Ancient Rome is well known for its advanced water systems and sanitary facilities, including public baths and toilets. But new research suggests that the first baths built in Pompeii may not have been particularly comfortable, as the dirty, contaminated water was changed only once a day.
“It is very likely that the bathing experience in this small bathing facility was probably not hygienic and therefore not very welcoming,” study lead author Gül Schurmelihindi, a geoarchaeologist at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, told Live Science in an email.
To investigate the composition of the water supply, Sürmelihindi and colleagues analyzed a compound called calcium carbonate preserved in the husk of the Republican Baths in Pompeii. Their study was published in the journal PNAS on Monday (January 12).
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The researchers wrote in their study that public baths were an important part of Roman culture, and as the Roman Empire expanded, bathing culture evolved as well. At the height of the Roman Empire, the Romans “built long-distance aqueducts for daily bathing and ablution experiences,” Shurmelhindi said.
However, the situation was different in the earliest baths built in Pompeii, which were used from 130 to 30 BC during the Roman Republic. Before the city built the aqueduct, the bath facilities were filled with water from wells and cisterns via a single water pump operated by enslaved people.
“Water could only be replenished once a day,” Surmelhindi said. “In this environment, we would expect the water to be less clean, especially before the bath water is fresh again.”
To investigate the composition of bath water during this period, researchers studied samples of calcium carbonate, a mineral form of calcium. Calcium carbonate is formed when calcium ions in hard water react with carbonate ions and is responsible for the limescale (hard, chalk-like deposits) that builds up in kettles, boilers, and pipes.
The researchers found that carbonate from the public baths had a significant decrease in carbon isotopes (changes in elements with different numbers of neutrons) between the wells that supplied the water and the hot pools where people bathed. The lowest carbon isotope values were found in areas where water had been drained, which means the main cause is likely to be “microbial activity and the introduction of organic carbon from human waste (sweat, sebum, urine, bathing oils, etc.),” the researchers wrote.
“These baths were an experience unlike any other in modern times,” study co-author Cies Passier, a geoarchaeologist at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, told Live Science via email. “People didn’t use soap, they used olive oil to scrub the dirt off, and some of that oil fell into the water.”
The water in the heated pool at the Republic Baths showed “high levels of contamination with human waste” and was not regularly replenished, suggesting “poor sanitary conditions for bathers in Pompeii,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers also investigated heavy metal contamination in the bathtub by analyzing trace elements left behind in the bathtub. The research team found elevated levels of lead at Republic Baths. Lead is a toxic element that was likely introduced through the lead pipe system in the bathhouse. However, over time, calcium carbonate may have gradually deposited on the pipes, reducing lead levels in the water.
It’s unclear whether the murky water kept people away.
“Everyone bathed together, regardless of social class, and the prices were cheap,” Passier said. But if the water really smelled bad, he says, there would be no customers in the bathhouse. “People probably didn’t spend a lot of time in the hot pools. They were small, so most of their time was spent sitting in the warm air of the bath and having conversations,” he says.
Pompeii Quiz: How much do you know about the Roman city destroyed by Mount Vesuvius?
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