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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 8134508" data-attributes="member: 6796661">There is a website dedicated to the history of sewers: <a href="https://www.sewerhistory.org/" target="_blank">The History of Sanitary Sewers</a>Sewers were as much about controlling water as they were about waste. Even small towns are concerned about avoiding flooding, redirecting water to fields, and so forth. In the aforementioned website, there is an article titled "<a href="http://www.sewerhistory.org/time-lines/tracking-down-the-roots-of-our-sanitary-sewers/" target="_blank">Tracking down the roots of our sanitary sewers</a>".Waste and even water can be a bigger challenge in large urban areas, so certainly it is easier to find examples in Babylon, Rome, etc. But I don't think the Orkney Islands had huge populations thousands of years ago when they built their systems: <a href="http://www.sewerhistory.org/photosgraphics/british-isles-england-scotland-ireland-orkney-islands/" target="_blank">British Isles (England, Scotland, Ireland, Orkney Islands) | The History of Sanitary Sewers</a> What's amazing to me is how recognizable much of our plumbing today would be to those who build drainage/sewage systems thousands of years ago. Materials are different, principles the same. "Many of the drains from 2000 BCE are still in beneficial service today on Crete." "The Royal Palace at Knossos had a latrine on the ground floor with a rooftop “overhead” water reservoir (which collected rainwater): the first flush toilet!? The toilet consisted of a wooden seat, earthenware “pan,” and the rooftop reservoir as a source of water." Copper pipes were used in aristocratic homes in Egypt and Palestine as early as 2000 BCE. Let pipes were used in Greece and Rome and would carry waste out of the city to fertilize fields.  There is a 900-year-old sewer in Guanzhou China still in use serving 300,000 people that still is able to handle heavy rains without backing up.In Europe, things back-tracked after the Romans left.  It is quite amazing how long the major cities of Europe took to reach the level of sanitation than existed in Rome, Greece, Egypt, Mohenjo-Daro had thousands of years earlier. But fantasy D&D need not hew to historical accuracy.  It is actually easier to picture D&D sewers by referencing ancient and non-European civilizations than anything in Europe during the medieval period. If your town is not to far from a major city, perhaps the sewer beneath it is part of public works to take waste and greywater out the city and into the country to be used in fields. Or maybe there are wealthy aristocrats who had sewers built in the town. Or maybe with the help of magic, the public works are more practical in smaller towns than they were in much of the real world until the industrial age.</blockquote>

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