The ancient baths of Pompeii were full of lead and human waste, and only refilled around once per day, according to a new study by the Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz.
Geoscientists investigated the baths' conditions by analysing limescale deposits in wells, pipes and pools, finding that they vastly improved after the installation of an aqueduct in the first century AD.
Beforehand, the water was lifted from wells deep underground. Mineral analysis suggests the water was contaminated with heavy metals – including lead, zinc and copper – as well as human waste such as sweat and urine, and likely replaced daily.
But when the aqueduct was built, the water came from natural springs with lower levels of heavy metals, and could be replenished more often.
“In the so-called Republican Baths – the oldest public bathing facilities in the city, dating back to pre-Roman times around 130 BC – we were able to prove through isotope analysis that the bathwater was provided from wells, and not renewed regularly,” said first author Dr Gül Sürmelihindi, from JGU’s Institute of Geosciences.
“Therefore, the conditions did not meet the high hygienic standards usually attributed to the Romans.”
Located in southern Italy, Pompeii became a Roman colony in 80 BC, before which it was occupied with the Samnite people. In 79 AD, nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the city in ash and rock.
The geoscientists found that the old Samnite bath system fetched water from deep wells using a machine powered by slaves, that operated like a treadwheel. But this groundwater had already been contaminated with volcanic deposits.
“There is a huge difference between the water-lifting machine and the aqueduct,” Sürmelihindi told BBC Science Focus.
She said the former could only fetch a little water – around 3,200 litres per hour – while the aqueduct could transport around 50 times this amount, although it also supplied water to other baths and fountains in Pompeii.
This would have flushed away more of the grime and sweat of the baths' visitors, but study co-author Professor Cees Passchier – another JGU geoscientist – told BBC Science Focus that the baths would still have become dirty when the water hadn’t been changed for a while.
“Visiting the baths must have been a noisy, lively and possibly smelly experience – more a social event than anything else,” he said.
Roman historian Alexander Meddings – who was not involved with this study – told BBC Science Focus that the ancient baths would have been “pretty grim by today’s standards,” even with the aqueduct.
“Bathers would have been polluting the water with a whole array of festering wounds, peeing in the pools, sweating after their workouts and scraping off their dead skin,” he said. “I expect a fairly common sight would have been a cloudy, floating layer of scum.
“On some level, the Romans knew that bathing was bad for them, and many writers reflected on the irony of seeking health at a place where people went to marinate in other people’s goo.”
The study authors are currently undergoing further DNA analysis of the limescale deposits, which they hope will reveal even more information about the conditions of these baths.
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