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Congratulations! You’ve successfully converted your old DeLorean/British police box into a fully operational time machine, and now you're ready to embark on an exciting journey. Where to first? Ancient Rome? Greece? Renaissance Florence?
We hate to burst your bubble, but the best choice might actually be ‘none of the above.’ While we often romanticize the past, the reality is that much of history wasn’t filled with awe, but with disgust.
10. Pompeii Was Essentially a Giant Trash Heap
Before it was buried under volcanic ash, Pompeii was the ancient version of the French Riviera. It was a getaway for wealthy Romans seeking relaxation after their empire-building efforts. But there was one major difference between ancient Pompeii and a modern vacation spot: Pompeii was absolutely overwhelmed with trash.
Instead of having a waste management system or even basic landfills, the people of Pompeii just discarded their garbage wherever they felt like it. Streets, alleys, and even burial grounds were filled with broken pottery, ruins of buildings, leftover food, and horse remains. Inside homes, things weren’t any better. Evidence shows that locals treated their houses as massive garbage dumps, with fossilized remains of spoiled food scattered on the floors and piled up next to drinking water.
According to Allison Emmerson from the University of Cincinnati, trash was simply a part of daily life in Pompeii. Even family tombs were seen as acceptable spots to dump waste. This likely contributed to the unbearable stench that permeated the city during the hot summer months.
9. The Vikings Struggled With Parasites
It’s no secret that Viking life was grueling. With the Vikings spending much of their time aboard ships navigating the harsh northern seas, engaged in one conquest after another, it’s hard to imagine their lives as anything but tough. But even the most jaded person might overlook one crucial fact: Viking guts were teeming with parasites.
Thanks to a lifestyle that involved living in close quarters with livestock, most Vikings were exposed to a host of nasty creatures from a very young age. By the time they became adults, their insides were crawling with parasites that would have made even H.P. Lovecraft shudder. Researchers who analyzed Viking feces discovered eggs indicating long-term infections with roundworms and liver flukes.
To make matters worse, there was evidence of whipworm. Discovered in Viking feces dating back to 1018, whipworm would have made the Vikings’ existence unbearable. In addition to causing severe diarrhea and foul-smelling flatulence, those infected could have suffered from painful bowel movements, stunted growth, and cognitive delays.
8. Medieval London Was Absolutely Horrendous in Terms of Smell
Imagine skipping the typical destinations and using your time machine to visit medieval London. You’d probably expect the city to be dirtier and smellier than it is today, but you might not anticipate just how much worse it would be. To put it simply, London during the Middle Ages reeked terribly. The streets were overrun with human waste, and people frequently discarded rotting food and animal guts in public, letting them decompose in the open. In some areas, this repulsive mixture was so deep that the streets were nearly impassable.
Things weren’t much better by the river. Butchers tossed spoiled meat into the Thames, and blood coagulated along the banks in the sun. By the 14th century, the stench had become so unbearable that the king had to ban animal slaughter within the city. As if that wasn’t enough, tanneries operated non-stop to boil leather, filling the air with a suffocating odor that permeated the entire city.
7. Renaissance Europe Was Infested With Syphilis
When you think of “Renaissance Florence,” you probably picture well-dressed men strolling through beautiful cities, unraveling mysteries, and inventing the scientific method. What doesn’t come to mind are syphilitic beggars writhing in pain in the streets, their faces decaying in front of horrified onlookers. But that was exactly the kind of scene Michelangelo or Da Vinci might have witnessed during their walks through town.
In 1495, a group of French soldiers returning from the New World brought back an unexpected souvenir. Known today as syphilis, the disease was the Renaissance's version of the AIDS crisis—only far more terrifying. The symptoms were horrifying. Weeping pustules would erupt on people’s faces, hair would fall out, and in the worst cases, flesh would rot away right down to the bone. With no hospitals or care facilities, those infected with the dreaded 'French disease' were left to suffer in public view.
As a result, Renaissance society lived in constant panic over the grotesque consequences of sexual activity. Accounts from the time are filled with a paralyzing fear of infection, and woodcuts depict grisly examples of the disease. Europe as a whole was either terrified, infected, or both.
6. Ancient Greek Wine Was Truly Disgusting
Wine was an essential part of life in ancient Greece. People wrote poems about it, had their own god of wine, and Homer even used it as a metaphor to describe everything from animals to the ocean. So, the first thing you’d do in ancient Athens is try this famed beverage, right? Only if you wanted to completely ruin your taste buds. Ancient Greek wine was absolutely revolting.
The problem was that no one had figured out how to preserve wine for long periods, so ancient winemakers resorted to all sorts of strange methods. It wasn’t uncommon to find resin or marble dust mixed into wine at the vineyard, with salt and lead being other common additives. Some vintners simply gave up fighting nature, leaving their wines outside to oxidize until they became breeding grounds for bacteria. As a result, wine was often either a thick, tar-like liquid we would consider undrinkable or a glass of bug-ridden vinegar.
As bad as all this sounds, it got even worse when it came time to actually drink the wine. Ancient Greeks would often dilute their wine with seawater to make it more 'drinkable.'
5. Personal Hygiene in the 18th Century Was Horrific
Imagine living in a society where people routinely fart in public, blow their noses into their hands, spit indoors, and relieve themselves in front of others. Sounds like an OCD nightmare, right? That’s exactly what you’d experience if you took a time-traveling trip to 18th-century England.
For most people, hygiene was a concept as foreign as advanced mathematics. The average person had breath that could strip paint, and social etiquette was practically non-existent. It wasn’t unusual to eat a meal with your hands, wipe them down your shirt, then fart loudly before spitting a wad of mucus onto the floor.
But what if you confined your visit to the homes of the upper class? Sorry, they were no better. After dinner, it was common for men to pull out a chamber pot and relieve themselves in front of their guests.
Even if you spent your entire vacation avoiding human contact, you'd still be surrounded by their revolting waste. Human waste was so widespread that any food, water, or milk you could find was likely contaminated in the most disgusting way possible.
4. Ancient Mesopotamia Was Infested With Pests
Similar to Pompeii and medieval London, ancient Mesopotamia lacked proper waste management and sanitation systems, resulting in an overwhelming number of pests. Unlike the situations in London or Pompeii, the Mesopotamians deliberately encouraged feral animals to help deal with the problem. These animals played an essential role in society: waste disposal.
To manage the mountain of refuse, Mesopotamian cities allowed feral dogs and scavenging pigs to roam the streets. This wasn't limited to just the poorer, outlying districts. Archaeological digs have found teeth and bones scattered all over, proving these animals were everywhere. Under the Hittite rule, feral pigs were even welcomed inside the king's palace.
Even worse, the sheer amount of garbage meant that virtually every inch of a typical Babylonian city was infested with large, fat rats, fleas, and other disease-carrying pests. Consequently, the constant threat of plague and a gruesome death loomed large, further worsened by the presence of harmful, food-borne parasites like trichinellosis.
3. Roman Toilets Were Absolutely Horrifying
If you're someone who has a hard time peeing in front of others, then be grateful you weren't around in ancient Rome. Back then, the term 'public restroom' was taken to an extreme. As many as 50 people would gather in a circle, doing their business in full view of one another. When they were done, they'd use a communal sponge, as filthy and disease-ridden as, well, a shared butt-wiper. Think that's the worst toilet experience? You haven't heard everything yet.
While Roman sewers were advanced for their time, they were nowhere near as effective as modern systems. Lacking U-bends, toilets emptied straight into dark drainage channels where insects and what *Discover Magazine* calls 'biting creatures' often emerged. With methane buildup, it was even possible for jets of flame to erupt from the holes, turning the simple act of using the toilet into the worst form of Russian roulette you could imagine.
Unsurprisingly, all this filth made Romans extremely cautious about using the toilet. Archaeological digs have revealed magic spells written on the walls to ward off demons, along with images of the goddess Fortuna meant to bring good luck. When your restroom visit could end with your backside being bitten or burned, you’d probably want all the luck you could get.
2. Toilet Paper Used To Be Terrifying
For those of us accustomed to indoor, flushing toilets and luxuriously marketed toilet paper like 'quilted' or 'extra comfort,' it can be hard to imagine the discomfort our ancestors had to endure. Just under a century ago, using the bathroom was far from a pleasant experience. A common method for cleaning up was using old newspapers or catalogs. The Farmer's Almanac even had a hole in it so it could be hung in outhouses. We can't really blame our grandparents for steering clear of toilet paper—until the 1930s, there was paper available that came with splinters.
In 1935, Northern Tissue (now Quilted Northern) capitalized on a huge market by advertising its toilet paper with the tagline 'Splinter-Free!' The success of the product shows that even as late as the time of FDR, many people feared that using the wrong kind of paper might result in painful splinters in some very sensitive areas. It’s only in the last 80 years or so that companies have managed to put this issue behind us.
1. Georgians Stuffed Their Mouths With Dead People’s Teeth
In 1815, two of the most powerful armies in the world clashed in the epic Battle of Waterloo, which claimed the lives of about 50,000 men. In addition to halting Napoleon’s progress and leaving a mark on European history, the battle also had a grotesque influence on one branch of medicine: dentistry.
Before the Battle of Waterloo, decayed teeth were one of the most dreaded health problems in British society. With no such thing as dental fillings or regular check-ups, poor dental health ruined many lives. However, after the battle, Europe suddenly found itself with thousands of fresh corpses—each with a mouth full of healthy teeth.
What followed was one of the most bizarre booms in product history. Dentures, made from the teeth of the dead, quickly became widely available. The Georgians went wild for them. For decades, people willingly wore the smiles of men killed on the battlefield in place of their own. It wasn’t until Claudius Ash started manufacturing porcelain teeth in the 1830s that this disturbing trend finally faded away.
