An analysis of human coprolites, that is, fossilized human excrement, has shed light on how humans lived 8,000 years ago (and the parasites that infected them).
A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge (England) performed a microscopic analysis of several samples of decomposed human feces, known in the academic world as coprolites, from a Neolithic village called Çatalhöyük. Established around 7,100 BC in what is now Turkey, Çatalhöyük is well preserved and contains some of the earliest evidence of social life in a time when humanity transitioned from hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers. Since the first toilet was not invented until 3,000 years later, the inhabitants of this town disposed of their feces in a pile of collective garbage.
“It has been suggested that this change in lifestyle resulted in a similar change in the types of diseases that later affected them. As the village is one of the largest and most densely populated of its time, this study in Çatalhöyük helps us to understand that process much better, “explains Piers Mitchell, leader of the work that publishes Antiquity magazine.
The ancient city of Çatalhöyük
Once the experts found evidence confirming that the coprolites were human and not animal (thanks to the sterols and bile acids), they focused on the parasites. Thus, among the remains of an omnivorous diet rich in vegetables, they found worm eggs . “It was a special moment to identify the eggs of the parasite that are more than 8,000 years old,” explains Evilena Anastasiou, co-author of the study.
Scientists extracted and analyzed various coprolites dating from 7,100 to 6,150 BC, as well as soil contaminated with feces from burial sites, to determine what types of parasitic infections might have impacted this ancient society.
Analyzing coprolites
In total, they found 12 eggs of ( Trichuris trichiura ) or whipworm, worms that reach between 30 and 50 millimeters in length and live attached to the large intestine where they can lay more than 5,000 eggs a day. This discovery took place in two samples from the landfill. This “special moment” of discovery reveals to us not only how humans transitioned between different lifestyles, but also how parasites evolved alongside them.
“As writing was invented 3,000 years after the time of Çatalhöyük, the locals were unable to record what happened to them during their lives,” said study co-author Marissa Ledger. “This research allows us for the first time to imagine the symptoms felt by some of the prehistoric settlers who lived in Çatalhöyük and who were infected by this parasite.”
Other similar Neolithic and Chalcolithic sites showed more parasite samples, suggesting that Çatalhöyük’s organization, its housing, infrastructure, and cultural practices, may have supported a more sanitary way of life that reduced the risk of contracting and spreading infectious diseases associated with the population boom.
The whipworm or whipworms (Trichuris trichiura) is an intestinal parasite in humans and livestock that still exist, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Disease Prevention. They are 3 to 4 centimeters long, and males and females live and mate in the lining of the intestines, where their eggs mix with feces and are sent out into the world when the individual poops. The infection can cause intestinal disease, anemia, and the painful passage of bloody and watery stools. Severe cases can even stunt growth and impair cognitive development in children.
Today, up to 800 million people around the world are infected with roundworms.
The discovery of roundworm eggs at Çatalhöyük is the oldest archaeological evidence for infection by intestinal parasites on the Near Eastern continent.
The team now wants to conduct a similar analysis of early hunter-gatherer remains to see how their lifestyle changes affected their infections as well.
Referencia: Marissa L. Ledger et al, Parasite infection at the early farming community of Çatalhöyük, Antiquity (2019). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2019.61
