Xylospongium

The Xylospongium is a device of antiquity, which is considered the forerunner of the modern toilet brush. It consists of a wooden stick (Greek ξύλον xylon, wood '), at the end of a sponge (Greek σπόγγος spongos, sponge ') is attached.

Handed inscriptions, is the expression of a fresco in the Baths of the Seven Sages in Ostia. Here the ancient visitors with reference ( u) taris xylosphongio was encouraged to use the toilet brush in the 2nd century.

In the written tradition, the Xylospongium is first mentioned in a letter of Claudius Terentianus to his father Claudius Tiberianus, which is preserved in a papyrus from the first quarter of the 2nd century. Therein C. Terentianus is a proverbial use of the term again.

The Roman philosopher Seneca reported in the middle of the first century of a Germanic gladiator who in the abortion of an amphitheater took his own life by driving to the insertion of a sponge stick in the throat.

End of the first century Martial describes in one of his epigrams a " miserable sponge on a dishonorable rod " with which the remains of a meal to be eliminated.

All primary sources imply an environmental context that suggests a use of Xylospongiums in ancient latrines, without explaining the precise handling.

In the older secondary literature there is often an interpretation of how to use the Xylospongiums to clean the buttocks. In the anxious of Lindsay and Patricia Watson Martial edition from 2003 as will be explained, this device was used " to wipe oneself after defecation ", and then in the gully that there was in most public toilets, for the next user been cleaned. Sigwart Peters went in 2011 also still by these Terms of Xylospongiums from. In an article in the Stuttgarter Zeitung on the history of the toilet Robin Szuttor described in detail in 2011, the Xylospongium had been carried out between the legs to clean the anus, and was then put in a water-filled bucket.

This thesis is based on the use of Xylospongiums However, according to Gilbert Wiplinger not reliable sources and should be regarded as sufficiently refuted. Wiplinger presented on the Frontinus Symposium Sanitas per aquam in 2009 a new theory on the use of Xylospongiums on which he also published in 2012. He favors a use of Xylospongiums to secondary cleaning antique abortions in a similar form, are used in today's modern toilet brush. 2010 was because the question posed in the context of the Nox Latina Viennensis whether the Romans " wiper " or " washers " were.

The discovery of numerous fabric scraps in an old septic tank in Herculaneum had the environmental archaeologist Mark Robinson suggests that these scraps were used instead of the commonly used today toilet paper to wipe.

Primary sources

• Claudius Terentianus, Michigan Papyri VIII, 29-30 Digitalisat
• Seneca, Epistulae morales 8, 70, 20
• Martial, Epigrammata 12, 48, 7

Secondary literature

• Richard Neudecker: The splendor of the latrine. On the change of public lavatories in the imperial city. Arrow -Verlag, Munich 1994 (Studies on the ancient city, Vol 1) ISBN 3-923871-86-4, pp. 36-37.
• Gilbert Wiplinger: The use of Xylospongiums - a new theory to the hygienic conditions in Roman latrines. In: SPA. SANITAS PER AQUAM. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Frontinus - technical and cultural history of the ancient Baths Aachen, 18th - 22nd March 2009. Peeters, Leiden 2012, ISBN 978-90-429-2661-5. pp. 295-304

Comments

• Archaeological technical term
• Roman culture
• Putzgerät
• History of Hygiene