Dr Colin Runeckles
@colinruneckles.bsky.social
Researcher into urbanism & housing:
Ancient (@OU_Classics) - currently writing a book on non-elite housing
Modern (Writer, Speaker, Treasurer - @ilfordhistory.bsky.social
Likes music. A lot of music. Can often be found at Cafe Oto.
Ancient (@OU_Classics) - currently writing a book on non-elite housing
Modern (Writer, Speaker, Treasurer - @ilfordhistory.bsky.social
Likes music. A lot of music. Can often be found at Cafe Oto.
6 years to the day since I saw the expanded AEoC at the Barbican for their 50th anniversary gig.
And a very long time since I first saw them at the Roundhouse in 1982.
And a very long time since I first saw them at the Roundhouse in 1982.
November 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM
6 years to the day since I saw the expanded AEoC at the Barbican for their 50th anniversary gig.
And a very long time since I first saw them at the Roundhouse in 1982.
And a very long time since I first saw them at the Roundhouse in 1982.
And I've woken up to find that someone in that Wales is using my BT log-on to watch and therefore I can't.
And Crawley out for a pair? How very unsurprising...
And Crawley out for a pair? How very unsurprising...
November 22, 2025 at 7:55 AM
And I've woken up to find that someone in that Wales is using my BT log-on to watch and therefore I can't.
And Crawley out for a pair? How very unsurprising...
And Crawley out for a pair? How very unsurprising...
I was pretty amazed to find that my first gig for them at Oto was in 2017 - from playing one show reasonably well attended to four nights sold out says a lot!
November 21, 2025 at 11:59 AM
I was pretty amazed to find that my first gig for them at Oto was in 2017 - from playing one show reasonably well attended to four nights sold out says a lot!
So I did look up some sources yesterday afternoon i the ICS and have created another thread.
bsky.app/profile/coli...
bsky.app/profile/coli...
A thread about the 'sponge on a stick'.
The only ancient sources appear to be from Seneca and Martial (well he would mention it wouldn't he?)
Note that word xylospongium in that article I posted up yesterday - doesn't exist. Not in either source, not in Lewis & Short or the PHI Latin Texts.
1/
The only ancient sources appear to be from Seneca and Martial (well he would mention it wouldn't he?)
Note that word xylospongium in that article I posted up yesterday - doesn't exist. Not in either source, not in Lewis & Short or the PHI Latin Texts.
1/
November 21, 2025 at 10:33 AM
So I did look up some sources yesterday afternoon i the ICS and have created another thread.
bsky.app/profile/coli...
bsky.app/profile/coli...
So, taking that all in...the jury seems to be out as to how widespread the use of the sponge on a stick was. Would the elite have had their own? Almost certainly at home (assuming they didn't get their slave to do it for them...) Would they even have used the communal toilets when out anyway?
Fin
Fin
November 21, 2025 at 10:32 AM
So, taking that all in...the jury seems to be out as to how widespread the use of the sponge on a stick was. Would the elite have had their own? Almost certainly at home (assuming they didn't get their slave to do it for them...) Would they even have used the communal toilets when out anyway?
Fin
Fin
And the other one was the edited volume about Roman toilets. This section was from ch. 7. by Petznek, Radbauer. Sauer, and Wilson.
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3/
November 21, 2025 at 10:32 AM
And the other one was the edited volume about Roman toilets. This section was from ch. 7. by Petznek, Radbauer. Sauer, and Wilson.
3/
3/
I looked at Barry Hobson who has also written a monograph about toilets in Pompeii.
2/
2/
November 21, 2025 at 10:32 AM
I looked at Barry Hobson who has also written a monograph about toilets in Pompeii.
2/
2/
And another!
Stokes 5-24!
Stokes 5-24!
November 21, 2025 at 9:46 AM
And another!
Stokes 5-24!
Stokes 5-24!
And Stokes has another!
121-8.
What a day!
121-8.
What a day!
November 21, 2025 at 9:42 AM
And Stokes has another!
121-8.
What a day!
121-8.
What a day!
Well I have but I do have a section on public health in the thesis-soon-to-be-well-maybe not that soon-book. So...
November 20, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Well I have but I do have a section on public health in the thesis-soon-to-be-well-maybe not that soon-book. So...
Or maybe I'll look in Koloski-Ostrow's Roman Toilets: Their Archaeology and Cultural History as well...
November 20, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Or maybe I'll look in Koloski-Ostrow's Roman Toilets: Their Archaeology and Cultural History as well...
No, and the online Lewis & Short does not appear to have an entry for xylospongium. I'll take a look at the ICS copy this afternoon.
alatius.com/ls/index.php...
alatius.com/ls/index.php...
Lewis and Short
alatius.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:24 AM
No, and the online Lewis & Short does not appear to have an entry for xylospongium. I'll take a look at the ICS copy this afternoon.
alatius.com/ls/index.php...
alatius.com/ls/index.php...
Not certain but I think the literary evidence only went as far as the suicide recorded in Seneca's Epistles.
alphahistory.com/pastpeculiar...
alphahistory.com/pastpeculiar...
64AD: Suicide by toilet brush
Writing around 64AD the Roman philosopher Seneca recalled the suicide of a German slave - who suffocated by shoving a toilet brush down his throat.
alphahistory.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Not certain but I think the literary evidence only went as far as the suicide recorded in Seneca's Epistles.
alphahistory.com/pastpeculiar...
alphahistory.com/pastpeculiar...
I've had a British Newspaper Archive sub for a few years and dumped FMP as soon as Ancestry got the 1921 Census as I thought FMP's way of displaying it was dire - no idea how many Districts there were in an area, and where you were within the District. At the end? Middle? No idea!
November 20, 2025 at 10:48 AM
I've had a British Newspaper Archive sub for a few years and dumped FMP as soon as Ancestry got the 1921 Census as I thought FMP's way of displaying it was dire - no idea how many Districts there were in an area, and where you were within the District. At the end? Middle? No idea!
Daddy's doing Sister Sally
Grandma's dying of cancer now
The cattle all have brucellosis
We'll get through somehow
And it has the most amazingly catchy lap steel playing from David Lindley.
Grandma's dying of cancer now
The cattle all have brucellosis
We'll get through somehow
And it has the most amazingly catchy lap steel playing from David Lindley.
November 19, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Daddy's doing Sister Sally
Grandma's dying of cancer now
The cattle all have brucellosis
We'll get through somehow
And it has the most amazingly catchy lap steel playing from David Lindley.
Grandma's dying of cancer now
The cattle all have brucellosis
We'll get through somehow
And it has the most amazingly catchy lap steel playing from David Lindley.