Talk:Latrine

Architecture Low‑importance

	Architecture portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Architecture, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Architecture on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ArchitectureWikipedia:WikiProject ArchitectureTemplate:WikiProject ArchitectureArchitecture articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

International development Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject International development, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of international development, including such areas as appropriate technology, microfinance and social issues, on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.International developmentWikipedia:WikiProject International developmentTemplate:WikiProject International developmentInternational development articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.

Technology

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Technology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TechnologyWikipedia:WikiProject TechnologyTemplate:WikiProject TechnologyTechnology articles

Sanitation Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sanitation, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Sanitation on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SanitationWikipedia:WikiProject SanitationTemplate:WikiProject Sanitationsanitation articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

2004[edit]

"Latrina is the Latin term for "latrine." There were many public latrines in cities across the Roman Empire, and they were generally unisex. Men and women sat down together "cheek-to-cheek" on the seats (which had no partitions) and talked with one another as they went to the bathroom, but one example of the relative lack of a "privacy" ethic in the ancient world. After going to the bathroom, the users would wash their hands under a stream of running water which also flushed the toilet." Moved here from stub "Latrina". If any of this is true, work it into the entry. Wetman 02:44, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

A section on warfare[edit]

Warfare section seems a bit out of place. I suggest moving it to the talk page until it is rounded out a bit more than some random seeming fact.Pengortm (talk) 19:36, 1 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. I moved it below rather than deleting it as I was so tempted to do.

Warfare[edit]

The Jordanian army broke down stones from graves on the Mount of Olives and used them for army latrines.^[1] ^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

^ Alon, Amos (1995). Jerusalem: Battlegrounds of Memory. New York: Kodansha Int'l. p. 75. ISBN 1-56836-099-1. After 1967, it was discovered that tombstones had been removed from the ancient cemetery to pave the latrines of a nearby Jordanian army barrack.
^ City of Stone, Meron Benvenisti
^ Letter dated 5th March 1968 from the permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary General, Ref: S/8439, March 6, 1968. "In the ancient historic Jewish graveyard on the Mount of Olives, tens of thousands of tombstones had been torn up, broken into pieces or used as flagstones, steps and building materials in Jordanian military installations and civilian constructions. Large areas of the cemetery had been levelled and converted into parking places and petrol-filling stations."
^ Har-El, Menashe. Golden Jerusalem, Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 2004, pg. 126. ISBN 965-229-254-0. “The majority (50,000 of the 70,000) was desecrated by the Arabs during the nineteen years of Jordanian rule in eastern Jerusalem.”
^ Tessler, Mark A. A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Indiana University Press, 1994. pg. 329. ISBN 0-253-20873-4.

Merge latrine article with toilet article? I would say no[edit]

The question has been asked if the latrine article should be merged into the toilet article. I would say no. Reason: latrine has a different connotation to toilet (I tried to explain that in the article), and is also more related to "historic things" and "communal things". I think one day in the future, we will probably only have toilets and the word latrine might be phased out. So far it is still common in the term "pit latrine". So I would say this short article on latrines should stay.

If some people have more information about historical aspects of those Roman latrines or latrines during warfare, this could be added here.

I also saw the word latrine used in documents about prison camps, concentration camps and alike. Might be interesting to explore this a little bit further in this article (by someone else). EvM-Susana (talk) 08:55, 24 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Added information on slit-trench and shallow trench latrine[edit]

I have moved some information across that was formerly on the page for pit latrines: Slit-trench and shallow-trench latrines. It fits better here. We could also add more information on deep-trench latrines (use the same references as that provided for the shallow trench, i.e. publication from WEDC). EvM-Susana (talk) 10:14, 27 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Use content from the French version of the latrine article? Merge latrine and toilet?[edit]

There is now a note that there is material in the French version of Wikipedia on the French "latrine". I had a quick look at it. What they have put there seems to be what we have in the English version in the article on "toilet" (including dry toilet) or "pit latrine". If we find useful content, this could be moved across. However, the English page for latrine should in my opinion say small like it is now, and focussed on the historical usage of the word latrine and perhaps those army latrines and emergency latrines as mentioned above. I had a look in the German Wikipedia and there, "latrine" redirects to "toilet", i.e. no separate page for latrine (this Latin word appears more or less the same in English, German, French, Spanish). This would also be an option for the English version to do such a merger. I actually had argued against that abbove in this talk page in October 2014. But the question might be worth re-visiting if the two pages shouldn't be merged. See also talk page of [User:EChastain|EChastain] for related discussion. EvM-Susana (talk) 08:36, 28 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Unlike modern installations...[edit]

unlike modern installations, the Romans saw no need to provide privacy for individual users

May I question this statement? If there had been stall walls, probably they would have been of wood. They would have disappeared within a few years. --2A02:908:898:9780:113A:CE27:5B9A:FFE4 (talk) 21:22, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Alon, Amos (1995). Jerusalem: Battlegrounds of Memory. New York: Kodansha Int'l. p. 75. ISBN 1-56836-099-1. After 1967, it was discovered that tombstones had been removed from the ancient cemetery to pave the latrines of a nearby Jordanian army barrack.

[2] City of Stone, Meron Benvenisti

[UN-3] Letter dated 5th March 1968 from the permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary General, Ref: S/8439, March 6, 1968. "In the ancient historic Jewish graveyard on the Mount of Olives, tens of thousands of tombstones had been torn up, broken into pieces or used as flagstones, steps and building materials in Jordanian military installations and civilian constructions. Large areas of the cemetery had been levelled and converted into parking places and petrol-filling stations."

[4] Har-El, Menashe. Golden Jerusalem, Gefen Publishing House Ltd, 2004, pg. 126. ISBN 965-229-254-0. “The majority (50,000 of the 70,000) was desecrated by the Arabs during the nineteen years of Jordanian rule in eastern Jerusalem.”

[5] Tessler, Mark A. A History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Indiana University Press, 1994. pg. 329. ISBN 0-253-20873-4.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]