pompeii poop

8/9/2019 Pompeii Poop

1/4

photo:corbis

90 discovery ch a nnel ma g a zine.com jun

PomPeii

oo

P

everybody does it,

but no one wants

to talk about it.

PooP, that is.

but thanks to

some scientific

detective work,

archaeologists

digging in Pom-

Peiis latrines are

revealing new

secrets about the

citys lifestyle.

by rachel sullivan

orensics


2/4

92 discovery ch a nnel ma g a zine.com june

kitchens so most Pompeiians ate out.

Latrines were few and far between, and

in many houses and eateries were locat-

ed right next to the kitchens so that all

of the kitchen refuse could be thrown in

the pit together with human waste.

They must have been pretty stinkyat the time, but today they are just dry

pits, Fairbairn says with a laugh. He

is quick to admit that while they still

have an earthy aroma, any poop smells

are long gone. But the archaeological

evidence is still there, rich and fertile.

Its these unsavoury morsels that have

Pompeiis archaeologists so excited. In

the past 30 years, archaeology in Pom-

peii has moved away from the big t icket

items of temple excavations and the like

to the minutiae of what life was like forordinary people, says Fairbairn.

cHAnGinG TAsTes

There was a revolution in archaeolo-

gists techniques in the early 1970s

photos:allisone

mmerson;andyfairbairn;photolibrary;corbis

when most people step

in poop, they just

scrape it o their

shoes and move on.

But to archaeologist

Dr Andy Fairbairn

with the University

of Queensland (UQ), Australia, poop is

good news, especially when it comesfrom the latrines of the most famous

ruins in the world.

Say Pompeii and everyone thinks

of the eruption of Vesuvius that buried

the city in AD 79, says Fairbairn. But

the eruption didnt just bury exciting

things such as sumptuous villas and

richly jewelled female visitors to gladi-

ators quarters, it also preserved the

more mundane artifacts, like oerings

to Roman household gods. And cess-

pits, or latrines.

In 2005, excavations in the Porta

Stabia (Stabian Gate) area uncovered

latrines and their perfectly preserved

contents. The dig team, led by Dr Steven

Ellis, Assistant Professor of Classics at

the University of Cincinnati in the Unit-ed States and director of the Pompeii

Archaeological Research Project: Porta

Stabia, knew the material in the latrines

was important, but needed someone

who could help determine what long-

buried poop might reveal. Fairbairn,

who studied ancient agriculture and

plant use at University College London

in England before joining UQ as a senior

lecturer in archaeology, had previous

experience teasing out nuggets of infor-

mation from prehistoric human rubbishsuch as middens and old cooking pots.

He tted the bill perfectly.

The dig site is adjacent to the main

entrance to the theatre district and

gladiators quarters, explains Fair-

bairn. This was a much less salubri-

ous part of Pompeii than that usually

described with images of grand villas

and the like. It was full of food joints

selling staples like at loaves and pies,

says Fairbairn, who has now spent four

years excavating and analysing dozensof Pompeii latrines.

We hear a lot about Roman stan-

dards of plumbing, but in this part of

Pompeii the arrangements were fairly

basic, he points out. Few houses had

oile reading 1890: The dea o tolet paper o a roll wa populared. 1710: The earlet kow wrtte reeree to a bdet. 123 ully-ladd 747 wh pp: Volume the ewer ytem the Uted state deal wth eah day. 1.5 m: Legth o large

a rare glimPse into the daily life of a long-dead civilisation

h uxpc, mssv up Vsuvus bu Pmp h by cs, v v bu su b uh by hss chss v hus ys .

excv s s cusm shs py psk m-c

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pal, a by-pdu ha u

mak huma


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when some archaeologists realised that

there were many preserved items that

hadnt been systematically studied.

Field techniques changed, and now

rubbish, previously ignored, is collect-

ed, notes Fairbairn. The development

of new methods of chemical analysis in

addition to the growth of biomolecular

archaeology (an interdisciplinary eld

involving chemistry, bioinformatics,

biomechanics, immunological assaying

and mass spectrometry, among others)

has provided fresh insights into the his-

tory of human civilisations, diseases

and agriculture.

The archaeology of food and drink

is also expanding, driven by advances

in forensic and other analytical tech-nologies in the 90s. Fairbairn says this

type of archaeology was originally de-

veloped for studies of prehistory that

lacked written records, and has led to

some very interesting nds that illumi-

nate life in ancient settlements.

Sera Baker, an organiser at the Uni-

versity of Nottinghams annual Food

and Drink in Archaeology conference,

agrees. She is currently studying ma-

terials from more than 100 shops in the

ancient city of Pompeii.

The archaeology [of food and drink]

has risen to prominence in recent years

towards exploring areas traditionally

unexamined by classicists and archae-

ologists of the 19th and 20th centu ries,

she says. The early diggers understand-ably preferred the magnicence of

monumental and imperial arch aeology,

like temples and palaces, but lacked

diligence towards the understanding of

everyday ancient lives.

In the 250 or so years that archae-

ology has been developing as a science,

understanding has progressed by leaps

and bounds, adds Baker. Todays ar-

chaeologists can explore sites non-

invasively and unlock secrets of diet

through microanalysis of organic mate-

rials coming from e xcavation.

Some ancient cities give up their se-

crets readily. Herculaneum, which was

also buried in the Vesuvian eruption,

had beautifully preserved food stores,

including ash-encrusted loaves of bread

and bowls lled with peas. Meanwhile,

Pompeiis food clues were preserved ina more primitive way down the loo.

LoADs o rUBBisH

According to Fairbairn, the excavated

latrines were originally lled with or-

ganic material mixed w

ter. That water contain

of minerals in solution

helped to fossilise and p

serve leaves, fruit, seeds

sh scales, bone ends,

frogs and even dor-

mice a Roman cui-

sine speciality, he

explains.

The archaeolo-

the eruPtion didnt just bury exciting things ...it also Preserved more mundane artifacts

roman remaiTh rma a

h aa y

hlp mba d

ad wh ama

Aqudu ad

wdd ,

la wa d

amu rma bah

h publ l.

b bh gl (latr

mul-a (orawa ad away h

m pp h du

v. Alhugh dd

phad wa

ulk may h r

Pmp dd hav

ym. iad m

had la ha

lad u m m

el hu uually

b p ha lav

h l h

aa ad kh. H

upa l hav

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ampl mal

ak m h dw

mg ha huma pad hugh.

photos:corbis;leighl

ieberman;courtesyandyfairbairn

hs sss p

s, whch wsu Pmp, ws kym p by s hcy jus b hvcc up.

h m m Pmps s uhuh mch sp ss,bs h sm ms m h s.

150 gam: Amout o poop produed by a hld eah day. appx. 200 gam: Amout o poop produed by a adult eah day. a 2,6001,900 Bce: The world rt fuh tolet were veted by people lvg Pakta idu Valley.

ac Pmp ws m cy sm, wh ss h w bu hy busss jus s w y. hfs Pmp c h; mh scvs pf bs hss h cy hush mssuch s bws vs.


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gists have also found a good cross-sec-

tion of dierent rubbish that has given

an interesting picture of what was go-

ing on in Pompeiis economy prior to

the eruption.

In earlier periods, such as the4th century BC, people were using ev-

eryday agricultural products cha and

grains that you normally nd in cities

where people are engaged in local agri-

cultural production and are using those

things everyday, Fairbairn says. But

over time we nd dierent products

cherries, grapes and dates, suggest-

ing wide trade networks, and lumps of

bread, but not the raw grains used to

produce the bread.

Other things such as garum a pun-

gent sh sauce widely used in Roman

cooking that was usually made in back-

yard pits was still being consumed,

but the evidence seems to indicate that

it was no longer being locally manufac-

tured. Researchers discovered the rawmaterials and equipment for producing

it in the lower (older) layers but not in

the upper, newer layers. This has been

demonstrated by the disappearance

of the big tanks full of sh scales and

bones that are found lower down in the

archaeological record.

Although we still have hundreds

of samples and years of work ahead,

this is solid evidence that the city was

evolving and engaging in a wider rangeof activities; it was moving away from

the production of goods in dispersed

cottage industries to more specialised

industrial production and trading, as-

serts Fairbairn.

Baker agrees, pointing out that

many types of food were available in

the Roman world, especially at Pom-

peii, due to the fertile volcanic soils. In

fact, Baker adds, this variety of foods is

discussed in the works of ancient Latin

scholars such as Pliny the Elder. Baker

says that it looks like the Pompeiians

ate a balanced, omnivorous diet, prob-

ably biased towards vegetables and

grains because of the higher cost of

meat production. But there is still more

poop analysis to come.Microscopic analysis of organic re-

mains will reveal much more of what

the ancient diet of Pompeii was, she

says. Other surviving evidence such as

loaves of bread, eggs, the remains of sh

sauce and olive oil con

be analysed and combin

tural data and pictorial

wall paintings to provid

detailed overall picture

eruption-era PompeiianAll this provides a

derstanding of what th

were eating, how they w

their food and their ma

it, adds Baker.

As a ruin, Pompeii

glimpse into the daily life

civilisation. Scatological

like Fairbairn believe th

data discovered to also

into why great societies l

and the Maya ultimately

This helps show tha

dont understand the

they inhabit, even the m

civilisation can go dow

Fairbairn grins as he say

photos:photolib

rary;allisone

mmerson

67 m: Legth o mall tete. Hudd huad: no. o ger-lke projeto (vll) the mall tete. 1775: The rt patet or the fuhg water loet wa ued to Alexader cummg.

urther readg:

The Pompeii Food and Drink P

(www.pompe-ood-ad-drk

Latrinae et Foricae: Toilets in

by Barry Hobo

a pcu wh Pmp wsk c ms c b pch m ms ms hm cv m h u.

B ws sp bck rm ms. ahuh b ws pmy h pbs, h v wk czs rm, ws s

early diggersPreferred themagnificenceof monumentaland imPerialarchaeology, butlacked diligencetowards theunderstandingof everydayancient lives

pompeii poop

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