A reader of my fantasy sci-fi series, Pearseus, once joked that I have a strange fascination with showers. And it’s true; I think of them as a great example of things we take for granted but are actually pretty new.

In this day and age, we enjoy a lot of conveniences that were anything but as recently as 100 years ago. One of those things includes taking a bath. Thanks to history books and television shows depicting times hundreds of years ago, we are led to believe that humans were barbaric, dirty beings that would go without bathing for days, weeks, and months at a time.

Which is far from true. Different cultures had their own different bathing rituals, developed for religious, hygienic, social, and therapeutic reasons.

Ancient Times

We are a bit spoiled in the modern age. We have access to the internet, which allows us to check…