Sewage Collection System

Archaeologists provide valuable information about the design of ancient cities. The city of Rome was not the first to construct buildings and structures for urban sanitation. The excavations of ancient cities have revealed equipment destined to manage waste and wastewater, with fully integrated sewage collection systems. The site of Chatal Hüyük (Çatalhöyük), in the Konian plain of Anatolia (in Turkey) had public dump sites covered in oven ash to neutralize odors (6th millennium b.c.e.). The Sumerians (4th millennium b.c.e.) created a system of irrigation and wastewater disposal. This huge sewer ran through the cities of Lower Mesopotamia. Around 2500 b.c.e., cities of the Indus Valley civilization, especially Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, boasted a sewer system that drained into the Indus. A similar system can be found in Knossos, Crete, draining into the Kairatos. Houses in the Indus Valley were equipped with bathrooms and wash houses, floors were made of tilted slabs for drainage, and a gutter ran along a sealed wall leading to the street sewer.

Far before Rome and its empire, different systems of water as a means of evacuation and purging [Page 802]existed. Sewage networks of the 21st century are variants of this universal principle. The Egyptians, for example, opted for the transport of fecal material in clay amphorae, which was then collected regularly and used as fertilizer.

In Jerusalem, the Kidron Valley served as a dumping ground for garbage from the holy city. Raw sewage was reserved for composting, while solid waste was incinerated in a perpetually lit hearth.

Athens was an exception to this urbanization norm, with its unpaved streets that quickly becoming muddy and dusty. The capital of Attica did not adopt a garbage disposal system until the 5th century b.c.e. It was not until the 4th century b.c.e. that Aristotle mentioned the work of the Astynoms, official employees who managed the road and waterways networks and were responsible for preventing dumping into street gutters and ensured garbage removal. Pergamum, the ancient city of Mysia, capital of the kingdom of Attalides from 282 to 133 b.c.e., was an active center of Hellenistic civilization before being bequeathed to the Romans by Attalus III. Here, the rules of urban road management, water fountains, water mains, and sewers were strict and under the responsibility of the Astynoms.