Prehistory

Skara Brae a Neolithic village in Orkney, Scotland with home furnishings including water-flushing toilets 3180 BC–2500 BC

During the Neolithic, humans dug the first permanent water wells, from where vessels could be filled and carried by hand. Wells dug around 6500 BC have been found in the Jezreel Valley. The size of human settlements was largely dependent on nearby available water.

A primitive indoor, tree bark lined, two-channel, stone, fresh and wastewater system appears to have featured in the houses of in Skara Brae, from around 3000 BCE, along with a cell-like enclave in a number of houses, that it has been suggested may have functioned as an early indoor toilet.

Indus Valley Civilization

Further information: Sanitation in the Indus Valley Civilization

A large well and bathing platforms at Harappa, remains of the city's final phase of occupation from 2200 to 1900 BC.

The Indus Valley Civilization in Asia shows early evidence of public water supply and sanitation. The system the Indus developed and managed included a number of advanced features. A typical example is the Indus city of Lothal (c. 2350 BCE). In Lothal all houses had their own private toilet which was connected to a covered sewer network constructed of brickwork held together with a gypsum-based mortar that emptied either into the surrounding water bodies or alternatively into cesspits, the latter of which were regularly emptied and cleaned.

The urban areas of the Indus Valley civilization included public and private baths. Sewage was disposed through underground drains built with precisely laid bricks, and a sophisticated water management system with numerous reservoirs was established. In the drainage systems, drains from houses were connected to wider public drains.

The earliest evidence of urban sanitation was seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and the recently discovered Rakhigarhi of Indus Valley civilization. This urban plan included the world's first urban sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets.

Devices such as shadoofs and sakias were used to lift water to ground level. Ruins from the Indus Valley Civilization

like Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan and Dholavira in Gujarat in India had settlements with some of the ancient world's most sophisticated sewage systems. They included drainage channels, rainwater harvesting, and street ducts. Stepwells have mainly been used in Indian subcontinent. The earliest covered sewers uncovered by archaeologists

are in the regularly planned cities of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Wastewater reuse activities

Wastewater reuse is an ancient practice, which has been applied since the dawn of human history, and is connected to the development of sanitation provision. Reuse of untreated municipal wastewater has been practiced for many centuries with the objective of diverting human waste outside of urban settlements. Likewise, land application of domestic wastewater is an old and common practice, which has gone through different stages of development.

Domestic wastewater was used for irrigation by prehistoric civilizations (e.g. Mesopotamian, Indus valley, and Minoan) since the Bronze Age (ca. 3200-1100 BC). Thereafter, wastewater was used for disposal, irrigation, and

fertilization purposes by Hellenic civilizations and later by Romans in areas surrounding cities (e.g. Athens and Rome).^[9] Moreover, in China, use of human excreta for fertilizing agricultural crops has been practiced since ancient time.

Bronze Age

Ancient East Asia Ancient China

A Chinese ceramic model of a well with a water pulley

system, excavated from a tomb of the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) period

Some of the earliest evidence of water wells are located in China. The Neolithic Chinese discovered and made extensive use of deep drilled groundwater for drinking. The Chinese text The Book of Changes, originally a divination text of the Western Zhou dynasty (1046 -771 BC), contains an entry describing how the ancient Chinese maintained their wells and protected their sources of water.

Archaeological evidence and old Chinese documents reveal that the prehistoric and ancient Chinese had the aptitude and skills for digging deep water wells for drinking water as-as early as 6000 to 7000 years ago. A well excavated at the Hemedu excavation site was believed to have been built during the Neolithic era. The well was caused by four rows of logs with a square frame attached to them at the top of the well. 60 additional tile wells southwest of Beijing are also believed to have been built around 600 BC for drinking and irrigation. Plumbing is also known to have been used in East Asia since the Qin and Han Dynasties of China.

Ancient Europe Ancient Greece

The ancient Greek civilization of Crete, known as the Minoan civilization, was the first civilization to use underground clay pipes for sanitation and water supply. Their capital, Knossos, had a well-organized water system for bringing in clean water, taking out waste water and storm sewage canals for overflow when there was heavy rain. It was also one of the first uses of a flush toilet, dating back to 18th century BC. The Minoan civilization had stone sewers that were periodically flushed with clean water. In addition to sophisticated water and sewer systems they devised elaborate heating systems. The Ancient Greeks of Athens and Asia Minor also used an indoor plumbing system, used for pressurized showers. The Greek inventor Heron used pressurized piping for fire-fighting purposes in the City of Alexandria. The Mayans were the third earliest civilization to have employed a system of indoor plumbing using pressurized water. An inverted siphon system, along with glass covered clay pipes, was used for the first time in the palaces of Crete, Greece. It is still in working condition, after about 3000 years.

Ancient Rome

Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct in France. In ancient Rome, the Cloaca Maxima, considered a marvel of engineering, disgorged into the Tiber. Public latrines were built over the Cloaca Maxima,

The Roman Empire had indoor plumbing, meaning a system of aqueducts and pipes that terminated in homes and at public wells and fountains for people to use. Rome and other nations used lead pipes; while commonly thought to be the cause of lead poisoning in the Roman Empire, the combination of running water which did not stay in contact with the pipe for long and the deposition of precipitation scale actually mitigated the risk from lead pipes.

Roman towns and garrisons in the United Kingdom between 46 BC and 400 AD had complex sewer networks sometimes constructed out of hollowed-out elm logs, which were shaped so that they butted together with the down-stream pipe providing a socket for the upstream pipe.

Ancient Near East Mesopotamia

The Babylonians introduced the world to clay sewer pipes around 4000 BCE, with the earliest examples found in the Temple of Bel at Nippur and at Eshnunna, Babylonia.

Ancient Persia

Main article: Traditional water sources of Persian antiquity