Seventeenth-Century Danish Latrines Analyzed

News June 20, 2018

SHARE:

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK—Cosmos reports that two latrines made from partially buried wine barrels were found under a road that cut through the center of Copenhagen in the late seventeenth century. The latrines were originally placed in a garden. Mette Marie Hald of Denmark’s National Museum analyzed the excrement in the barrels, and found the residents enjoyed a diet of barley, oats, wild cherries, coriander, turnips, lettuce, hops, and mustard, in addition to herring, eels, and pork. Most of the recovered bone fragments were too degraded to identify, however. Some of the foods eaten by the Danes had been imported, such as figs, grapes, bitter orange, and lemons from the Mediterranean, buckwheat husks from the Netherlands, and cloves from Indonesia. Hald and her colleagues also detected the presence of roundworms, whipworms, and a tapeworm. The scientists concluded that Denmark’s Renaissance-era residents ate well, but poor hygienic conditions led to parasitic infestations. For more, go to “Vikings, Worms, and Emphysema.”

  • Features May/June 2018

    Global Cargo

    Found in the waters off a small Dutch island, a seventeenth-century shipwreck provides an unparalleled view of the golden age of European trade

    Read Article
    (Kees Zwaan/Courtesy Province of North Holland)
  • Letter From the Philippines May/June 2018

    One Grain at a Time

    Archaeologists uncover evidence suggesting rice terraces helped the Ifugao resist Spanish colonization

    Read Article
    (Jon Arnold Images Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo)
  • Artifacts May/June 2018

    Roman Sun Dial

    Read Article
    (Courtesy Alessandro Launaro)
  • Digs & Discoveries May/June 2018

    Conquistador Contagion

    Read Article
    (Christina Warinner. Image courtesy of the Teposcolula-Yucundaa Archaeological Project)