The warm floor was only the beginning. Beneath Pompeii’s baths lay furnaces, pipes and a chain of work that turned fire and water into an everyday pleasure.
A clay account and a brick well reveal two ways to read an early city. Compare the work, knowledge and authority that brought urban life together—and the burdens it placed on people.
A well, a washing floor and a street drain reveal connected tasks in an Indus city. Follow the waterworks of Mohenjo-daro, from household access to the Great Bath.
In Early Dynastic Lagash, bringing river water to a field depended on a connected canal network—and organised work. Follow the route and examine the evidence.
