Poop in the year 1000.

I’m currently reading the book The Year 1000, “What life was like at the Turn of the First Millennium” There was a chapter about a particular life function that most people don’t really care to think about, so I thought I would share an excerpt from the book for you to enjoy:   August was the month when flies started to become a problem, buzzing round the dung heaps in the corner of the farmyard and hovering over the open cesspits of human refuse that were located outside every house. If the late 20th century is scented with gasoline vapour and exhaust fumes, the year 1000 was perfumed with shit. Cow dung, horse manure, pig and sheep droppings, chicken shit – each variety of excrement had its own characteristic bouguet, from the sweet smell of the vegetable eater, to the acrid edge of gut processed meat, reguiring the human nose of the year 1000 to functionas a considerably less prissy organ than ours today.

Hopefully, this will give you some insight, into what one might have smelled during your daily excursions out and  about in a village in the year 1000, and also hopefully an appreciation for indoor plumbing!!