Archaeoparasitological characteristics of drains in the Phanagoria city of the Khazar period (VIII-IX centuries AD)

Abstract

This article reports the parasitic contamination of water-collecting drains in the Greek city of Phanagoria, dated back to the Khazar period (8th-9th centuries AD).Helminths of the Opistorchiidae and Diphyllobothriidae families were found in soil samples obtained from water conduits. Based on the life cycle of these parasites and the historical and archaeological context, the authors argue that both humans and animals could have become infected with them through eating fish from freshwater rivers and reservoirs of the Taman Peninsula, or, more likely, from more distant rivers. Taenia eggs discovered in the samples indicate that the dietary habits of the people who lived in Phanagoria in the Middle Ages included the consumption of insufficiently thermally processed meat of pigs, cattle, and small cattle.Numerous eggs of the genera Trichuris and Ascaris identified in the studied samples taken from water conduits could belong to humans and domestic animals (pigs). This fact suggests a settlement with poor sanitary conditions. A similar route of transmitting both geohelminths and various intestinal infections might indicate a high risk of infection with gastrointestinal infectious diseases in the population of medieval Phanagoria.The study showed that wastewater and rainwater were collected in watercourses and went to a cistern without prior treatment. Its use for drinking water is, therefore, highly improbable; it is more likely that this water source was used to water plants and livestock, providing the means by which geohelminths persisted in domestic animals and humans.