this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
868 points (98.7% liked)

Science Memes

11223 readers
3044 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (3 children)

@BertramDitore @Hegar
Running water and indoor plumbing was relatively common in the ancient world.

really ?
In 1920, only *** 1% of US homes** had indoor plumbing

https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2004/data/papers/SS04_Panel1_Paper17.pdf

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yeah, that has more to do with American social issues and lack of government support for the general population. Water engineering is expensive no matter where or when you are, and America is huuuge.

Plumbing was common in the ancient world in the Near East, Middle East, Mediterranean (Greece and Rome), and really wherever there were people. Keep in mind if you ask two different archaeologists, you'll get two slightly different answers, but it's pretty common knowledge that running water is not a modern invention.

Some sources (only a quick search, I don't have access to all the academic journals where you'd find the good stuff):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7004096/

https://ancientengrtech.wisc.edu/greece-overview/water-systems/

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/roman-aqueducts/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_technology

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1506/ <--this one is really cool, the Qanats are still fully functional today

Edit: fixed links

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

My favourite example:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2023/aug/chinas-oldest-water-pipes-were-communal-effort

A system of ancient ceramic water pipes, the oldest ever unearthed in China, shows that neolithic people were capable of complex engineering feats without the need for a centralised state authority, finds a new study by UCL researchers.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

this would be residential, if we're just talking "indoor plumbing" than i would assume it doesn't have to include residential spaces, and probably applies to things like public baths, and bathrooms/latrines or whatever for example.