The royal toilet still required manual "flushing" and emptied directly into a nearby river.
One would expect that the construction of ancient Korea's royal palace spared no expense. And would be correct. Built in 674 A.D. -- during the 14 year of the reign of King Munmu of the Kingdom of Silla, after the unification of the Korean Peninsula -- the palace site included at least 26 separate buildings and a range of human-built ponds connected by water channels.
But the historical high-tech didn't stop at architecture and water transportation. During an excavation by the Korean Heritage Society of the Donggung Palace, crews uncovered the 1,300-year-old remnants of a flushing toilet in the throne room, proving that the palace was also on the cutting edge of bathroom technology.
"We assume that this was the crown prince's toilet," said Kim Gyeong Yeol, lead archeologist, according to a translated report from Dagbladet published by the Jerusalem Post. "This toilet drained directly into a nearby river."
While the flush toilet was a first for Korea (and, potentially, Asia), it wasn't the first in history. In fact, it wasn't even the only flushing toilet in the palace. Crews continuing the excavation at the palace located the remains of multiple flushing toilets, but only the prince's had the piping to drain directly into a moving waterway.
"The royal toilet with river drainage is the first of its kind in Korea," Kim said. "It is absolutely incredible, and it suggests that royals and other higher-ranked individuals in ancient Korea had access to more advanced sanitary facilities."
Kim told Live Science that the toilet with direct discharge into the river "seems to have a hierarchical meaning," used only by the crown prince and the court ladies closest to him.
The first-known use of using toilets with drainage occurred in the Indus Valley (which is modern-day Pakistan and India) sometime between 2600 and 1900 B.C., according to a study published in the journal Sustainability in 2016. Their prominence grew worldwide, with the Romans popularizing their use -- and sometimes making that use a communal event.
Moving further west, Sir John Harrington -- a godson of Queen Elizabeth I -- created a new toilet in 1596 that was installed at Richmond Palace. This device is more closely related to modern-day flushing than examples from the Indus Valley region, and consisted of a toilet overtop a two-feet-deep cistern that collected the waste. A second cistern (this one elevated and full of water) could rush 7.5 gallons of water through the lower chamber to flush out the waste. Without curved piping between the seat and the lower cistern, though, the smell tended to stick around.
If done properly, the cleansing of the Korean toilet could have kept the crown prince's toilet a little less stench-filled and entirely fit for a prince. He was probably all the happier for it.