Little hints about soldier’s stomach problems in Roman Britain

ROmani soldiers stationed at a fort called Vindolanda in what is now northern England – not far from the famous Hadrian’s Wall – seem to have had some serious stomach problems.

Previously, scientists have discovered evidence of parasites wreaking havoc on the digestive tracts of several Roman military settlements, including archaeological sites in Austria, Scotlandand Serbia.

Previous excavations at Vindolanda have uncovered all sorts of well-preserved items, including wooden tablets describing military activities at the site. The Romans lived there between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, and troops from all over Europe spent time there. Vindolanda had many baths over the centuries, and by the 3rd century the inhabitants were getting water from nearby natural springs via an aqueduct. The Romans in Vindolanda also maintained drains and ditches to dispose of water and waste.

This infrastructure makes Vindolanda a prime place to hunt for the parasite, which can spread through food, water and hands contaminated with human feces and infect dozens of people at once.

To look for traces of these pathogens, a team from Canada and the United Kingdom examined sediment from a sewage drain connected to a latrine block in a 3rd-century bath. They also studied sediments collected from a first-century ditch, which was part of the fort’s defences.

Sediments from both areas contain eggs of parasitic worms called roundworms and whipworms. This infection infects humans and other animals, and can cause symptoms such as diarrhea, pain, anemia, and fever.

They found these eggs in 28% of all sediment samples taken from sewage. In one of these samples, they also identified traces of… Giardia duodenumIt represents the first evidence of the presence of this parasite in Roman Britain. This disease, known as giardiasis, is also associated with diarrhea, and can cause dehydration, extreme fatigue, and weight loss.

This means Roman soldiers in the area may have suffered from a lot of stomach upsets and other ill symptoms while serving, according to a new study. paper Published in parasitology.

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“While the Romans were aware of intestinal worms, there was little their doctors could do to clear infections with these parasites or help those with diarrhea, which meant symptoms could persist and worsen,” said the paper’s first author, Marissa Ledger, a biological anthropologist at McMaster University in Canada, who worked on the paper while earning her doctorate. Student at Cambridge University in A statement. “These chronic injuries are likely to debilitate soldiers, reducing their fitness for duty.”

While the Romans tried to keep things clean in Vindolanda using latrines and a septic system, “all the parasites that were cured spread through ineffective sanitation,” the authors wrote. In these circumstances, soldiers are also likely to be vulnerable to other pathogens that similarly spread Salmonella And norovirus – which can also lead to very unpleasant trips to the bathroom.

Compared to pathogenic finds from military sites such as Vindolanda, previous research has indicated that people in major urban centers in Roman Britain, such as York and Londonsaw a wide range of parasites, such as tapeworms in meat and fish. These differences point to the importance of a myriad of “social, cultural, political and environmental factors that contribute to transmission on a finer scale,” the researchers wrote.

No one said guarding Hadrian’s Wall was easy.

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Main image: Vindolanda Trust

• Molly Glick

  Posted on December 18, 2025

  Molly Glick is the newsletter editor for Nautilus.