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Between the 12th and the 16th centuries, the city of Bruges in Belgium was an important commercial hub, home to a number of foreign merchant communities, several of whom set up their own ‘nation houses’, which served as administrative seats and meeting places. In 1996, excavations were carried out at the site of the late medieval Spanish nation house. Among the discoveries was a latrine, which radiocarbon dating revealed was in use between the 15th and early/mid-16th centuries. The contents of this latrine have now been analysed, revealing the presence of an array of parasites.
The researchers identified all the usual suspects previously found in the local medieval population, including roundworm, whipworm, and tapeworm, but they also discovered an egg from the species Schistosoma mansoni. This parasitic flatworm burrows into the skin during contact with infected water, and causes schistosomiasis, an acute and chronic disease that still affects millions of people today.
S mansoni is endemic to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and is believed to have spread to South America in the 16th century. Today, 90% of infections still occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. This 15th-/16th-century case could have been picked up either by a merchant living at the Spanish nation house in Bruges who had travelled to Africa for business, or by an African individual, possibly a victim of the early Atlantic slave trade, who used the latrine during a visit to the nation house.
Only one other archaeological instance of S mansoni is known from medieval Europe. This discovery therefore represents a rare piece of direct evidence for early human movement of the parasite outside its endemic regions. The discovery enriches our understanding of life in medieval Bruges, and is important, too, for understanding the history of a parasite that that continues to pose a risk to modern populations. The research has been published in the journal Parasitology (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182024001100).
Text: Amy Brunskill / Image: © Marissa Ledger, McMaster University
