A drop toilet that was found at an ancient royal estate in southern Jerusalem shows traces of an epidemic of parasites.
The findings show that the wealthiest inhabitants of ancient Jerusalem are capable of using an outhouse.
The function of toilets and latrines thousands of years ago may have been different.
Archaeologists suggest that the presence of indoor toilets may have been more of a convenience than an attempt to improve personal hygiene.
A toilet was a private installation that only the rich could have afforded.
The oldest toilets in the world are said to be in Mesopotamia. The cradle of civilization is the historical region that covered parts of Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Turkey.
A designated area to poop was a must for hunter-gatherers as they settled into larger towns and cities. For the average farmer, this probably meant going in a waste pit, but in some rare instances, wealthy individuals got more privacy. Private outhouses were a luxury for many thousands of years.
There is a limestone loo in Jerusalem. It was found next to the remains of a large mansion, nestled in a garden, in 2019. It was probably owned by a social climber.
The toilet seat is made of stone. The Israel Antiquities Authority is headed by Ya'akov Billig.
The hole in the center of the stone seat suggests that this was a basic drop toilet, with a tank to catch excretion, but the view was something else.
The City of David and the Temple Mount could be seen from here.
The Armon Hanatziv excavation is in Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority is headed by Yoli Schwartz.
Archaeologists think the toilet seat was once surrounded by stone walls and possibly a roof, and that the plants were used as a sort of air freshener.
The presence of parasites suggests that sanitary conditions at the time were poor.
Eggs from four different types of worms have been found under the limestone toilet seat.
The eggs of roundworms and whipworms were the most abundant at the site. The most severe cases of these parasites can lead to malnutrition and impaired growth.
They can be transmitted when someone accidentally ingests stool containing parasites. The parasites can produce thousands of eggs a day in their human hosts.
Without a clean system of poop disposal or hand washing facilities, it is difficult to eradicate these infections in a population.
The presence of roundworms and whipworms in the palatial poop of Jerusalem's elite suggests human feces were treated in an unsanitary way, possibly introduced into water sources or dumped onto crops before making their way back to our mouths.
The tapeworms were found in the cesspool and could have entered the human system via improper cooking of meat.
Pinworms were found at the site, which was the earliest record of these parasites in Jerusalem.
Since the eggs are lightweight and delicate, they aren't often captured in the archaeological record, which is why some researchers suspect these worms have been a nuisance for us since the very dawn of humankind.
The use of closed-in lavatories may spread these airborne infections even more.
When medicine and sanitary facilities are available, tapeworms, pinworms, whipworms, and roundworms can be easily treated.
In ancient Jerusalem, for example, there was a case of epidemics caused by sphinx infections.
Archeologist Dafna Langgut of Tel Aviv University in Jerusalem says that studies like this one help document the history of infectious diseases in our area and give us a window into the lives of people in ancient times.
The study was published in a journal.
