Secrets from the toilets: this is what Jews ate in the Middle Ages Israel today

Researchers in Oxford dug in the Old Jewish Quarter, revealing surprising discoveries in terms of an ancient toilet • How did the Jews keep kosher nearly a thousand years ago?

• Herring

  Photo: 

  Ithiel Zion

Keeping kosher is one of the most prominent and well-known Jewish customs, and now it turns out that you can tell if you are keeping kosher even from a glance at your toilet.

Archaeologists from Bristol and Oxford universities who excavated in the old Jewish quarter of Oxford, near Saint-Aldet Street, found a stone structure during the excavations, which was identified as a toilet and dated to the late 11th and early 12th centuries.

Remains of bones and cookware were found inside the ancient toilet.

Surprisingly, an archaeo-zoological examination of the bones revealed that all the bones belonged to civilized birds and kosher fish only, such as geese and herring.

Bones of pigs and the remains of oysters, however, were completely absent, in comparison with houses at nearby sites where such bones and remains were found.

For the full study and photos click here

An examination by the medieval census revealed that the two houses next to the toilet actually belonged to two Jewish families.

According to the researchers, such a combination of kosher varieties is clear evidence that the Jews who lived in these houses kept kosher, and these findings are the earliest evidence of kosher keeping by Jews in Britain.

To complete the test, the researchers examined the food scraps absorbed into the ancient cooking utensils found at the site using chemical markers and isotopes.

The results of the tests were consistent with the bones' findings, when it was discovered that the dishes found were cooked exclusively from the meat of kosher animals according to Judaism: beef, sheep and goats, in contrast to dishes found at nearby sites where pork was found to be cooked.

The Jewish Quarter of Oxford was established in the 12th century following the invitation of William the Conqueror to the Jews of northern France to settle in England, and this is the first time in Britain that there is physical evidence of kosher Jews, and only the third time such evidence is found in medieval Europe.

The researchers note that their research, first done using a test of food scraps absorbed in ancient cooking utensils, paves the way for similar studies in the future.