Opening Up a Can of Worms: Putting Archaeological Evidence for Intestinal Parasites in Conversation with Early Medieval Medical Manuscripts

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 1: Landscapes, Food, and Health" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In what ways did early medieval people of the Atlantic Archipelago encounter parasitic worms within and about their bodies, and how did these gutsy matters affect their daily lived experiences? To begin answering these questions, we should consider, alongside environmental archaeological data, textual sources in the form of early medieval medical manuscripts. Therefore, I will first present examples of Trichuris trichiura and Ascaris lumbricoides eggs preserved in human coprolites from excavated sites dating between 800–1000 CE. The sites I will discuss are Coppergate—the Anglo-Scandinavian urban deposits—in York, England, and Fishergate Street, an Hiberno-Norse urban conurbation located in Dublin, Ireland. Next, I will consider this evidence together with Medicinale Anglicum (Royal MS 12 D XVII) and the Lacnunga (BL, Harley 585)—two texts compiled in the ninth century—which show that medieval people were very much aware of their uninvited parasitic guests and were knowledgeable about plant-based cures to help dispel them. Intestinal parasites, especially in urban settings, were likely ubiquitous in the day-to-day lives of early medieval people. We can begin to unpack these nonhuman entanglements through text and archaeology to understand how people coped and understood their bodies and navigated their local ecologies to find herbal remedies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 1: Landscapes, Food, and Health   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37901.0