Bronze age meals in the marshes - seasoned with parasitic worms [View all]

Ian Sample Science editor
@iansample
Fri 16 Aug 2019 01.00 EDT



Archaeologists’ excavation at Must Farm, a fenland settlement dating back nearly 3,000 years, where
homes rested on stilts and the marshes were navigated with dugout canoes. Photograph: D Webb/SWNS


The clutch of homes that stood on stilts in the wetland fens of East Anglia were the envy of the local peasantry 3,000 years ago. But amid the remains of the grand wooden huts and the belongings of the well-to-do residents lurked evidence that all was not well at Must Farm, Britain’s premier bronze age settlement.

Firm, sausage-shaped lumps found skulking in the mud that swallowed the settlement after a catastrophic fire have been identified as pieces of faeces. Inside these deposits researchers found a grim array of tiny eggs – the calling card for parasitic worm infestations.

In the sanitising jargon of archaeology, the human coprolites were found to be brimming with eggs from fish tapeworms, giant kidney worms, whipworms and other undesirable creatures, pointing to a downside of the settlers’ fresh and convenient marsh diet.

“They must have been eating raw or undercooked fish, frogs or shellfish,” said Piers Mitchell, the director of the ancient parasites laboratory at Cambridge University, who studied the precious deposits. “Some might not have had symptoms but others would have known about it.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/aug/16/bronze-age-meals-in-the-marshes-seasoned-with-parasitic-worms