Latrine Practices and Health Risks

I really enjoyed this article from the LA Times that discusses research from the archaeological site of Qumran in Israel, thought by many to be the home of the religious community that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. Apparently contemporary writings describe elaborate cleansing rituals involved with using their latrines and these have been confirmed through the archaeological excavations. What the archaeologists have found is that the concentration of waste in pits and the large amounts of contaminated water used to "cleanse" people actually had the effect of encouraging the spread of parasites and degrading the health of the people there.

Very interesting reading.

This reminded me of a discussion I had with a colleague some days ago, when I pointed out that most studies of the skeletal remains of prehistoric hunter-gatherers show that they were taller, more robust, healthier and longer-lived than the Neolithic agriculturalists that succeeded them. This is probably attributable to a better diet - a wider variety of wild foods - and to the fact that hunter-gatherers moved around a lot so that their waste and trash didn't have a chance to build up around them. Agriculturalists tend to stay in one place and their (and their animals') waste piles up around them causing the health risks discussed in the article above.


I illustrated the situation with the photo above. This is a picture of one of the Hopi Villages (in Arizona) Walpi, taken by A.C. Vroman in 1897. The masses of dark stuff along the cliff ledges below the walls are largely - what's a good term? - nightsoil. The Hopi just flung it over the edge of the mesa as they had for a thousand years. Those of us who live with flush toilets tend to forget what an issue that was for our ancestors.