At its peak, the Roman Empire spanned three continents surrounded the Mediterranean, and was the home of a fifth of the population of the planet. The Romans brought roads, bridges, and, perhaps most importantly, sanitation. But a new study of ancient feces casts doubt on how effective the Roman sewage system was to improve public health.
"I think it's a good piece of work," says Jürg Utzinger, an epidemiologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who was not involved in the study. "It is not a easy task, because we are talking of the review feces dating back thousands of years ago. "
For sanitation, the Roman Empire seemed to do much good: There were public bathing facilities, public toilets, and orders dictating how the waste should be disposed. Rome itself had an impressive sewer system-famous aqueducts. "In the Roman Empire, where they improved sanitation, I would have expected some decline in parasitic infections," says Utzinger.
But that is not what the new study. Piers Mitchell, a paleontologist at the University of Cambridge in the UK, combed through previous studies of more than 50 archaeological sites around the Mediterranean to get an idea of what the parasites were living in and on humans before and after the Romans took over. Many of these studies relied on microscopes and chemical tests or DNA to detect parasites and their eggs in the soil from tanks and public latrines. Mitchell has focused its analysis on these sites because they contained fossilized dung, called coprolites, which can keep eggs of parasites and DNA for thousands of years. Using this evidence, he described the geographic extent of several parasites.
Despite technology sanitation Romans, Mitchell found that intestinal parasites like whipworms ( Trichuris trichiura ), roundworm ( Ascaris lumbricoides ) and Entamoeba histolytica (the causative agent of dysentery) increased in areas after the Romans showed up. He says he was surprised at first, but believes that the increases actually have logical explanations.
Although the Romans were at the forefront of sanitation technology, they do not yet understand the germ theory and they do not know much about parasites, either. Historical documents show that farmers used human waste collected in the cities to fertilize their crops. Parasite eggs can stay alive in feces for a long time and, according to Mitchell, the practice could easily have contributed to the success of the roundworm.
Moreover, Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, self-professed "Queen of latrines" and a classical archaeologist at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study says it is difficult to know exactly what is the prevalence of the use of human excrement as fertilizer was actually during the Roman Empire: "We can only say that in some texts on agriculture early we know that they build the slave toilets to an area where feces could be collected and spread on crops, but that was just on isolated farms here and there. "However it also notes that many Romans, without access to sewer systems used inside emptying toilets also often located just off the kitchen. That waste was used as fertilizer, she said, it is easy to see how parasites could have ended up in food.
the new study also identifies saunas as a potential hotspot of disease. Although the Romans designed to promote cleanliness, most installations were badly maintained and the water was allowed to grow dirty-acquisition of a "scum on the surface of dirt and human cosmetics," writes Mitchell. The hot and humid environment may have provided an ideal breeding ground for parasites.
Mitchell's analysis, published online today in Parasitology , also shows that the Roman Empire often spread tapeworms of fish in the conquered regions. "They are about 20 to 25 feet long, and they wrap around the inside of your intestines. People get them from eating raw or undercooked fish," he says. The Romans many cooked foods, but they have also fostered a sauce called garum, which is made by fermenting fish pieces and various seasonings under the hot sun. Because the sauce is never heated, Mitchell postulated that it may have been an ideal vector for the spread of tapeworm eggs fish around the empire. As the empire expanded, it brought along its culinary culture and its parasites.
The new analysis also shows that the head and pubic lice were common throughout the empire, as well as fleas and bedbugs.
But despite all this, Koloski-Ostrow said it would be a mistake to write off the Romans as a dirty or disgusting society. Many of their ideas, such as fertilizers and saunas were fundamentally sound, but just missed the mark in terms of performance because they simply did not understand how germs and parasites were distributed, she said . "You can not blame the Romans for that. It is something they are not honestly aware of"
Fixed, January 8, 11:15 :. This story was corrected to reflect this reasearch was published in Parasitology instead of The American Journal of Parasitology .
0 Komentar