Pork and beef – along with their organs, such as liver – were eaten by humans in 2,500 BC near Stonehenge, in the United Kingdom. This has been discovered thanks to the analysis of the parasites in their feces.
A new analysis of ancient faeces found at a prehistoric village site near Stonehenge, UKhas uncovered evidence of parasitic worm eggs.
This suggests that the inhabitants feasted on the internal organs of cattle and fed the leftovers to their dogsas published in the journal ‘Parasitology’.
Durrington Walls was a Neolithic settlement located just 2.8 km from Stonehengeand dating from about 2500 a.C., when much of the famous stone monument was built. The site is believed to have housed the people who built Stonehenge.
A team of archaeologists, led by the University of Cambridge, investigated 19 pieces of ancient faeces, or coprolites, found at Durrington Walls and preserved for more than 4,500 years. Five of the coprolites (26%) – one human and four dog – contained parasitic worm eggs.
The researchers say this is the first evidence of intestinal parasites in the UK in which the host species that produced the faeces has also been identified.
“This is the first time intestinal parasites have been recovered in Neolithic Britain, and finding them in the Stonehenge environment is truly extraordinary,” study lead author Dr. Piers Mitchell of the Cambridge Department of Archeology-. The type of parasites we have found is consistent with previous evidence that animals fed in winter during the construction of Stonehenge.”
Parasites reveal that humans ate cattle organs
Four of the coprolites, including the human, contained hairworm eggs, identified in part by their lemon shape.
Although the many types of capillariids that exist in the world infect a wide range of animals, on the rare occasions that a European species infects humans, the eggs are lodged in the liver and do not appear in the feces.
Evidence of capillariid eggs in human feces indicates that the person had eaten the raw or undercooked lungs or liver of an already infected animal, causing parasite eggs to pass directly through the body.
During excavations of the main midden at Durrington Walls, archaeologists discovered pottery and stone tools along with more than 38,000 animal bones. About 90% of the bones were from pigs, and less than 10% from cows. The partially mineralized feces used in the study were also found here.
“Because hairworms can infect cattle and other ruminants, it appears that cows may have been the most likely source of the parasite’s eggs,” says Mitchell.
Previous isotopic analyzes of cow teeth from Durrington Walls suggest that some cattle were herded nearly 100 km from Devon or Wales to the site for a large-scale feast.
Previously identified butchery patterns on cattle bones from the site suggest that beef was primarily minced for cooking, with bone marrow removed.
“The finding of hairworm eggs in human and canine coprolites indicates that people ate the internal organs of infected animals and also fed leftovers to their dogs,” explains the report. co-author Evilena Anastasiouwho collaborated on the research while at Cambridge.
To determine whether the coprolites excavated from the dump came from human or animal faeces, they were analyzed for sterols and bile acids at the National Environmental Isotopes Facility at the University of Bristol.
One of the coprolites, belonging to a dog, contained fish tapeworm eggs, indicating that it had previously eaten raw freshwater fish to become infected. However, no other evidence of fish consumption, such as bones, has been found at the site.
“Durrington Walls was largely seasonally occupied, mainly in the winter periods. It is likely that the dog arrived already infected with the parasite, argues Piers Mitchell. Isotopic studies of the cow bones at the site suggest they came from regions across southern Britain, which was probably also the case with the people who lived and worked there.”
The dates of Durrington Walls coincide with those of the second stage of Stonehenge’s construction, when the world-famous “trilithons” – two huge upright stones supporting a third horizontal one – were erected, most likely by the seasonal residents of this nearby settlement.
While Durrington Walls was a place of banquets and dwellings, as evidenced by pottery and large numbers of animal bones, Stonehenge was not, as little evidence has been found that people lived or ate there en masse.
Professor Mike Parker Pearson, from the UCL Institute of Archaeology, who excavated at Durrington Walls between 2005 and 2007, adds: “This new evidence tells us something new about the people who came here for winter feasts during the construction of Stonehenge. ”.
“The pork and beef were roasted or boiled in clay pots, but it seems that the offal was not always cooked so well,” he adds. The population did not eat freshwater fish in Durrington Walls, so they must have caught the tapeworms in their original settlements.”