[Sca-cooks] Water Purity was: Mustards

[Daniel Phelps]

Was written:
>
> I recall reading a comment (IIRC, NY Times) that modern
> archeological examination of period cesspools (coprolites)
> in London showed that the residents played host to every
> parasite known to man.
>
The following clipped from a article I wrote regarding an A/S entry I
created may in this area amuse.

Snip

"Page 127 of Mr. Hall's book "The Viking Dig" shows a picture of a plank
perforated in its middle by a single large slightly elliptical hole which
the author has successfully dated to the 12th century.  As the plank was
found in what was identified by its contents to be a 12th century cess pit
and the hole the plank contains was of the proper dimensions his analysis of
the artifact and its surroundings strongly suggested to him its function.
Mr. Hall states that the eggs of gut worms with which the whole population
of York was infested were found in huge numbers, mainly in cess-pits,
(italics added) during the dig.  Additional evidence regarding the excretory
nature of the materials within the specific pit in question further
confirmed its purpose.  The author thus identified the plank to be a privy
seat which had apparently been originally placed over the cess pit in which
it was found and then, due to misadventure, lost into its stygian and
presumably odoriferously pungent depths.  The hole in the plank would thus
be, by extension, the hole over which persons of either sex sat and expelled
bodily waste through the plank into the cess pit below.  David MaCaulay in
his book "Castle" reconstructs this use of such fully penetrating holes on
pages 42 and 43 of that text.  His illustrations, regarding a hypothetical
late 13th century castle's domestic waste disposal system; depict cess pits,
privy seats and privy seat holes in their proper relationship within several
garderobes.  While the period Mr. MaCaulay researched for his speculative
reconstruction post dates, by approximately 100 years, the privy seat hole
at York and his castle's hypothetical privy was in Wales, it is my
conjecture that fashion in privy seat hole design and the science of
domestic waste engineering itself probably had not altered appreciably
either in the intervening century or across the distance.   To borrow a
phase, it is a matter of a rose by any other name still having its scent.
Form in such mundane matters can indeed be expected to follow function and
thus I submit that Mr. MaCaulay's research should be valid for my recreation
as well.

Snip

Hall, R., 1984, "The Excavation at York, The Viking Dig" The Bodley Head
Ltd., 9 Bow Street, London
gutworms pps. 96 and 97
cesspit p. 127

MaCaulay, David, 1977, "Castle" Houghton Mifflin Co. 2 Park St., Boston, MA
02108
Garderobes pp. 42 and 43.