“New Parasitology Study Reveals Unpleasant Finds in 2,500 Year Old Latrines in Jerusalem”

If new analyzes of two 2,500-year-old latrines are to be believed, the Iron Age group was not of the freshest variety.

Researchers have taken a closer look at two latrines made of stone that may have belonged to nobles in Jerusalem.

It was not a beautiful sight that greeted them, reports CNN.

The discovery was recently discussed in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Parasitology.

Earliest found

Researchers at the University of Cambridge studied two latrines in Jerusalem.

There they found traces of the parasite Giardia duodenalis, which is known to cause violent – and contagious – stomach upset.

In professional language, the disease is called Giardia.

This is the earliest identification of the parasite ever, according to CNN.

Health and illness

Previously, the parasite has been found in Roman-era Turkey, and in medieval Israel.

– This is a fascinating insight into the health and illness of the early inhabitants of Jerusalem, and indeed the whole of it The Near Eastthe researchers write in the journal.

Stately toilets

During the Iron Age, Jerusalem was a political and religious center Assyria– the empire.

Between 8,000 and 25,000 people lived there, and very few of them had access to latrines.

Only the very richest had something like this.

Shock letter: – Read and burn it!

The University of Cambridge researchers took samples from the latrine, i.e. the primitive toilet, of a stately house that was excavated in Jerusalem in 2019.

They also took samples from the latrine of another stately house called the House of Ahiel.

The latrines were made of limestone, and consisted of a hole that was used for defecation, and another hole that was used for urine.

The researchers found the eggs of four types of parasites: tapeworms, needleworms, roundworms and whipworms.

Not found

The eggs were tested for Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia and Cryptosporidiosis, which are three parasitic microorganisms known to cause diarrhea and dysentery.

Dysentery is a general term for serious intestinal infections caused by bacteria, according to Great Norwegian Lexicon.

The Entamoeba and Cryptosporidium samples were negative, while the Giardia samples were positive.

– Passengers opened aircraft doors in the air

– A big problem

In a press release writes archeology professor Piers Mitchell at the University of Cambridge, who led the study, this:

– The fact that these parasites were found in two drains from the Iron Age in Jerusalem suggests that dysentery was endemic in the kingdom of Judea.

He explains that dysentery is spread with faeces that contaminate drinking water and food, and that the researchers suspect that there were not a few in Jerusalem who got serious stomach upsets at the time.

– We suspect that there may have been a major problem in ancient cities in the ancient Near East due to overpopulation, heat and flies, and limited water available in the summer, he writes.

Not invented

Mitchell explains that at the time cities were not planned and built with sewage systems, which could have mitigated the risk of outbreaks of, for example, dysentery.

– Toilets that could be flushed down had not been invented, and the population had no knowledge of the existence of microorganisms and how they spread, he writes.