I have this distant memory of my high school medieval history teacher telling us that if we were magically transported into a medieval city, we’d faint from the overwhelming stench of its streets.

Whether Mr. Armistead actually said this or the memory was influenced by the many historical movies and TV shows that depict the Middle Ages in this way, the iconic time period’s health and hygiene standards were certainly unenviable.

This fact comes into particular focus thanks to a research project led by the NTNU University Museum in Trondheim, Norway: MedHeal600 (Medieval Urban Health: From private to public responsibility). Within the context of this project, archaeologist Elisabeth Forrestad Swensen’s PhD dissertation investigated how the city of Trondheim, then called Nidaros, handled waste, sewage, and drinking water in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, with implications for public health. Among other things, she found a viciously gross cycle of roundworm infection.

Back then, Nidaros’ inhabitants disposed of their bodily wastes and other types of waste in separate pits. Then during the High Middle Ages (1130–1350), a period during which populations—and their wastes—in Norway and the rest of Europe increased significantly, authorities in Trondheim ordered that fetid latrine waste be moved to pits outside of the city center. This move was likely because they believed that bad smells caused disease.

“An analysis of the contents of these latrines reveals that nearly the entire population was infected with roundworms,” Swensen, who is museum director at the Armoury Museum in Trondheim, said in an NTNU statement .

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