A Short History of Showering

Personal hygiene hasn’t always been an integral part of grooming, yet the need to clean oneself easily and quickly was as pressing in ancient times as it is today. Bathing in a tub was cumbersome, so those who could bathed under waterfalls. These were the first showers used by man. The first man-made showers that provided the privilege of bathing in the privacy of one’s homes dates back to the time of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. These were generally enjoyed by the wealthy because it involved having someone—a slave in most cases—pouring jugs of water from above. There are wall paintings in temples and buildings showing how servants bathed ancient Egyptian queens and members of the royal family. Excavations of wealthy homes in Thebes, El Lahun, and Amarna found stone-lined chambers equipped with sloped floors that allowed bath water to drain. A 19th century woodcut reproduction depicting an ancient Egyptian woman bathing with the assistance of her female attendants in Thebes, Egypt. The ancient Greeks had indoor showers at gymnasiums which they installed through advances in aqueducts and plumbing. Jets of cold water cascaded from the ceiling while bathers stood under it. The ancient Romans, like the Greeks, too had showers in their bathhouses that can still be found all around the Mediterranean and in modern-day England. After the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity, public bathing fell out of favor, especially the mixing of the sexes because bathing naked in front of the opposite sex enticed lust, which according to Christianity was sin. While public baths fell out of use in Mediaeval times, contrary to popular belief, sanitation did not. Indeed, the crusaders brought soap back from the far East to Europe, and soapmaking first became an established trade during the so-called “Dark Ages”. What was lost was the sophisticated water and sewage systems developed by the Greeks and the Romans.