We learn about history and things, but no one ever gives extensive lessons on sanitation, I know about Greco Roman bathhouses, and I know Moctezuma bathed like 8 times a day, but no one really systematically includes how each culture handled their bowels and waste. To make it less broad how about the Iroquois tribe, or the Navajo tribe, etc. did they have the equivalent of an outhouse, or did you just go wherever you felt like, I imagine there was some system in place seeing as no matter the tribe, genitals tended to be covered, what did they use for toilet paper, and what did women use for periods, I’m interested in what women used for periods cross culturally pre Colombian, and how were women’s monthly’s viewed. I’m extremely interested in this topic cross culturally, like even British knights in the 1300ad, or Kushites 80bc
I've asked a lot of people about what they used back in the day for toilet paper - I've talked to many people in fact who remember the days before toilet paper was a thing, and the response I've gotten over and over again has been the following: "before we had ass-wipe, we would crinkle pages from catalogues".
I know that's not the answer you're looking for, so here is what I know. People in my specific area, the Bella Coola valley, had outhouses, and used a wide range of things for toilet paper, everything from moss, to rags, to snow, to pounded bark. As far as periods, people would use rags, though the most common thing to use was fresh pounded cedar bark called ikw.
A place to get answers on this particular questions would likely be askarchaeology or something like that, as digging up shit is actually a very normal thing for archaeologists to do - the first archaeological dig in this area reportedly began digging at a site, and an older lady stopped by and asked them "why are you guys digging where the shithouse was?" - it hadn't occured to the archaeologists that locals could actually tell them where things were before they started digging, but after this meeting a lot more communication happened and things went a lot better. For starters, they started digging where people through out their garbage, not just their excrement, and the finds were more to their liking.
Edit. And people also used thimbleberry leaves as tp