Environmental World History Questions
Medieval Urban Environments
Sanitation
Medieval cities were confined urban spaces, densely packed with people
Most townspeople lived in cramped conditions
Animals lived close to people
Town authorities sought to create a decent environment
Urban concerns included: street obstruction, fire, waste disposal
Towns may have reached the limits of the size that could be sustained by about 1300
The urban population could be fed in normal years, though special measures had to be taken when harvests were severely deficient
Towns offered people a way to make a living
Most medieval towns were located close to a body of water
Sewers were generally open ditches
Some medieval sewers were covered over by the high middle ages
In the high Middle Ages cities attempted to organize solid and liquid wastes removal
improper treatment of human waste could lead to disease, foul odors and a generally unpleasant environment
a common need to create a system for the proper disposal of human waste
Cities sought to alleviate the filthy sight and obnoxious odor that emanated from human waste
Public health was only really recognized in medieval London as an important issue mainly after the Black Death
In the middle ages it was generally believed that human waste was satisfactorily disposed of when:
1) it will not contaminate any drinking water supply;
2) it will not give rise to a nuisance due to odor or unsightly appearance;
3) it will not pollute or contaminate the waters of any bathing beach, or stream used for public, domestic water supply, or recreational purposes;
4) there will be adequate public facilities available for its disposal; and
5) its removal will be provided by services from the city and with little inconvenience for the individual
Roman London had underground sewers that all connected and emptied into the Thames and its tributaries
By the medieval period these underground passageways fell into disuse
Medieval sewers became open and public facilities were connected directly to streams and rivers
Medieval London had a few public latrines, one of which was located on London Bridge
Waste may also have been tossed directly into the Thames
London Bridge
Dirty rivers helped to spread disease
The city of London did not provide its citizens with adequate facilities for waste disposal
In 1357 a proclamation was issued forbidding anyone to throw any sort of waste into the Thames or any other waterway
A response to these city regulations was an increase in the construction of cesspools
Cesspits had building regulations
Private houses could have latrines
Waste from latrines could be channeled into city ditches
Waste was also dumped out of windows
The city desired that its citizens place their solid waste outside their doors on days when carts were scheduled to remove it
Privacy was more of a concern in the middle ages as opposed to that in the Roman world, for example
Public latrines also needed to be cleaned, particularly if they were not situated over a waterway. For this each London ward had its officially-employed "rayker"
An act in 1388 made it illegal to pollute the rivers, waters, ditches, and to keep the air fresh
in 1477 it was prohibited to build latrines over running water and some courses
Buildings that used cesspools for human waste needed to be emptied periodically, and it would seem that there were private businessmen who carried out these duties
From 1382 to 1419 the city of London began to keep an account of privy cleaning
In 1466 the city authorities granted John Lovegold a monopoly on cleaning the privies
These businessmen could then sell human waste to farmers as fertilizer
Other solutions for waste management were to dump waste into ditches, gutters, streets, streams and the Thames so that it would be taken away
Human waste thrown onto the streets, filling the ditches and waterways was not only a nuisance to odor and sight but also was easily accessible to insects and other vermin. These creatures were then able to carry the bacteria to humans, food and water
The Black Death is one good example of this and, though city officials recognized the dangers of human waste being open to the air, the problems of its disposal still plagued the city. Odor and sight remained a problem and this in tum proved dangerous to public health
London never had clean water because the wells and waterways from which they drew their water were continually polluted by human waste. Liquids seeped into the groundwater while solids were directly dumped into the waterways. The end result was contaminated water