I just received my quarterly issue of "Artifax", which gives an interesting overview of current archaeological stories in the news. Here's a sampling:
In Luxor [think Karnak & Valley of the Kings] they recently discovered facilities belonging to Cemetery Workers, near the Rameseum [the Mortuary Temple of Rameses II; see picture]. It includes kitchens, ovens and a school for children, as well as their own nearby cemetery. [Yes...a cemetery for Cemetery workers... ;)] I always find it interesting when they find something dealing with the average guy.
At Qumran a dig by the Univ. of N.C. at Charlotte has discovered a latrine site that would seem to backup the suggestion that Essenes lived in this community. [There's been a lot of debate about this. Recently a group has suggested Qumran was a pottery factory.] According to Josephus & others, the Essenes made it a practice to locate their latrines at a distance from and out of site of the village. [It makes you feel bad for the guy who had to go in the middle of the night! I wonder if they used chamber pots?] Anyway, this latrine site meets those requirements. And you'll be thrilled to hear that they found intestinal round worms, tapeworms, whipworms and pinworms. Apparently the Essenes, in their desire for cleanliness, required human waste be covered (little shovels provided to all), which actually contributed to the survival of intestinal worms...and their spread. Medieval Arabs, on the other hand, did not bury their waste, leaving it out in the open, where the worms quickly died. That's ironic, don't you think?