2,400-year-old ‘first’ flushable toilet discovered in China

It was a flush down memory lane.

A 2,400-year-old flushable toilet was discovered in China’s Shaanxi province last summer and revealed this month, reported China Daily.

According to experts, the manual toilet was found in the ruins of a palace located in Yueyang that may have been used as far back as the Warring States period (424 B.C.) and into the Qin Dynasty (221 to 206 B.C.).

“It is the first and only flush toilet to be ever unearthed in China,” according to Liu Rui, a researcher from the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“Everybody at the site was surprised, and then we all burst into laughter.”

According to Rui, the manual toilet was considered a “luxury” item, at least for the ruler and not the servant — who had to flush his master’s waste down with water.

The toilet was designed so the “bowl” would be inside while a pipe would lead the waste down into an outside pit.

The toilet may have been used by Qin Xiaogong, who lived from 381 to 338 B.C., or even his father, Qin Xian’gong (424 to 362 B.C.), according to the researchers.

According to researchers, the upper half of the bowel was not found in the excavation, so it is unclear whether the user would sit or squat when using the bathroom.

Rui speculated that users had to squat based on records of toilets from the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 24 A.D.).

“The flush toilet is concrete proof of the importance the ancient Chinese attached to sanitation,” said Rui.

Before the discovery of the Yueyang toilet, it was believed the first flushable toilet was discovered by Sir John Harrington in the 16th century.

China’s excavation of Yueyang has been going on since 2012.