>>481450>were they just too stupid to boil the water?i think they didn't do it because they might not have know that it would make water safer to drink.
the first bacteria was only discovered around 1674 by some dutch guy and it was from the human saliva. of course before that treatment of water was done for almost 2000 years but only to improve taste as the other benefits where unknown. And they where only basic charcoal/sand filters. First filters came around 1700-1800 and even then it took until 1850 and a large cholera epidemic in England to even find the correlation of clean water and health. Previously the thought was, smell indicated how good the water was not the bacteria in it. Chlorine and improved filters came a bit later. In the 1890s America started building large sand filters to protect public health.
and intentional heat treatment like pasteurization came around 1874. (this was also used to prevent beer and milk and other stuff from turning bad quickly)
>would that not give you drinkable water? yes it will give you drink able water almost always, but A. some stuff will need a longer boil time. And B. sometimes infectious water might still be harmful afterwards since boiling might not help against poisons/toxins already present. (just like with salmonella on food) a outdoor example would be Blue algae contaminated water as far as i know.
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>fun fact people trow coins in fountains and springs right ? this is often done for luck etc. But silver and copper is also antiseptic/biocidal so it will help to keep the water clean. So springs with lots of coins would give you clean water and not make you sick. thus it would seem to people in dark ages the coin you sacrificed would pay off. 