionally, the sugar- and acid-related dental problems of our times were almost unheard-of, cavities being the worry of elders whose enamel had been worn down over decades by the grit from stone-ground grain and flour. Again, it was during the Renaissance, when sugar and flavorful acidic foods moved from exotic luxuries to common fare, that teeth became an endangered species among the major world trade powers of the day.

Another common misunderstanding is the era's typical lifespan being in the mid-30s. The average life ''expectancy'' was, but it was skewed downward by the high rate of infant and child mortality, as well as by the high percentage of mothers dying in childbirth. If you managed to survive your childhood and childbearing years, you had a fair chance of living into your 50s or 60s if not higher[[note]]Apparently, many centuries before the Middle Ages even started, reaching the age of seventy may have been considered something of a standard, witness the Bible (Ps 90:10): "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty"[[/note]].

The dung, however, was absolutely real -- in cities, at least. Remember that the overwhelming majority of the population was rural. Most medieval cities had a "Shit Creek" or something similarly named, where all the sewage and waste flowed to and was dumped, and the unbearable foulness of such cesspools was well-documented. Likewise, with no underground sewers, human waste was, at best, collected in open-air sewage canals, and at worst dumped into the street. Similarly, pack animals were necessary for moving goods through the city, and urine and manure of horses and other ungulates was certainly common on the unpaved streets. Obviously, this was much worse in the poorer, more densely populated areas of the cities, and these poor sanitation conditions contributed greatly to recurring disease in the middle ages. Pit latrines were possible to dig, but those of course filled up sooner or later, necessitating that they be emptied -- as in, someone had to go in there with a shovel and bucket and clean them out.[[note]]This was not usually necessary in rural areas, where pit latrines could be filled in when full and a new one dug some distance away. In cities, space was limited and there were a lot more people using the latrine, so filling it in for a new one was impractical.[[/note]] Animal dung could be used for agricultural purpose, however.

This led to the genuinely filthy hygiene of UsefulNotes/{{the Renaissance}} and the New Age following it: the spread of plague, syphilis, and the end of the Medieval Warm Period effectively killed the sauna culture everywhere in Europe outside the regions where it was practically a winter survival technique -- Scandinavia, mountainous areas, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. Europe really recovered only with the spread of the modern sanitation in the 19th century, although bathing (now private rather than communal) at least made a comeback during the reign of the obsessively fastidious UsefulNotes/LouisXIV. For a while, it was even fashionable for wealthy ladies to have their portraits painted in the bath.

In some respects, the Middle Ages were a rather clean era; the Roman bathing culture survived well into the 14th century and public saunas were commonplace everywhere in Europe. In rural areas away from the urban centers, people bathed regularly in ponds or streams.

The dung, however, was absolutely real -- in cities, at least. Remember that the overwhelming majority of the population was rural. Most medieval cities had a "Shit Creek" or something similarly named, where all the sewage and waste flowed to and was dumped, and the unbearable foulness of such cesspools was well-documented. Likewise, with no underground sewers, human waste was, at best, collected in open-air sewage canals, and at worst dumped into the street. Similarly, pack animals were necessary for moving goods through the city, and urine and manure of horses and other ungulates was certainly common on the unpaved streets. Obviously, this was much worse in the poorer, more densely populated areas of the cities, and these poor sanitation conditions contributed greatly to recurring disease in the middle ages. Pit latrines were possible to dig, but those of course filled up soonThe years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty;er or later, necessitating that they be emptied -- as in, someone had to go in there with a shovel and bucket and clean them out.[[note]]This was not usually necessary in rural areas, where pit latrines could be filled in when full and a new one dug some distance away. In cities, space was limited and there were a lot more people using the latrine, so filling it in for a new one was impractical.[[/note]] Animal dung could be used for agricultural purpose, however.

It was TheBlackDeath (ironically) that signaled the death of this bathing culture: fear of pestilence closed the public baths, and had a detrimental effect on social conventions like changing one's clothing regularly and concern about body odor. That effect might be familiar to those who experienced long Covid lockdowns.

Another common misunderstanding is the era's typical lifespan being in the mid-30s. The average life ''expectancy'' was, but it was skewed downward by the high rate of infant and child mortality, as well as by the high percentage of mothers dying in childbirth. If you managed to survive your childhood and childbearing years, you had a fair chance of living into your 50s or 60s if not higher.

The dung, however, was absolutely real -- in cities, at least. Remember that the overwhelming majority of the population was rural. Most medieval cities had a "Shit Creek" or something similarly named, where all the sewage and waste flowed to and was dumped, and the unbearable foulness of such cesspools was well-documented. Likewise, with no underground sewers, human waste was, at best, collected in open-air sewage canals, and at worst dumped into the street. Similarly, pack animals were necessary for moving goods through the city, and urine and manure of horses and other ungulates was certainly common on the unpaved streets. Obviously, this was much worse in the poorer, more densely populated areas of the cities, and these poor sanitation conditions contributed greatly to recurring disease in the middle ages. Pit latrines were possible to dig, but those of course filled up sooner or later, necessitating that they be emptied -- as in, someone had to go in there with a shovel and bucket and clean them out.[[note]]This was not usually necessary in rural areas, where pit latrines could be filled in when full and a new one dug some distance away. In cities, space was limited and there were a lot more people using the latrine, so filling it in for a new one was impractical.[[/note]] Animal dung could be used for agricultural purpose, however.