Thanks to one person ’s GI grief , we now know more about ancient Roman Catholic lav habits than ever before .
AsLive Science reports , archaeologists recently unearthed a 1500 - year - sometime ceramic pot from the ruin of the Gerace villa in Sicily , Italy . Like other excavated weed from the fourth dimension period , it was n’t immediately clear what this one was used for . But after analyzing the intemperate crust that had built up inside it , researchers conceive they have an answer : It was a bedchamber pot .
The cheekiness harbored eggs of whipworm , an intestinal leech that , per the CDC , can have “ frequent , painful bowel motility , ” diarrhea that “ typically smells worse than usual , ” and even rectal prolapsus . For what it ’s deserving , mild infection often go unnoticed — so it ’s possible that our parasite - ridden Roman did n’t put up at all . In either case , whipworm eggs exited their physical structure with other fecal thing at some point and land in the port - a - pot . As mineral from other fecal matter and urine pile up in layers along the interior of the locoweed , the eggs got seal off in .
The realisation thatancient Romanswere using chamber pots did n’t come as a consummate surprise to investigator . “ The find of many [ conical pots of this type ] in or near public latrines had led to a suggestion that they might have been used as chamber pots , but until now cogent evidence has been lacking,”Roger Wilson , theatre director of the University of British Columbia ’s Centre for the Study of Ancient Sicily and leader of the Gerace archeological labor , order in apress release . Wilson also co - authored thestudydetailing the inquiry on the pot , put out this month in theJournal of Archaeological Science : Reports .
This particular pot , just over one fundament tall with a 13.5 - in brim , was found in the villa ’s baths complex , which did n’t have its own latrine . This could mean that some ancient Romans preferred to do their business in a nearby skunk than interrupt their bathtub for a gutter interruption . As for how many ancient Romans host intestinal parasites , we do n’t do it — butprevious studiessuggest that they may have been comparatively unwashed . Now , scientist will have a good approximation of what to look for when prove mineral crust in other pots .
[ h / tLive Science ]
