Sh1t archaeology

[Duncan Head]

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

[Imperial Dave]

 

[Erpingham]

I must admit, I initially thought it was an excavation in central London 

[DBS]

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...

[Erpingham]

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.