Before toilet paper, humanity relied on sponges, stones, and sticks for personal hygiene.
In short: Modern toilet paper is a relatively recent invention for much of the world. Before its mass adoption in the 20th century, people improvised with whatever was available, from ceramic shards and pebbles to communal sponges on sticks. Discover the surprisingly diverse and ancient history of how we cleaned ourselves.
While toilet paper originated in China around the 6th century AD, reaching an annual production of ten million packages in Zhejiang province by the 14th century, the rest of the world relied on various alternatives for centuries. In ancient Rome and Greece, individuals used 'pessoi'—small, smooth pebbles or broken pieces of ceramic—to clean themselves. These tools are even depicted on a 2,700-year-old drinking cup. Another Roman device, the 'tersorium,' consisted of a sponge attached to a stick, which was soaked in salt water or vinegar. Archaeologists remain divided on whether these were intended for personal use or for cleaning the latrines themselves.
Across the ancient Silk Road in China, researchers have unearthed 'hygiene sticks' dating back 2,000 years. These bamboo or wooden implements were wrapped in cloth, and microscopic analysis of samples found in 1992 confirmed they were contaminated with human intestinal parasites. Similar tools were historically utilized in Japan, where some Zen traditions even referenced the 'cleaning stick' in koans. Meanwhile, in the Western world, the transition to paper was slow. Before Joseph Gayetty introduced his medicated paper for the water closet in 1857, Americans frequently improvised with corn cobs, newspaper, and even pages from the Sears mail-order catalog.
The cultural divide regarding hygiene remains significant today, with many in the Middle East and Asia preferring to use water. The adoption of toilet paper in the West was not merely a technological shift but a gradual social one, only becoming standard alongside the rise of indoor plumbing in the 1900s. Even then, the commodity has been a lightning rod for anxiety; in 1973, Japanese citizens engaged in mass hoarding due to fears of economic instability, a phenomenon that briefly caused panic in the United States as well. Whether through water, sticks, or paper, the history of the bathroom reflects deep-seated cultural norms and the persistent human need for cleanliness.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: What Did People Use for Wiping Before Toilet Paper?
- Also: What did people do before toilet paper?
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