Many monasteries of the Augustinian order were already very progressive in the Middle Ages: the monks present went about their business in separate latrine units and were also able to wash their hands there. Yet they were twice as likely to have intestinal parasites as the common people, who long lacked such facilities. This is shown by a study by Tianyi Wang from the University of Cambridge and her team in the International Journal of Paleopathology.
The working group examined soil samples from graves that came from various cemeteries in Cambridge. While in the older cemetery of the church All Saints by the Castle mainly people with a low social status at that time were buried, wealthy citizens who shopped there were buried next to the monks within the monastery walls. However, the two groups can be easily distinguished on the basis of certain characteristics such as metallic clothing elements. In total, Wang and Co sampled 44 graves from the period between the 10th and 14th centuries, the sediments of which they sifted for the remains of certain parasites such as roundworms and whipworms: the eggs of the animals are very robust and can survive in the ground for a long time .
The scientists only considered people to be infected if they found parasite eggs in the pelvic area – where they should also find their final resting place after the intestines have decomposed – or if the number of such eggs in the abdomen was four times more frequent than on the head. or foot end. Contaminated soil used at the burial could have carried eggs there as well.
In fact, Wang and co found elevated levels of parasite eggs in 11 of the 19 monk graves examined, but only in 8 out of 25 cases in the rest of the population. Studies from other European cemeteries regularly showed evidence of parasites in around a third of the dead: the value could therefore correspond to the exposure of people to worms and the like at the time. In contrast, the proportion of monks is significantly higher, although they lived under more hygienic conditions.