As bizarre as it may sound, the world has documented the largest known human poop. To top it all, the coprolite is safely living in a museum in England with scientists believing calling it a valuable British jewel.
According to a report in LadBible, the 20 cm long and five cm wide human turd dates back to the ninth century and is attributed to a Viking man in Jorvik which is now called York. It even has a name - The Lloyds Bank Coprolite. The human specimen was recovered by the archaeologists in 1972 from the site of present Lloyds Bank in York. It now rests at York Archeological Resource Centre.
Researchers believed that the man who pushed out the coprolite was surviving on a diet that mainly consisted of meat and bread. However, the record-breaking discharge was also a result of the Viking man being sick as authorities found several hundred parasitic eggs in the turd.
“Whoever passed it probably hadn’t performed for a few days, shall we say. This guy had very itchy bowels," Gill Snape, a student conservator working with the York Archeological Trust was quoted as saying by the website.
York Archaeological Trust employee Dr Andrew Jones in 1991 described the coprolite as the “most exciting piece of excrement", adding that it is as “irreplaceable as the Crown Jewels".
The record-breaking turd suffered an accident in 2003. During a school trip to the York Archaeological Resource Centre, a teacher unintentionally broke the display and the poo came crashing down, cracking in three pieces. Fortunately, the officials were successful in restoring it to its earlier shape.
Researchers believe the turd belonged to a Viking man due to the location of York. The region was formerly called Jorvik - a Viking settlement in 800. The seafaring Norse people have also been depicted in the TV series Vikings.
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