14 DAY TRIAL // Some time ago, in 1996, archaeologists in Jerusalem, Israel came across the remains of a toilet believed to be about 500 years old. Rather than go in search of some other, more impressive construction to dig out, they actually took the time to study it.
In a recent report, University of Cambridge researcher Piers Mitchell and colleagues detail how the excavation work eventually produced over a dozen fossilized poop samples and thousands of eggs left behind by medieval parasites.
The eggs recovered from this 500-year-old latrine in Jerusalem were found to belong to six distinct parasite species, of which four were intestinal worms and two were single-celled organisms known to cause dysentery, Live Science informs.
Looking for parasites in medieval toilets and fossilized poop might sound like a complete waste of time, but Piers Mitchell and his team reassure that this is by no means the case. On the contrary, the eggs they found shed new light on the history of Jerusalem.
This is because, of the species the archaeologists documented, i.e. the fish tapeworm and the dysentery-causing Entamoeba histolytica, two were fairly rare in the Middle East in those days. Instead, they were quite common in Northern Europe.
Their presence in the medieval latrine unearthed in Jerusalem indicates that, 500 years ago, folks from Northern Europe often traveled to this corner of the world. “While we will never know for sure why they made this journey, pilgrims and traders would be a plausible explanation,” said Piers Mitchell.