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Revolting ingredients for the manufacturing of luxurious ancient perfume. Source: creative_content/Adobe Stock

10 Most Revolting Ingredients Used in Ancient Perfumes

Who doesn’t enjoy a good perfume? Well, at least they are better than enduring some natural human odors! Today, perfumes are a commodity available to millions of people, coming in all sorts of scents...
Prehistoric dinosaur dung, a.k.a. a coprolite. Source: Public domain

How Did Fossilized Dino Droppings Spark a Dung Rush?

Coprolite, also known as prehistoric poo, has been highly prized since its discovery in the 19th century. Regarded as a priceless treasure-trove by paleontologists and archaeologists alike, mining...
Mature ambergris, a.k.a. amber gris, is a valuable commodity which often washes up on the shore. Source: spline_x / Adobe Stock

Arabians Used Ambergris Whale Feces To Make Perfume!

The origin of ambergris was a mystery for many hundreds of years. Christened “floating gold”, for millennium various cultures have been using ambergris and attributing it with fantastical qualities...
A new study has clearly revealed new information about the people who built Stonehenge (left image) by analyzing their Stonehenge feces! The image on the right shows a parasitic capillariid worm egg found in Stonehenge poop at Durrington Walls.	Source: Left: Adam Stanford; Right: Evilena Anastasiou / Parasitology

Builders of Stonehenge Feasted On Parasites Shows Prehistoric Poop Study

A new study published in the journal Parasitology analyzed prehistoric Stonehenge feces from Durrington Walls, a Neolithic settlement just 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) from Stonehenge and found that it...
5th century chamber pot from the Roman villa at Gerace, Sicily (Italy). Source: Roger Wilson / Journal of Archaeological Science

Parasite Traces Show ‘Storage Jars’ Were Actually Portable Chamber Pots

A brilliant new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science highlights how the archaeologists and researchers involved in analyzing a 1,500-year-old chamber pot have developed a unique...
According to the latest study, the Iron Age diet of Europeans was rich in grains, fermented blue cheese, and beer. 		Source: wideonet / Adobe Stock

The Iron Age Diet: Lots Of Blue Cheese and Beer, Poop Study Shows

Research on poop samples, or palaeofaeces, preserved in the underground salt mines of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hallstatt in Austria has revealed startling new facts about the Iron Age diet...
Scientists Dig for Answers in Medieval Loos!

Scientists Dig for Answers in Medieval Loos!

A medieval toilet may not be the first place you’d want to dig as an archaeologist, but old latrines are surprisingly good at revealing secrets to life in the Middle Ages! A team of scientists...
Scientists are using AI to distinguish between ancient poo left by prehistoric humans and dogs. Source: Wallpaper Flare

The Origin of Poop: AI to Predict Source of Ancient Feces

Archaeologists have applied the principals of AI to distinguish between ancient human and dog poo, cleaning up a storm of scientific confusion over the matter. Looking deep into the future, in...
Ancient Poop Busts Myth of Lost Cahokia Tribe

Ancient Poop Busts Myth of Lost Cahokia Tribe

A University of California, Berkeley, archaeologist has dug up ancient human feces, among other demographic clues, to challenge the narrative around the legendary demise of Cahokia , North America's...
Overview of Machu Picchu, agriculture terraces and Huayna Picchu peak in the background   Source: davidionut / Adobe stock

Sacrilegious Tourists Defecate at the Sun Temple of Machu Picchu

Six disgusting travelers are being accused of willfully damaging and defecating in the sacred Sun Temple of Machu Picchu and are facing jail time. Lots hopefully. Machu Picchu is in Peru’s top three...
Example of a “hand-shaped” knife during sharpening with a metal file after freezing. Source: Eren / Journal of Archaeological Science.

Scientists Recreate Inuit Knife Out of Their Own Frozen Poop

Recent hands-on experiments determined human feces cannot be made into frozen knives to dismember dogs. A new scientific paper opens with a story from the 1998 book Shadows in the Sun: Travels to...
The ancient city of Çatalhöyük

Ancient Feces Reveal Parasites Plagued 9,000-Year-Old City of Catalhoyuk

Garbage dumps are always exciting places for archaeologists. They often tell us the stories that are hidden or seen as unimportant to share with future generations, but these tales provide...
Whole rattlesnake found in human-produced coprolites.

Whole Rattlesnake Including Fangs Found Inside Lump of Fossilized Human Poo

Rattlesnake fangs are known to deliver hemotoxic venom which destroys human tissue causing disrupted blood clotting (necrosis and coagulopathy). But scientists have found one encased inside a human-...
Peasants Fighting

Violent Water and Filth? People Fought Dirty in the Medieval Streets of Aberdeen, Scotland

City of Aberdeen, Scotland Medieval records show people took fighting dirty to a whole new level as they may have been throwing urine and feces at one another during arguments. Newly discovered...
Archaeologists Match 300-Year-Old Clump of Fecal Matter to the Bishop that Made it

Archaeologists Match 300-Year-Old Clump of Fecal Matter to the Bishop that Made it

What is in a turd? It all depends on the era that it was produced in, the person’s status in society, and of course what he ate beforehand. It turns out if you were eating at the table of the bishop...