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My theory is that the middens in medieval stone monasteries were better preserved and easier to analyze than the temporary mobile outhouse holes of yer typical
by bregma 4y ago
My theory is that the middens in medieval stone monasteries were better preserved and easier to analyze than the temporary mobile outhouse holes of yer typical villein. It's not that monks were more susceptible to parasites, but that their intestinal evidence was more available to researchers.
- kuhewa 4y agoThis is the most parsimonious explanation to me as well, unless there is a way to groundtruth egg preservation in each location, it seems quite likely that the proportion of eggs surviving 600-800 years will vary between locations.
- bluGill 4y agoThis was an analysis of graves though, what individual people died with. I have no idea how or if burial rights were different for monks vs regular people. (both were probably christian, though there could well have been small differences which may or may not be significant.
- kuhewa 4y agoCan't edit previous comment but - I tracked down the actual study, the soil was indeed from graves (right under the sacrum where the bowels were) and was compared to control samples by the head or feet of the grave. The friars were buried with clothes, the laypeople in shrouds so similar deal and the sites were a few hundred meters apart so about as well controlled as you could expect, I reckon.