A dark brown flake found inside a 1,900-year-old Roman glass bottle is the first direct evidence that human faeces was used for medical purposes, new chemical analysis has revealed. Faeces were mixed with thyme to mask the odor, and the concoction may have been used to treat inflammation and infection.
“While working in the archives of the Bergama Museum, we noticed that some of the glass containers contained residue,” Archaeologist Cenker Atila of Turkey’s Sivas Cumhuriyet University told Live Science in an email. “Residues were found in a total of seven different containers, but only one yielded a conclusive result.”
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“When we opened Claw House, there was no odor,” Attila said. However, during storage, “we had overlooked some residue inside. I noticed that and immediately started the analysis process.”
The researchers used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to identify organic compounds in the dark brown residue scraped from the inside of glass nail membranes. Two of the identified compounds, coprostanol and 24-ethylcoprostanol, are normally present in the gastrointestinal tract of animals that metabolize cholesterol.
“The consistent identification of stanols (a validated fecal biomarker) strongly suggests that the Roman allantois originally contained fecal material,” the researchers wrote in their study. Although the researchers could not conclusively determine the origin of the feces, they noted that the ratio of coprostanol to 24-ethylcoprostanol suggested the feces were human.
Another major discovery from the residue was carvacrol, an aromatic organic compound found in essential oils made from certain herbs.
“In this sample, human feces mixed with thyme was identified,” Atilla said. “As we are familiar with ancient literary sources, we immediately realized that this was a medicine used by the famous Roman physician Galen.”
During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, Pergamon was known as a major center of Roman medicine thanks to the physician and anatomist Galen of Pergamon, whose ideas would dominate Western medicine for centuries.
Roman medicine had several common fecal-based remedies aimed at treating conditions ranging from inflammation and infection to reproductive disorders, the researchers write. As an example, Galen mentioned the therapeutic value of the feces of children who ate legumes, bread, and wine. However, ancient doctors knew that patients would reject foul-smelling medicines, so they often advocated masking them with fragrant herbs, wine, or vinegar.
“This study provides the first direct chemical evidence of the medicinal use of feces in ancient Greco-Roman times,” the researchers said, and also provides direct evidence that fecal odors were masked by strongly scented herbs. “These findings closely align with the prescriptions described by Galen and other classical authors, suggesting that such treatments were substantially enacted, rather than merely textually theorized.”
Atila, C., Demirborat, İ., Çelebi, R.B. (2026). Chemical evidence of Roman feces, perfumes, and medicines. A treatment found in the Nail Museum in ancient Rome. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports, 70, 105589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105589
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