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Bathing in Rome was not a priority. Until the elites of the empire discovered the luxury of the Termas de Trajan

October 3, 2025 by usatoday24

At present, daily hygiene is (or it should beat least) something we assume with total normality. But in the times of the Republic of Rome, the bathroom was not considered as A priority. The Personal hygiene It consisted of little more than washing your arms once a day and the rest of the body every nine or ten days. At the end of the 1st century, a new trend inspired by classical Greece was gaining importance among the privileged classes of Rome, which began to build spaces dedicated to the pleasures of the bathroom in its lavish villas. The ones were born Balnea that worshiped to the Salutem per Aquam or health through water. Submerging in water bathtubs at different temperature went from being a mere practical requirement to wash, something more playful that fit as a glove with the enjoyment of the patricians and other wealthy class. The challenge: get the greatest and most luxurious hot springs of the empire Marco Vipsanio Agrippa was the first ruler of Rome to which it occurred to build a huge Balneum in the Mars field as a meeting and entertainment place for the citizens of Rome. However, unlike Balneumwhich were deprived, these public water baths will receive the name of Themaereaching Our days like Termas. Agrippa, without knowing it, had started a career with its predecessors in which each new ruler wanted to leave their mark with some larger, more luxurious and most ostentatious hot springs than those of his predecessor. Trajan, as a good Sevillianhe knew the benefits of a good bath to cool off the heats and relax at the end of the day, so he entered the rag in the competition by building an authentic architectural and technological wonder of the ancient world. Ruins of the Termas de Trajan If we could Travel in time to ancient Romewe would meet the sumptuous Trajan Termas. Considered as An architectural wonder delivered to the luxury and well -being of those who visited it. These places offered numerous attractions for the entertainment and health of citizens: saunas, bath pools, Palestras, libraries, porches and gardens decorated with everything luxury of detail. However, although in most cases the cost of the entrance was available to the majority of citizens of Rome, only the wealthiest and powerful could pay all the pleasures and luxury offered by these facilities. The hot springs were inaugurated in the Oppio hill in 109 AD covering the void of public bathrooms left by the fire of the Domus Aureaof Emperor Nero. The Trajan Termas They were a real display of architectural innovation that Integrated the latest in Roman air conditioning technology and opulence in the decorations and mosaics. Mosaic with sandals in hot springs. “Salvom Lavisse”, a bath is good for you In the structure of its construction it was innovated with the development of lighter materials to achieve a equally resistant concretebut much lighter and permissive with heat based on volcanic rock either Tufo Giallo. The wooden structures, which served as fuel for the previous hot springs, were replaced by slender advocated ceilings and large interior spaces. The whole occupied the triple of the surface that its predecessor with some 111,000 square meters of luxury dedicated to body cult. The water supply was guaranteed by a complex aqueduct that brought the water from different sources of the Bracciano lake located 40 km from Rome, and was stored in huge deposits near the theater enclosure with a capacity of eight million liters of water. Trajan thermal complex plant Enjoy a bath in that sumptuous temple dedicated to hygiene and health was A luxurious and relaxing experience. The thermal complex was designed with an impressive architecture and offered a wide range of services and comforts to enjoy. The operation Upon entering, he passed by the NATATIO A large pool with which the first visual contact with the water was had, but that was visited until the end. Before, it should be passed through the APODYTERIA or common dressing rooms. From that point, the visitor passed to the Palestra Fully naked or smeared in essential oils to worship the body exercising the muscles or participating in ball games. Moment that many used to achieve political favors or influences between high society. Columns on which the ground rested. Eustolian house. Cyprus Then, the Thermal circuit It continued through heated rooms with an elaborate system in which the exposure of the sun’s rays was combined through large double windows, and a system of “radiant soil” raised on a series of columns that was heated by the circulation of hot air under the ground, the walls and the vaults. The wealthiest could enjoy massage services with scented oils and ointments and even body hair removal executed by slaves Hot water pools (Caldolarium) and temperate (Tepidarium) were conditioned using the same underground boilers with which the air that acclimatized the entire enclosure was heated. These boilers warmed a large bronze container with inverted turtle shell that came into contact with the base of the bathtub Caldolarium and circulated hot water by convection until The whole pool had the same temperature. Maximum resources optimization, with the same fire air and water heated. The thermal circuit ended with a bathroom in the four cold water pools of the huge central basilica of the Termas de Trajan. In them you could share the bathroom, the conversation (or what arises) with the rest of the hot springs, it was already allowed entry of both men and women. The route ended in the NATATIO who welcomed the visitor. This was one outdoor pool With an approximate depth of one meter, with which the visitor left his luxury and well -being reverie to return to his routine, which Rome did not do in one day. Unfortunately, fate wanted all this wonder of ancient Rome to succumb under a fire. An even greater project emerged from its ashes: the hot springs of Emperor Caracalla … but that is another story. In Xataka … Read more

Spanish elites have been practicing the noble art of endogamy 3200 years

September 29, 2025 by usatoday24

There was a copistería in front of the Faculty of Sciences that had hung on the wall, one after another, all the ons of one of the wildest engineering in the entire Spanish university system. I used to look at them while waiting. And I know it may seem boring, but there was nothing more fascinating than seeing how the people of the cloister were changing, but the surnames did not. Yes, yes. It is an exaggeration, an easy stereotype. But it is also true. And not only in college: Endogamy is one of those recurrent phenomena of the social life of our country. A long history. As They explained a few years ago Professor Javier Barnes and economist Fernando Faces, “that in Spain the rules of the game for the contests and awards of contracts are based on norms of a century and a half ago, of 1870, it gives us an idea of how much we need to renew ourselves.” It is not a bug, it is a feature. It is a well -known anthropological technology to reinforce the power of a group of people. And that is why not only affects The municipalities, Companies or the university: endogamy came to provoke The extinction of the Habsburg Dynasty Branch. What we did not know is that it was something so old. When was innovamy invented? We do not know, but we are close to discovering it. After analyzing 24 buried individuals In the Zaragoza necropolis of the Castellets II, an international team of specialists has found a possible response to all this. And it is that up to two thirds of the individuals were related to each other. But there were not only parents and children, there were kinships of fifth and sixth grade. That means that Mequinenza’s mound was used as a mausoleum of an extensive family, as a kind of central funeral node of a dense filiation structure. It is the first direct evidence of inbreeding practices at the end of the era of bronze in the peninsular. What does this mean? That the peninsular of that time were discovering the most basic version of Endogamy: leaders who consolidate their status marrying each other. “Such levels of consanguinity had not registered in previous periods of the Iberian Prehistory,” The researchers say. The big change. Metals have always been metals. “Prehistory is the period of the history of humanity from our origins to the appearance of the first bureaucratic states,” Archaeologist Rodrigo Villalobos explained. And what we are seeing in Mequinenza is how these states begin to take shape. This allows us to know things about Endogamy, of course. Nothing new in ethnographic terms, but something key that affects us today. Endogamy is still alive because it is an extremely effective method to ensure the stability of social structures. It has associated costs, but They are long -term costs. In the medium term, they are usually more than assumable. But beyond: the interesting thing is that, like supports the investigationendogamic practices are practical sensitive “Legal systems and administrative practices”. It is not an irreformable curse. This leads us to a deeper question: do we really want to change it? Image | Meressa Chartrand In Xataka | 8,000 years ago, 3,000 before the invention of the first toilet, we already had intestinal parasites

A secret room in Peru hid some tubes. Now we know that elites ruled with hallucinogens 2,000 years ago

May 11, 2025 by usatoday24

Long before the Inca Empire will dominate the Andes, the Chavín civilization (Active between 900 and 650 BC) had already established a complex cultural network that covered common agricultural techniques to shared forms of architecture and art. In fact, one of its most emblematic centers was Chavín de Huántara stone ceremonial monument located 430 kilometers north of Lima, whose architecture, symbols and mysterious acoustic They have intrigued To archaeologists for more than a century. That intrigue has given way to a fascinating discovery. Visionary rituals. Yes, now and through A studynew excavations and detailed chemical analyzes have revealed that a fundamental part of its social hierarchies system was based on deeply transformative rituals, enhanced by powerful hallucinogenic substances such as vilca (natural source of DMT) and wild tobacco species. These rituals, restricted to small private spaces within the ceremonial complex, were not designed for collective access, but constituted exclusive experiences for selected individuals, possibly Priests or spiritual elitesthus reinforcing the symbolic power and the established social order. Psychoactive and architecture. As Archaeologists tellthe analysis of the carved bone tubes found in several closed secret chambers has shown that they were used to Inhale substancesoffering direct evidence of the ritual use of these psychedelic drugs. Unlike the community practices observed in other Amazonian cultures, Chavín rituals were intimate, regulated and surrounded by an aura of mystery, probably destined to consolidate authority spiritual of certain individuals within a vertical structure of power. Complementing these practices, the investigators say that the temple architecture was designed to intensify the experience: Marine shell trumpets and rooms designed to amplify the sound point to a complete sensory strategy, where music and reverberation contributed to generating altered states of consciousness. Far from being mystical entertainment, these ceremonies were, According to scientistsideological tools of social cohesion, capable of inspiring the inhabitants to voluntarily collaborate in the construction of temples and monuments without the need for physical coercion. A system of avoided violence. There are much more, since one of the most suggestive findings in the study is the apparent absence of direct coercion in the Chavín Organization. The efficacy of rituals to legitimize hierarchies seems to have replaced the need for systematic repression or organized war. In this way, this delicate ideological balance was not eternal. Towards 500–400 AC, archaeological indications point to a prolonged period of Internal violenceprobably linked to a transition from a theocratic order to more secular forms of organization. This change would have undermined the symbolic bases of religious authority, leading to a progressive collapse of the social structure that the Chavín had maintained for centuries. Religion and inequality. Finally, For archaeologiststhe Chavín case demonstrates how inequality can be institutionalized, not only through force or economy, but also through deeply internally internalized beliefs. In the work they explain that the supernatural experience induced by hallucinogens became a way to naturalize The hierarchies and justify the concentration of power. The legacy of the Chavín, however, endures as a bridge between more egalitarian cultures and the sophisticated imperial structures that would arise centuries later, providing keys on how beliefs, architecture, psychoactive substances and power in the deep history of the Andes would be articulated. Image | Daniel Contreras In Xataka | Machu Picchu is 600 years old and was the great treasure of Peru. We have just discovered a 3,500 years old In Xataka | In 1594 a Jesuit described a secret tunnel near Machu Picchu. We have just confirmed the Inca underground labyrinth

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