Stonehenge Inhabitants Fed On Internal Organs Of Cattle, Reveal Eggs Found In Prehistoric Faeces
Durrington Walls, which was a Neolithic settlement situated 2.8 kilometres from Stonehenge, is believed to have housed the people who built Stonehenge, and dates from around 2,500 BC.
New Delhi: Inhabitants of a prehistoric village near Stonehenge feasted on the internal organs of cattle and fed leftovers to their dogs, an analysis of ancient faeces has revealed.
Durrington Walls, which was a Neolithic settlement situated 2.8 kilometres from Stonehenge, the most famous prehistoric monument, is believed to have housed the people who built Stonehenge, and dates from around 2,500 BC.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge, was recently published in the journal Parasitology. The researchers investigated nineteen pieces of ancient faeces, or 'coprolite', found at Durrington Walls and preserved for more than 4,500 years, and found that five of the coprolites contain the eggs of parasitic worms. One of the coprolites belonged to humans, and four belonged to dogs.
What Makes The Discovery Special?
This is the earliest evidence for intestinal parasites in the United Kingdom where the host species that produced the faeces has also been identified, the study said.
In a statement released by University of Cambridge, Dr Piers Mitchell, the lead author of the study, said this is the first time intestinal parasites have been recovered from Neolithic Britain, and to find them in the environment of Stonehenge is really something. He added that the type of parasites the researchers found are compatible with previous evidence for winter feasting on animals during the building of Stonehenge.
What Did The Coprolites Consist Of?
According to the study, four of the coprolites contained the eggs of capillariid worms, which are identified in part by their lemon shape. Capillariids around the world infect a wide range of animals. However, it is on rare occasions that a European species infects humans. When this happens, the eggs get lodged in the liver and do not appear in the stool.
The person whose faeces the scientists found had eaten the raw or undercooked lungs or liver from an already infected animal, as indicated by the evidence of capillariid eggs in human faeces.
Over 38,000 Animal Bones Found
The main 'midden' or dung and refuse heap at Durrington Walls was excavated as part of the study. The archaeologists uncovered pottery and stone tools along with over 38,000 animal bones. Around 90 per cent of these bones were from pigs, with less than 10 per cent from cows. It was at this place that the researchers found partially mineralised faeces used in the study.
Mitchell said that the capillariid worms can infect cattle and other ruminants, because of which it seems that cows may have been the most likely source of the parasite eggs.
Some cattle were herded almost 100 kilometres from Devon or Wales to the site for large-scale feasting, previous isotopic analyses of cow teeth from Durrington Walls suggest. After observing patterns of butchery previously identified on cattle bones from the site, the authors concluded that beef was primarily chopped for stewing, and bone marrow was extracted.
What Do The Findings Indicate?
In the same statement, Evilena Anastasiou, who co-authored the study, said that finding the eggs of capillariid worms in both human and dog coprolites indicates that the people had been eating the internal organs of infected animals, and also fed the leftovers to their dogs.
In order to determine whether the coprolites excavated from the midden were from human or animal faeces, they were analysed for sterols and bile acids.
According to the study, one of the coprolites belonging to a dog contained the eggs of fish tapeworm. This indicated that it had previously eaten raw freshwater fish to become infected. This is the only evidence of fish consumption found at the site.
Mitchell said that Durrington Walls was occupied on a largely seasonal basis, mainly in winter periods, and that the dog probably arrived already infected with the parasite.
He added that isotopic studies of cow bones at the site suggest they came from regions across southern Britain, which was likely also true of the people who lived and worked there.
The study found that the dates for Durrington Walls match those for stage two of the construction of Stonehenge, when the world-famous 'trilithons' were erected. Trilithons are two massive vertical stones supporting a third horizontal stone.
The pottery and a vast number of animal bones found at Durrington Walls indicate that it was a place of feasting and habitation. However, Stonehenge itself was not a place of feasting and habitation, and there is little evidence to suggest people lived or ate there en masse.
Professor Mike Parker Pearson from the UCL Institute of Archaeology, Britain, who excavated Durrington Walls between 2005 and 2007, said that the new evidence tells researchers something new about the people who came to Durrington Walls for winter feasts during the construction of Stonehenge. The population were not eating freshwater fish at Durrington Walls, so they must have picked up the tapeworms from their home settlements, Pearson explained.
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