Mosaics and Sewer Systems
400 views · Published 16 November 2015 · 5:01 · Indexed 11 October 2026
Channel: mochico555 · 2015 · Education
Made by Team 6 of History 1014
Transcript:
In today’s day and age, we don’t talk about the sewer system on a daily basis. And it’s a good thing we are not because it means that for the majority of the time, our sewer system is working efficiently and is not causing any major problems. But it was not like this before. Going back many years to the Harappan Civilization and civilizations after, we can see that the sewer system was not as advanced as it is today, it caused a lot of problems, and it took a long time before it became the system we know today.
During the Harappan Civilization, there is evidence of a sewer system that consists of the sewage going underneath the streets and being drained into large pits that were located outside the city walls (Duiker and Spielvogel, 2015, p. 49-50). This could even be considered an advanced system of containing the sewage since it was underground and went outside the city, not staying inside on the streets. We do not know how the sewage was placed underground or how it flowed into the pits outside the walls but what we do know is that the Harappans created a system of disposing of the sewage from the living quarters.
Europe during the Medieval times, however, was not as advanced as the Harappan Civilization. The Medieval towns were nicer than the Harappan living conditions in appearance but they were not nicer in terms of sewer systems. The Medieval towns were very populated and impacted and wastes were just thrown out on the streets. There is no evidence of any system installed that was responsible for taking the sewage outside the city, therefore, the city smelled like animal and human wastes (Duiker and Spielvogel, 2015, p. 396-397).
Let’s move onto another early civilization that created an elaborate and advanced sewer system. The Minoan Civilization was located on the island of Crete, which is an island of Greece. This civilization formed a remarkable system for water management. Not only did they manage the wastewater sewage but they also created a system for storm water, which was greatly appreciated in times of drought. Although they did not consider bathrooms and sewers necessary, they did consider them convenient, so many cities had the systems in place. The Palace of Minos had a underground channel that was created out of stone and outlined in cement. In this channel, waste and water from many different quarters throughout the palace, came together and flowed down a slope to one side outside the palace. They did not have the waste in the streets like the Medieval towns did (Angelakis, 2005, p. 210- 220).
Speaking of Greece, they did not only have a good sewer system, they were also were talented in the art of Mosaic flooring. What is a mosaic floor? Mosaic floors are an art of décor. It consists of applying a coarse layer of either cement or plaster on the ground level. On top of this coarse layer, a thinner and finer quality of the same source (cement or plaster) was placed. Pebbles were then placed above in patterns and designs. For example, mosaics were greatly used with andirons. Andirons are the metal support for where wood is burned, like a fireplace. The center of this fireplace was beautifully covered in mosaic fashion (Robertson, 1965, p. 72-89). Mosaic floors were usually done with pebbles and the earliest evidence of this, dates back to the late 5th century BC. The pebble mosaic floors started in palaces and main public buildings and slowly houses and other buildings began using this type of décor as well (Westgate, p.93-115).
Sewer systems and mosaic floors are two very different areas of civilizations. One has to do with the sanitation of the area and the other has to do with the appearance and presentation of rooms. They both originated in the ancient civilizations but are still in effect to this day. Both systems have grown and evolved over the years and the final product is not what it started off as.
Bibliography:
Angelakis, A.N,D Koutsoyiannis, and G Tchobanoglous. 2005. Urban Wastewater and Stormwater Technologies in Ancient Greece. Water Research. 39, no. 1: 210-220.
Duiker, William J., and Jackson J. Spielvogel. World History. 8th ed. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2015.
Robertson, Martin. 1965. “Greek Mosaics”. The Journal of Hellenic Studies 85. The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies: 72–89. doi:10.2307/628810.
Westgate, Ruth. “Greek Mosaics In Their Architectural And Social Context.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies: 93-115.
