Among its many fine qualities , human wastegives archaeologists a wealth of information about people ’s day-to-day lives — what they deplete and drink , what critters set up workshop in their grit , what plant and animal lived alongside them — information that can be hard to encounter in historical business relationship . It can also preserve artifacts and biologic corpse for centuries in its waterlogged surround , like an odoriferous metre abridgement . Here are eight archaeological treasures found in poop .
1. Giraffe Leg // Pompei Sewer Drain, Italy, 79 CE
A 2014 study of thesewer drainsin the Porta Stabia neighborhood of Pompeii found that its residents of the 1st century CEenjoyeda great variety of foods at the city ’s eateries . Conveniently located inside the oldest of the metropolis gates near two theaters , a likely gym , and a meeting place , the locality was studded with storefronts and restaurants cater to topical anesthetic and visit crowds . you may deduce the socioeconomic view of their clientele by what variety of foodstuffs they eliminate down the drains .
The drains of some of the shops stick to local , brassy , well uncommitted food like olive , lentils , fruit , and local fish , plus mid - tier imports like salted Pisces from Spain . One of the centrally settle storefronts play in the costly good from outside of Italy , including what must have been a rare discreetness : giraffe ramification . The wooden leg articulation of a camelopard , clearly marked with stinger from butchery , was find in this eating house ’s drain .
It is the only Giraffa camelopardalis pearl ever distinguish in an archaeological context of use in Italy — and piddling wonder , because the first giraffe to lay foot in Europe was brought to Rome byJulius Caesaron his return from Alexandria in 46 BCE . The fact that such exotic transportation was usable to center - class occupant of a little township in southern Italy come as a surprisal to archaeologists .
2. Roman Gold and Onyx Ring // Vindolanda Latrine, England, CA 210 CE
The papistical garrison of Vindolanda , just south of Hadrian ’s Wall in Northumberland , is renowned for the preservation ofwooden compose tablets , thousands of shoes , textiles , and the onlyancient Roman wooden john seatever find . The website ’s powers of saving are for the most part due to its anaerobic soil , but the latrine , institute in a residence date to the Severan period ( 208–211 CE ) , proved to be an archeologic atomic number 79 mine in itself .
Literally . Very few gold objects have been found at Vindolanda . The largest was found in the commander ’s crapper . It ’s agold ringwith a white onyx cameo carve into the trope of the gorgon Medusa . The stone and stripe show operose clothing pattern that advise it may have been a family heirloom , handed down through the years . It was an expensive piece , and pay where it was discover , could well have belong to the family of the commanding officer of the fort .
3. Colossal Head of Constantine // Cloaca Maxima, Rome, 4th Century CE
While realise the Cloaca Maxima , Rome ’s keen sewer , under the Forum in 2005 , archaeologistsdiscovereda colossal head of the Emperor Constantine in one of the passages . Carved between 312 and 325 CE after his defeat of Maxentius go out him lone ruler of the westerly conglomerate , the 2 - metrical unit - long head was once impound to a larger - than - life statue of the emperor , perhaps in full armour , as his stupendous sculpture often depicted him in military splendor .
The head does not come out to have wound up in the sewer by chance event . Archaeologists think it was used deliberately , either to grate out the well clogged conduits , to block a passage and airt the flow of effluvia , or mayhap as an insult to the emperor , whose favoritism toward Christianity rubbed adherents of the traditional Roman organized religion the wrong way .
4. Catherine de’ Medici’s Gold Hairpin // Fontainebleau Palace Communal Toilet, France, 16th Century
Catherine de ' Medici was queen choir of King Henry II of France ( 1547–1559)—and the tycoon behind the throne for her three sons who became kings of France . Very small of her jewellery has survive . Only two pieces , a pendant and a portrayal medallion , were known for a fact to have belonged to her . That is , until 2012 , when the breakthrough of a sixteenth - century communal latrine during the mining of a courtyard at Fontainebleau Palacerevealed a third . This one is the surest of them all because it bear her mark .
The gold hairpin is 4 inches long and top out with two interlocking Cs back - to - back — Catherine ’s monogram . One of the Cs is finish with green enamel , the other with white ; green and white were Catherine ’s people of color before her widowhood .
Catherine would not have relieved herself in the communal toilets out in the railyard , so how her hairpin ended up in the cesspool is up for rampant speculation . It could somehow have fallen into her personal chamber pot which was then emptied in the latrine . A more dastardly conjecture is that the jewel was swiped by someone on faculty who then dismiss it down the loo either by chance or intentionally , perhaps to dispose of the evidence .
5. Vaginal Syringes // Cesspit of Private Home, the Netherlands, 17th Century
In 2001 , municipal archaeologists excavate the older town heart and soul of Zwolle , the Netherlands , unearthed thecesspitof a individual home dating to the seventeenth hundred . Among the high - quality fleck of clayware and methamphetamine hydrochloride pieces indicating this was a home for the urban elite , archeologist found two wooden objects carve to await like penises : one smaller and more rudimentary in its phallic shaping , the other made of refined box , sodding with realistic physique — including orchis .
At first glimpse , they seemed to be dildos . But upon closer review , they proved to be vaginal syringes artistically designed to look like dildo . The larger one is just shy of 9 inches long and has four persona : a vacuous shaft , a decorative scrotum , a piston that runs from the calamus through a hole in the testicles , and a thickening that screws onto the end . The small one ( about 6 inches long ) has just the hollow putz and the piston remaining .
The syrinx were used by satisfy the empty shaft with a liquidity and pushing the plunger up to spray inside the vagina . A unattackable atomiser of oily water was a popular ( and an ineffective)birth controlmethod at the time . syrinx could also be filled with herbal remedies for a miscellany of gynecological ailments , or , later on , with concoction made of toxic substances like lead and zinc sulphate .
6. North America’s Oldest Bowling Ball // Naylor Home Privy, Boston, 17th Century
Theoldest bowling ballin North America was unearthed from the privy of Katherine Nanny Naylor ’s home on Cross Street in the North close of Boston in 1994 . Just 5 in in diameter and narrow from the side , it ’s more like a rotund wheel than a ball . The shape is that of a boule , also known as a " wood , " for lawn bowling , a bocci - alike sport in which the aim was to get your globe near to the small objective clump known as a Jack . The wheel - similar shape was knowing to give the ball a curve flight . The muddle drilled through the midriff held a lead system of weights that impress the diagonal ( how much the formal breaking ball ) as it hurl over grass toward the fair game .
Naylor ’s ball was milled on a lathe in the mid-1600s , when the fun had only recently been introduced to the British colony in North America . In Puritan Massachusetts , however , lawn bowling was lower upon — and even criminalized in some situations — because it was see as a play sport , so finding so early an representative was an unexpected boon for archaeologists . Still in splendid condition , the boulle has an area where the Sir Henry Joseph Wood rip , flattening the edge ; this defect is probably what led to the object ’s ignominious fate . The lead weight had been remove and was likely recycled .
7. Dildo // Fencing School Latrine, Poland, 18th Century
An actual dildo was find during a2015 excavationof a latrine in Gdansk , Poland . The latrine was in use over several decades , but the dildo dates to the second half of the eighteenth century , when there was a fence schooltime on the site . mensurate a sturdy 8 inches in distance , the sex toy has a carved wooden tip and a shaft stuff with bristle , and it ’s track in high-pitched - quality leather . It was a top - of - the - line product in eighteenth - one C Europe and would have be a pretty cent .
The water- and poop - logged conditions of the latrine keep the physical object in fine status , with only a split seam on the bottom triggered by the tenacious - term photo to moisture . Given how expensive it was , it probably was not by design thrown down the john when it was still in fine fettle . Its final resting place was more likely the solvent of a tragic type of butterfingers during consumption .
8. More than 82,000 Assorted Artifacts // Outhouse Vaults, Philadelphia, 18th Century
Because sometimes X really does nock the smear , an digging of the site of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia ’s historical centeruncovered12 brick - lined outhouse vaults filled to bursting with artifacts from the first ten of the 18th century to the eye of the 19th . home , small businesses ( printer , tanner , barber - surgeons , carpenter , etc . ) , and taverns tapped into those lavatory over the century , using them to dispose of their garbage as well as their waste . Artifacts discovered include earthenware plateful , photographic print type , wigging curlers , tankards , methamphetamine hydrochloride bottle , fine china , coins , and even an engraved gem .
One piece , particularly relevant to the museum that open where it was found , is a punch bowl that was unearthed in the privy pit delegate " Feature 16 , " which was in use from 1776 through 1789 , an idealistic archaeological microcosm of Revolutionary - earned run average societal history . An unlicenced tavern run out of the home of Benjamin and Mary Humphreys fill the pit with broken drinking glass , serving saucer , mugs , and almost 100 bottle that once concur alcohol . The tin - glazed earthenware punch bowl is notable for the image of a merchant ship call theTriphenaand the slogan " Success to theTriphena " dress the inside of the bowl . TheTriphenasailed to Liverpool in 1765 comport a plea from the merchandiser of Philadelphia to their counterparts in Britain that they work to repeal theStamp Act . The stadium was fabricate in Liverpool and must have been a treasured objective : It was repaired at least once before it wind up up in piece down the privy at least a decennary after the abrogation of the Stamp Act .
