2011-06-16 06:48:19
By Duncan Kennedy BBC News, Rome
Skeleton at Pompei prepared for study Skeletons covered by the eruption of
Vesuvius have been studied intensively
Archaeologists have been discovering how Romans lived 2,000 years ago, by
studying what they left behind in their sewers.
A team of experts has been sifting through hundreds of sacks of human
excrement.
They found a variety of details about their diet and their illnesses.
This unconventional journey into the past took the team down into an ancient
sewer below the town of Herculaneum.
Along with neighbouring Pompeii, it was one of the settlements buried by the
Vesuvius volcanic explosion of 79AD.
In a tunnel 86m long, they unearthed what is believed to be the largest deposit
of human excrement ever found in the Roman world.
Seven hundred and fifty sacks of it to be exact, containing a wealth of
information.
The scientists have been able to study what foods people ate and what jobs they
did, by matching the material to the buildings above, like shops and homes.
A street in Pompeii which, like Herculaneum, was covered by a volcanic eruption
in 79AD A street in Pompeii which, like Herculaneum, was covered by a volcanic
eruption in 79AD
This unprecedented insight into the diet and health of ancient Romans showed
that they ate a lot of vegetables.
One sample also contained a high white blood cell count, indicating, say
researchers, the presence of a bacterial infection.
The sewer also offered up items of pottery, a lamp, 60 coins, necklace beads
and even a gold ring with a decorative gemstone.
But it's the human remains that have most astonished the archaeologists, all
going to prove that where there's muck, there's memory.