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History => Ancient and Medieval History => Topic started by: Duncan Head on July 02, 2021, 03:49:31 PM

Title: Sh1t archaeology
Post by: Duncan Head on July 02, 2021, 03:49:31 PM
Sorry, couldn't resist it .... evidence of stanols from human faeces used to study Mayan population changes.

Summary at https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-where-archaeology-can-t-go-fecal-signals-in-lake-reveal-mayan-secrets-1.9960242

Original article at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379121001116
Title: Re: Sh1t archaeology
Post by: Imperial Dave on July 02, 2021, 04:04:23 PM
 ;D
Title: Re: Sh1t archaeology
Post by: Erpingham on July 02, 2021, 05:00:38 PM
I must admit, I initially thought it was an excavation in central London  ???
Title: Re: Sh1t archaeology
Post by: DBS on July 05, 2021, 02:10:27 PM
As a fourteen year old, I did take part in the local excavation of a Roman villa which was under a Victorian sewage farm in Beddington.  No palaeofaeces from the villa itself, but we had to dig through plenty to get to it: the sediment at the bottom of the old settling tanks...
Title: Re: Sh1t archaeology
Post by: Erpingham on July 05, 2021, 02:34:30 PM
That's gross.  Worst I had to do was clear a 18th/19th century stonelined cess pit which had (thankfully) long been out of use.  It's amazing what people threw in their cesspits.  Along with all the willow pattern and bottles, we found a dog.