Judging by the deal of century - erstwhile poop of late found in a British marshland , the Bronze Age was a pretty grueling sentence to be alive , full of abdomen aches , bad food , and powderise kidney .
A recent archeological survey has found that the fossilize dirt found at a former farm was riddled with lilliputian eggs , clearly showing that the farm - dwellers ' bodies were home to a filthy bunch of bloodsucking mintage , including the “ giant kidney worm ” that can grow up to a metre in length .
The excavation was recently carried out by archaeologist from the University of Cambridge atMust Farm , a 3,000 - twelvemonth - honest-to-god liquidation found on the outskirts of Peterborough in the east of the UK . The 1,100 - square - cadence ( 11,840 square feet ) closure was destroyed by stupendous fire around 3,000 years ago that make the wooden dwelling house to crumple into a river , preserving the contents in situ . Due to the calibre of the artifacts left behind and the site ’s scale leaf , Must Farm has been nickname “ Britain ’s Pompeii ” .
Reporting in the journalParasitology , the researchers collected and analyzed human " coprolites , " pieces of fossilized ordure , go out in the waterlogged ground and used microscopy techniques to detect ancient parasite egg . What they describe , as you could imagine , was n’t pretty : clear evidence of fish tapeworms , elephantine kidney worm ( Dioctophyma renale ) , pig whipworms , and Capillaria dog works .
" We have discover the earliest evidence for fish tapeworm , Echinostoma worm , and giant kidney dirt ball in Britain , " hint author Dr Piers Mitchell of Cambridge ’s Department of Archaeology say in astatement .
" These parasites are spread by eat new aquatic animals such as Pisces , amphibian , and mollusks . live on over slow - move water may have protected the inhabitants from some parasite , but put them at risk of infection of others if they run through fish or frogs . "
Thegiant kidney wormis an specially unpleasant sponger . Adult female person can pass over 1 meter ( 3 feet ) in length , making them the expectant bonk parasitic nematode infecting humans . After being consume by a legion , the larvae migrate through the gut wall to the liver , and eventually to the kidney where it lives off mineral deposition .
give the lack of hygienics and close proximity to animals , parasite were trite through most of pre - modern history . While they might not be particularly fun for the infected person , they do help us get a surprisingly deep apprehension of people ’s diets , life style , and environment .
“ As writing was only introduced to Britain hundred later with the Romans , these people were ineffectual to record what materialise to them during their liveliness . This research enables us for the first time to clearly understand the infective diseases experienced by prehistoric masses living in the Fens , ” said first author Marissa Ledger .
