Roman soldiers defending Hadrian’s Wall in Britain were well acquainted with diarrhea and stomachaches, according to a new study that found evidence of at least three different intestinal parasites in the soil near centuries-old toilets.
The finding shows that Roman guts suffered greatly,in spite of the wall having what was then a state-of-the-art sewer system.
The auxiliary fort of Vindolanda in northern England was occupied by the Romans from the first through the fourth centuries. The fort stood just south of Hadrian’s Wall wich was first built in A.D. 122 to protect the northernmost extent of the Roman Empire. Vindolanda is known for its oxygen-free layers of mud, which have helped preserve perishable material like writing tablets, leather shoes and even bedbugs.## Ancient Roman toilet Unearths First Evidence of Giardia in Britain
The presence of all three parasites suggests fecal contamination of water or food sources at Vindolanda, the researchers wrote in the study. But while whipworms and roundworms have been identified before in Roman Britain, this is the first evidence for *G. duodenalis*.
“Archaeological sites in Britain dating to before the arrival of the Romans have not been systematically tested for *Giardia*,” study co-author Piers Mitchell a paleoparasitologist at the University of Cambridge,told Live Science in an email,so “it remains unknown whether this parasite was in the U.K. prior to
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