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Human waste was put to good use

24th Nov 2018

Human waste was put to good use

Human excrement eaten by the earth lord, Codex Borgia

Commentators today usually agree that Tenochtitlan was a relatively clean city by the standards of the day, and that the Mexica/Aztecs cherished cleanliness in their daily lives. We know that they not only constructed public toilets, but that they found good uses for human waste products... (Written by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

POO was collected in canoes placed carefully under bridges that had loos at regular intervals. It was taken away and used as perfectly good manure/fertiliser (apparently, it conserves valuable elements like nitrogen and phosphorous - the ancient Chinese did the same).
PEE had many uses. Alfredo López Austin explains: ‘Without a doubt, urine was the product of the human body most used in ancient therapeutics [remedial medicine]. It was utilised to treat the sternum [breastbone], dandruff, boils on the head, ringworm of the scalp, abscesses, wounds, ear infections, chapped faces, neck infections, and even tartar on the teeth as well as internal contusions [bruises], this last requiring the medicine to be drunk.’ (Yuk!)

Quote from The Human Body and Ideology by Alfredo López Austin (trans. Ortiz de Montellano), vol. I, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1988, p. 179
Image from the Codex Borgia scanned from our own copy of the ADEVA facsimile edition, Graz, Austria, 1976 (pl. 14, detail).

Cuauhtli

Aztec limerick no. 62 (ode to fertiliser):-
A young boy once asked ‘Is it true..
That the Aztecs re-used their poo?’
You may think it’s crude –
To the soil it’s good food.
When you die the earth will eat YOU!

Learn a little more about Aztec First Aid...

Comments (3)

c

coleg

24th Aug 2024

I love the limerick :D

T

Taytay

18th Dec 2022

Thank you!

T

Taytay

18th Dec 2022

Where did they Aztecs “do their business” when they were home?Did they have outhouses? If they did were they more of a luxury for nobles?

M

Mexicolore

Thanks for writing in. Please see our answer to this in the ‘Aztec Life’ section, here - https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/aztec-life/superstitious-3

Human waste was put to good use

Human excrement eaten by the earth lord, Codex Borgia

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