Martin Jensen Søe

Abstract The neglected tropical disease trichuriasis is caused by the whipworm Trichuris trichiura, a soil-transmitted helminth that has infected humans for millennia. Today, T. trichiura infects as many as 500 million people, predominantly in communities with poor sanitary infrastructure enabling sustained faecal-oral transmission.

High-resolution insight into parasitic infections and diet of past populations in Northern Europe and the Middle East (500 BC- 1700 AD) was obtained by pre-concentration of parasite eggs from ancient latrines and deposits followed by shotgun sequencing of DNA. Complementary profiling of parasite, vertebrate and plant DNA proved highly informative in the study of ancient health, human-animal interactions as well as animal and plant dietary components.

Traditionally, midden deposits have been investigated using zooarchaeological approaches, which typically require excavations of large volumes of sediment. Here we used a less intrusive DNA-based alternative that is independent of diagnostic bone fragments and is able to detect remains from a range of different organic sources such as skin, meat, fat, keratinaceous material and bone.