THE LLOYD'S BANK COPROLITE

One of the most beautiful cities in England (or so I have been told; I have not yet had the privilege of going there) is York. Settled over 2,000 years ago and nestled by the Ouse and Foss rivers, it is full of picturesque buildings and quaint cobblestone streets.

However, in the Middle Ages and prior to modern plumbing, it was a literal cesspool. It sits on a mass of compacted sewage, rubbish and filth which accumulated over the centuries and which is about ten feet (three meters) thick. The soil is waterlogged and virtually oxygen-free, and items such as wood, bone, and other organic material, instead of decomposing in a short period of time, have lingered for over a thousand years. This includes numerous items from the time that the Vikings occupied the settlement (from 866 to 954 AD). The digging of foundations for new construction in the 20th century yielded over 40,000 Viking artifacts and led to the establishment in 1984 of the Jorvik Viking Centre in the city.

However, the item most visitors to the museum section of the Centre flock to see is not one of the coins, weapons, bone ice skates, or dice. Remember I said that "other organic material" lingered for thousands of years? The crown jewel (or should I say "crown stool") of the collection is the Lloyd's Bank Coprolite (also known as the "Lloyd's Bank Turd"), discovered in 1972 when the ground was being excavated for the York branch of  Lloyd's Bank. It is a lump of feces from a Viking and was deposited at the bank 1,200 years ago.

Weighing in at over half of a pound and nine inches long, it probably was the poop of a not just any Viking but instead of a very constipated one. According to paleoscatologist (now there's a career for you!) Andrew Jones, who appraised it for insurance purposes, it is the most exciting example of exquisite excrement ever encountered. An examination of the item revealed that its original owner had a diet rich in meat and grains but lacking much in fruit or vegetables. The specimen was also loaded with the eggs of maw-worms and whipworms and is a stark testimonial to the poor sanitation in Viking villages and the consequences of building latrines too close to the water supply.

You may well ask, why is this particular poop so special when I just told you that there is a layer of sewage ten feet thick underneath the city? The Lloyd's Bank Coprolite is unique in that it is from a single individual--not like the undifferentiated mass which constitutes most of the organic material remaining from the settlement.

The museum is very proud of its prize exhibit, and has recreated a Viking latrine, complete with the appropriate aroma, to provide the proper atmosphere. It has even recovered, through the use of glue, from the Turd Trauma Tragedy of 2003 when a visiting teacher dropped the relic and it broke into three pieces.

One can only wonder if the burly Norseman doing his business twelve hundred years ago had any suspicion that his trophy would ever be so venerated. I guess you could also wonder what he used (if anything) for toilet paper.

For more information on this precious piece of poop, click on the delightful Today I Found Out website.

By Linda Spashett Storye book (Own work)
 [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)],
 via Wikimedia Commons