INTERNATIONAL

One of the world's oldest known flush toilets unearthed in China

Source: HT News Desk Feb-24-2023 3 min read

The manual toilet along with a bent flush pipe, were discovered in the ruins of a palace in Yueyang, the former capital of Qin State.

A major archaeological find in China has sparked excitement among the people worldwide- broken parts of a 2,400-year-old lavatory, found at an archaeological site in the Chinese city of Xi'an on what may be referred as the world's oldest known flush toilet.

According to the report by China Daily, the manual toilet along with a bent flush pipe, were discovered in the ruins of a palace in Yueyang, the former capital of Qin State. The researchers dubbed the toilet as a "luxury object" and was thought to have been inside the palace, with a pipe leading to an outdoor pit and the servants probably poured water into the toilet every time it was used.

The upper half of the toilet was not found during the excavation so the archaeologists couldn't confirm whether the people sat on it or squatted over it, the report added.

Liu Rui, a researcher at the Institute of Archeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who was part of the excavation team, believes that the toilet may date back to the Warring States period (475-221 BC) and likely been reserved for high-ranking officials during that time.

Rui said, "It is the first and only flush toilet to be ever unearthed in China. Everybody at the site was surprised, and then we all burst into laughter." He further added, "The flush toilet is concrete proof of the importance the ancient Chinese attached to sanitation."

Details of the discovery were published last week, offering a rare insight into the country's ancient ruling elite. Archaeologists are currently analyzing soil samples collected from the toilet in hope of determining what people ate during that time. So far, the soil samples have only yielded traces of fertilizers used by farmers during the Han Dynasty, the report added.

Before this newly announced discovery, the first manual flush toilet was believed to have been invented by English courtier John Harington for Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century.