Housed at the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, England, the world's largest human excrement measures a whopping 20 centimetres in length and 5 centimetres in width.
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The world's most famous poop
First discovered in 1972 beneath the site of what was to become the York branch of Lloyds Bank, the exceptionally large ancient faeces is said to be worth just as much as valuable jewels from the British monarchy.
The Lloyds Bank coprolite—known in the scientific community as a large paleofaeces—is believed to have belonged to a viking man. After further analysis on the historical specimen, researchers found that the man responsible for producing such a large lump of excrement was heavily relying on a diet that consisted of mostly meat and bread which describing the outside as 'moist and peaty.'
Unhealthy bowel movements
But that's not all scientists found upon analyzing the record-breaking piece of poo. As it turns out, the Viking in question was not in the best shape of his life as 'several hundred parasitic eggs' were found in his poop leading researchers to believe that the man was the host to intestinal worms. Student conservator at the York Arcaeological Trust, Gill Snape said about the Viking's poop:
Whoever passed it probably hadn't performed for a few days, shall we say. This guy had very itchy bowels.
While York Archaeological Trust employee and paleoscatologist, Dr. Andrew Jones said that:
This is the most exciting piece of excrement I've ever seen. In its own way, it's as irreplaceable as the Crown Jewels.
