Wooden toilet seat found at Vindolanda

[Renatus]

True, I haven't. Please enlighten me ...

The Specialist, first published in the UK in 1930 and probably earlier in the States, is a comic masterpiece which I thoroughly recommend. It concerns one Lem Putt, who has a speciality: the construction of privies. He also prides himself on his after-sales service. On one occasion, one of his customers comes to him saying that he has a problem with one of his privies: his hired hands are spending too long in there. Lem Putt investigates and finds that the hired hands are spending 40 minutes to an hour in the privy. He realises that he has made the seats too comfortable, so he sets to work with his plane and makes the edges of the seats sharper. The result is that, after this, the hired hands spend no more than four minutes in the privy!

Clearly, the Romans did not want their latrines to be too comfortable. I would, therefore, throw out the suggestion that the wooden toilet seat came from the commanding officer's house. He could spend as long as he liked in there!