Posted on 06/01/2019 9:52:38 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Çatalhöyük is one of the largest and best preserved Neolithic sites in the world. It is located southeast of the modern Turkish city of Konya, about 90 miles (145 km) from Mount Hasan.
The population of Çatalhöyük were early farmers, growing crops such as wheat and barley, and herding sheep and goats.
It is thought the people living at Çatalhöyük either went to the rubbish tip (midden) to open their bowels, or carried their feces from their houses to the midden in a vessel or basket to dispose of them.
To look for the eggs of intestinal parasites, Dr. Ledger and colleagues used microscopy to study the coprolites from Çatalhöyük. The samples dated from 7,100-6150 BCE.
To determine whether the coprolites excavated from the midden were from human or animal feces, they were analyzed for sterols and bile acids. This analysis demonstrated that the coprolites were of human origin.
Further microscopic analysis showed that eggs of whipworm were present in two of the coprolites, demonstrating that people from the prehistoric village were infected by this intestinal parasite.
“It was a special moment to identify parasite eggs over 8,000 years old,”
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
Whoops. Wrong winda.
Catal Hoyuk is a large site, was a large town for the Neolithic, and AFAIK it had no streets, apart from the rooftops, accessed via ladder through the smoke-hole.
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