The fairly new technique of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry is throwing new light on ancient artifacts. When traces of organic material are recovered from old containers, we can determine what they once were. A Roman vial that was excavated in the city of Pergamon in Turkey was analyzed. They thought it would have held perfume, but what they found was quite the opposite- human feces. The brown flakes extracted fro the vial shown above tested positive for the compounds coprostanol and 24-ethylcoprostanolm which indicates fecal material. The ratios of those two point to a human origin. Other compounds indicate it was laced with a great amount of thyme, probably to mask the smell.
Notes from the Roman physician Galen and other written accounts tell about using feces as medicine, but this is the first time physical evidence has been found. Could the ancient Romans have been practicing a version of fecal transplants to change a patient's gut biome? Your guess is as good as mine. Read more about this research at Independent. -via Strange Company
(Unrelated image credit: Daderot)
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