Oldest sewer system

[insider]

What culture or country has the oldest sewer system?

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Ah, that would probably be Harappa and Mohenjodaro in India.

http://www.investindia.com/newsite/ancient/ancient.htm

The artefacts unearthed from these sites represent a homogeneous cultural mosaic exemplified also in the famous sites of Harappa and Mohenjodaro on the banks of the river Sindhu (Indus). Radiocarbon dating of these sites and occurrence of inscriptions on seals, establishes that the civilisation matured between 2750 to 1500 B.C. and had contacts with the Mesopotamian civilisation (on the Tigris-Euphrates rivers).

The civilisation was distinguished by an advanced level of urban planning, use of kiln-fired bricks, layout of streets in cardinal directions at right angles, multi-storeyed buildings, use of ring-stones for load-bearing pillars, wells, capped stone sewer lines with inspection traps, remains of shops and substantial structures which could have been used as granaries or public-bathing places which could be entered by steps.

[Pink]

And where is Elias Howe in that story?

[evilhanz]

There are older systems. From http://www.swopnet.com/engr/jones/leaksewer.html

It was long thought that sewers in the Indus valley, circa 2500 BC were the oldest, but excavations in the Orkney Islands (Skara Brae) have shown primitive drainage systems dated about 3000 BC.

The Minoan city of Knossos sported an advanced plumbing and sewer system sometime after 3000 BC. Here’s everything you wanted to know about the history of plumbing on Crete: http://www.theplumber.com/crete.html

The most unique architectural and engineering feats in Minoan life were the sewer and drain systems, which, since their discovery, have been unrivaled until modern times.

However, the Sumerians, and Egyptians seem to have had some sort of hydrological systems in place between 6000 and 3000 BC, closer to 3000 BC. Everything I’ve read suggests that the first complex settlements arose between 3500 and 3000 BC in Sumer. So, I would guess Babylon had the earliest.

History of ancient plumbing and drainage:
Fixed Link

[Edited by Coldfire on 01-12-2001 at 04:31 AM]