From tools to bathroom suites

There is no doubt in the minds of the world's leading anthropologists that tools played an important role in the evolution of the human race. There is also a widespread belief among not only anthropologists, but also experts in other disciplines, that because both chimpanzees and humans both use tools the divergence between the two species must have taken place after the first routine use of tools occurred. Although many may not believe it to be true, the first evidence of baths dates back to well before the birth of Christ, as far back as 3000BC. As humans have long held a fascination with water, in fact they have long had a fascination with all four elements, it has therefore played a major role in the lives of all for not only the purposes of ingestion, but for reasons and purposes pertaining to the sacred and spiritual as well. Whilst the first baths were probably for the purposes of purification before entering a sacred area, there has been much evidence discovered on all continents that prove that prehistoric people were not as filthy as many may have thought.

About 5-6000 years ago humans made the transition from stone to metal tools and as time passed they were increasingly capable of creating more efficient tools, tools that used more moving parts and around the time of the Middle Ages the energy sources of water and wind were finally harnessed. It would be quite a while until something comparable with the bathroom suites of today would come along as communal bathing areas were still common in many parts of the world until recently. Perhaps the closest that people came to a similar item in the 3rd Millennium BC were the toilets and bathing areas of some houses that have been discovered in Mohenjo-Daro in Sindh Province Pakistan, as these were Western style toilets, in a way, which actually featured wooden seats. The Industrial Revolution was made possible by the use of tools and featured the first instances of power tool usage.

Although these power tools were still quite far removed from the power tools of today, particularly those with battery packs which are therefore portable, there were so many developments during this period, as there were in many others, that it can be seen as one of the times in history in which the evolution of tool usage increased dramatically. Although many of the early examples of bathrooms were essentially large pools, like the Roman baths that many may be familiar with, the earliest bath that is comparable to the baths of today was found in the Palace of Knossos in Crete and it even featured plumbing that many today would be quite envious of. Twin plumbing systems have been discovered dating back as far as 1500BC, something that would not have been possible without the use of tools, which means that humans have had easy access to both hot and cold running water for much longer than most would have thought.