In a BugBitten blog post, SciAnouk examines the surprising findings of a recent study that suggests friars in medieval England had a higher prevalence of helminths compared to the local population – despite having comparatively better nutrition and diet.
Collage of various helminth eggs. From left to right: Trichosomoides egg, Ascaris lumbricoides with larva hatching, sample of adult roundworms, Hymenolepis nana, Schistosoma mansoni and Toxocara canis with larva hatchingSusanA Secretariat, Catalina Maya Rendón, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia CommonsFriars, monasteries and health
In medieval towns sanitation was primarily using cesspit toilets, i.e. a hole dug in the ground. Whereas in monasteries the sanitation system was more advanced, typically involving a raised cistern, where water was drawn down by gravity, and ran through channels which diverted water through working areas of the monastery including through the latrines.
It is possible that some lay people were buried in the cemetery serving the monastery. To identify Augustinian friars from the monastery the researchers looked for remains with belt buckles, which indicated a clothed burial, a practice that was reserved for friars of the monastery. Lay people were interred in shrouds without belt buckles.
Because these are soil specimens from old burials the researchers used the following criteria to determine whether presence of eggs indicated a genuine infection at time of death rather than soil contamination :Twenty-five individuals were sampled from the cemetery for All Saints by the Castle parish . Nineteen individuals were identified as friars in the monastery cemetery and sampled.
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