1,500-Year-Old Human Feces Sheds Light on Ancient Caribbean Cultures

It might sound a bit gross, but human feces can tell us a lot about our past-a-nd no, not just about what we had for dinner last night. Archaeologists have uncovered 1,500-year-old fossilized feces and scientists have now analyzed the bacteria and fungi within it. The new findings reveal a bit more about cultures living in the Caribbean over a thousand years ago.

Various indigenous cultures lived in the Great Antilles thousands of years ago. In fact, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have thousands of pre-Columbian indigenous settlements belonging to extinct cultures. Instead of pottery, though, the researchers decided to look at something more biological.

"Although fossilized feces (coprolites) have frequently been studied, they had never been used as tools to determine ethnicity and distinguish between two extinct cultures," said Jessica Rivera-Perez, one of the researchers, in a news release. "By examining the DNA preserved in coprolites from two ancient indigenous cultures, our group was able to determine the bacterial and fungal populations present in each culture as well as their possible diets."

In order to fully examine these preserved pieces of human feces, the scientists took a look at the DNA preserved in coprolites from both Saladoid and Huecoid settlements. They then compared the bacterial and fungal populations found in each. They detected major differences between the fecal communities, which suggested that the cultures may have had different origins. Not only that, but some of the evidence found in the Huecoid coprolite suggested that this culture drank an Andean fermented corn beverage. This seemed to confirm the theory that the Huecoids originated in the Bolivian Andes.

"The study of the paleomicrobiome of coprolites supports the hypothesis of multiple ancestries and can provide important evidence regarding migration by ancestral cultures and populations of the Caribbean," said Rivera-Perez in a news release.

The findings reveal a little more about these ancient cultures. By examining these fossil remains fully, researchers can learn about a culture's diet and how they differed from neighboring settlements.

The findings were presented as part of the 2014 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston, Massachusetts.