hist-brewing: OK, One more time

[Hill, Dave]

Hi, I'm new here and I've read some posts regarding Sparging.  It seems that
sparging is a relatively new invention.  If so, how the heck did they get
sufficient amounts of Wort?  Was it a very loose mash (e.g. 12 lbs of grain
in 5 gallons of water)that was drained off after an hour?  Or was is
successive Mashes(12 lbs in 1.5 gallons, 3 times).  Any help would be
appreciated as I've just started historical brewing.  Thanks