PADERBORN, GERMANY—La Brújula Verde reports that a German archaeological team under the supervision of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) recovered an exceptionally well-preserved notebook from a medieval toilet in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The discovery was made during construction of a new administrative headquarters in the city of Paderborn. The four- by three-inch book contains 10 wooden tablet pages coated in wax, onto which the object’s owner etched writing using a metal or bone stylus. The volume was also carefully protected by a leather cover that was stamped with motifs of lilies. Although experts have not yet translated any of the passages, the text was written in Latin in a cursive handwriting that can be stylistically dated to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The use of Latin suggests that the notebook’s owner may have belonged to the literate upper echelon of medieval German society. It is possible that a wealthy merchant used it to make short notes on commercial transactions and to record personal reflections before being accidentally dropped into the latrine. In the future, experts are hoping to examine documents in the city’s historical archives that might be able to link the property to a specific landowner. To read about sanitation management in medieval Holland, go to "Letter from Leiden: Of Cesspits and Sewers."
