Parasite remains in archaeological sites

Food, parasites, and epidemiological transitions: A broad perspective

“…Parasitological data from Europe have been reviewed by several authors, including Bouchet et al (2003b), Le Bailly and Bouchet (2010), and Reinhard and Pucu (2013). Reviews have covered human remains dating from before the Neolithic period to the nineteenth century.…”

“…For European cultures, the results indicate the existence of distinct first and second paleoepidemiological transitions with the emergence of parasitic disease and progressive exacerbation of infections from the early Neolithic until the Industrial Revolution. Bouchet et al (2003b) and Le Bailly and Bouchet (2010) argue that zoonotic parasitism may have ebbed and flowed over the centuries in Europe associated with periods of famine, when people turned to a broader range of dietary resources. During such times, humans were infected with parasites when ingesting infected raw fish, for example.…”

“…This is characterized in the parasitological record by ubiquitous infections with geohelminths (soil transmitted helminths) (Reinhard and Pucu, 2013). By contrast, zoonotic infections from wild reservoirs become less common as zoonotic infections from domesticated reservoirs increases (Bouchet et al, 2003b;Le Bailly and Bouchet, 2010).…”

Roman impact on the landscape near castellum Fectio, The Netherlands

“…Non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), such as fungal spores and algae, were identified using Lundqvist (1972), van Geel (1978), van Geel and Aptroot (2006), van Geel et al (1981, 2003) and Vánky (1994. To check for the presence of intestinal parasite eggs (indicators of faeces; Bouchet et al 2003), three samples (at 235, 245 and 337 cm depth) were processed by W.J. Kuijper (Archaeology and Bio-Archaeology Department of Leiden University).…”

“…Strong additional indicators of the presence of faeces are the eggs of Trichuris (whipworm) and Ascaris (roundworm) (e.g. Kuijper and Turner 1992;Bouchet et al 2003). Both are intestinal parasites that live in the gut of mammals (Florenzano et al 2012).…”