Night soil
Videos
Night soil is a historical euphemism for human excreta collected from cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate are
A woman carrying buckets of night-soil, photographed in 1871.
Industrially produced "sanitary ware", now in the Gladstone Pottery Museum
Bedrijfsafval
Chinampa
Videos
Chinampa is a technique used in Mesoamerican agriculture which relies on small, rectangular areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico. The word chinam
Night soil
…local markets". Various Mesoamerican civilizations used human feces to fertilize their crops. The Aztecs, in particular, are well known for their famous chinampas, artificial islands made of mud and human waste used to grow crops that could be harvested up to seven times a year. Current research has placed the…
Modern chinampas
Chinampas and canals, 1912.
Trajinera tourist boat in Xochimilco
An example of a modern-day chinampa