A medieval notebook has turned up in one of the last places anyone would want to look, a latrine in central Germany.
Archaeologists in Paderborn found the “exceptionally well-preserved” notebook earlier this year during excavations ahead of the construction of a municipal administrative building in the city’s historic centre. The dig uncovered a row of five latrines beneath early modern structures.
Researchers said the site retained “a rather unpleasant odor”, but the damp, airtight chambers helped preserve the finds.
The palm-sized notebook is made of leather, wood and wax, and researchers said the materials show few signs of decay after 700 to 800 years underground.
“I only had to clean the outside of the book, as the inner pages were so tightly bound that there was no dirt on them,” Susanne Bretzel, the conservator at Archaeology for Westphalia, or LWL, who found the notebook, said in a statement.
“The wood also hadn’t warped, so the wax is still intact and the writing itself is easily legible.”
Initial signs suggest the notebook belonged to a merchant and was used to track business dealings and record quick thoughts.
Eight of the 10 pages are double-sided with wax, allowing the owner to write and erase notes repeatedly using a stylus, an instrument pointed at one end and flat at the other.
The research team is working to transcribe the text, which is in Latin, written in a single hand and in a cursive style dating from the 13th century to the late 14th century.
Researchers say they hope deciphering the words inscribed on the wax, including older rubbings as well as the most recent recordings, will help show who wrote the book and what it was used for. They are also studying the leather binding, which is decorated with rows of embossed lilies, described as a symbol of purity and royalty in the Middle Ages.
The excavation also produced barrels, a knife, medieval pottery, remnants of basketry and several pieces of silk fabric torn into rectangular pieces that may have been used as toilet paper.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, the site in central Paderborn bordered an abbey on one side and a main square on the other, and was home to upper middle class residents.
“As soon as this latrine can be assigned to a specific plot of land, archival research could be used to try to identify the residents of that plot,” Sveva Gai, head archaeologist at LWL, said.
“Then, in the best-case scenario, it would be possible to link the wax tablet to the name of a specific person.”
City archaeologists suspect the notebook fell into the latrine by accident.
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