Abstract
This chapter examines the toilets and toilet practices characteristic of the Roman world in general and the Jews of Palestine in particular. The Temple Scroll, War Scroll and Josephus indicate that the Qumran sect had different toilet habits from other ancient Jews and Romans. In contrast to the sectarian view, rabbinic Judaism does not associate excrement and defecation with impurity. The Babylonian Talmud indicates that some rabbis took care to defecate in private, recalling sectarian practice and presumably in accordance with their understanding of Deuteronomy. The Temple Scroll mandates the placement of toilets in the city of Jerusalem to the northwest of the city because in the second temple the toilet facilities were located on the northwest side. Keywords:Jews; Qumran sect; rabbinic Judaism; Second Temple period; toilet practices
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