Astounding discovery in Germany: Archaeologists found an approximately 800-year-old notebook in a medieval toilet
Archaeologists discovered a centuries-old notebook in a medieval toilet in the western German city of Paderborn on Saturday (May 23). The discovery was made during the works for the construction of the new town hall.
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The German publication Welt writes that archaeologists found in Paderborn a well-preserved notebook dating from the 13th-14th centuries.
The notebook is made of leather, wood and wax and is currently being restored and preserved in the city of Münster. Afterwards, the text is to be deciphered.
The discovery was made by archaeologists of a specialized company, during the works for the construction of the new town hall.
“This is the only object of this type discovered so far in the entire state of North Rhine-Westphalia”said Barbara Rüschoff-Parzinger, cultural officer of the German regional institution Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL).
“Similar medieval pieces have only been found in Lübeck or Lüneburg, where the moist soil environment allowed their preservation. But in no other case has the book been completely preserved, as it was here.”
Rüschoff-Parzinger, who is also an archaeologist, said that although it may sound strange, latrines are often real “gold mine” for researchers.
Experts hope that the manuscript, which is around 700-800 years old, will provide valuable information about daily life and living conditions in medieval Westphalia.
“After careful restoration by LWL specialists, there is a possibility that the difficult to decipher text, probably written in Latin, can be made completely legible with the help of modern technologies”explained Rüschoff-Parzinger.
For this process, researchers are already collaborating with writing and materials specialists from across the region.
The medieval notebook discovered in the latrine has ten pages and is kept in a leather cover. Conservator Susanne Bretzel explained that the moist, airless environment allowed for exceptional preservation of the object and the text written in wax with a stylus.
Experts were surprised by the very good condition of the notebook, including the fact that the wood did not warp and the writing remained legible after hundreds of years.
“Surprisingly, the object still retained a rather unpleasant odor even after so many centuries in the ground”Bretzel said. However, this will not prevent specialists from continuing their research.
