Senior Archaeobotanist Karen Stewart takes us through the wonderful and informative world of archaeological poo.
Archaeobotany can often be seen as one of the less glamorous strands of archaeology. Unlike artefacts, which can be viewed as soon as they emerge from the ground, it sometimes takes months, or even years, to get results from environmental sampling. Even so, I think environmental archaeology can tell us just as much about people’s daily lives as fragments of pot or metalwork. One aspect that can provide us with an immediate link to people in the past is the archaeology of food. When you discover remains that are similar to what you eat, there’s an immediate connection to the people in the past who were consuming them.
Which leads me to my favourite part of archaeobotany – poo. Digging in London’s urban environment means we frequently come across human and animal waste. Often this material is found in pits dug specifically for the purpose – cess pits. Finding environmental remains in these conditions commonly means you can really tell that you’re looking at food. Unfortunately, our collections are normally biased towards plants that have survived the digestion process, or were discarded before they could get that far.
