Topic description and stories

2,000-year-old personal hygiene sticks with remains of cloth, excavated from the latrine at Xuanquanzhi

Ancient faeces provides earliest evidence of infectious disease being carried on Silk Road

22 Jul 2016

Intestinal parasites as well as goods were carried by travellers on iconic route, say researchers examining ancient latrine.

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2,000-year-old personal hygiene sticks with remains of cloth, excavated from the latrine at Xuanquanzhi

Opinion: How we discovered infectious diseases in 2,000-year-old faeces from the Silk Road

21 Jul 2016

Piers Mitchell (Department of Biological Anthropology) discusses what we can learn from rummaging around in 2,000-year-old toilets.

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Right: excavation deep down into the latrine by the Ecole Biblique de Jerusalem. Left: Taenia tapeworm egg in the latrine indicating either pork or beef tapeworm.

Human parasites found in medieval cesspit reveal links between Middle East and Europe

19 Mar 2015

Analysis of a latrine in Jerusalem that dates back over 500 years finds human parasites common in northern Europe yet very rare in Middle East at the...

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tiny worm faecal pellets and fossils

Under the Microscope #13 - Tiny worm pellets

01 Mar 2012

Matthew Kuo tells us how tiny worm faecal pellets affect how oil pipelines sit on the seabed.

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