Dr İlker Demirbolat investigates the vial(Image: Cenker Atila)

Archaeologists have discovered that ancient Romans utilised human excrement to address everyday health problems.

Following analysis of a 2,000-year-old glass container, we're now fairly confident that human faecal material was certainly part of the medical arsenal.

It's believed the Romans employed it to combat infections and inflammation, as the technique has been referenced in texts from not just Rome but also ancient Egypt, China, and Greece.

The recent research marks the first occasion we've encountered concrete proof that they believed faeces could remedy various conditions, reports the Daily Star.

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Researchers examined the brown fragments found in the container and identified traces of human waste and thyme, which was likely added to mask the dreadful smell.

The container was discovered within a burial site in Pergamon, an ancient settlement in present-day Turkey that was once redesigned by the Roman emperor Trajan in the early second century.

It was also the residence of the celebrated physician Galen of Pergamon, who features among the most distinguished doctors of antiquity alongside Hippocrates.

"Faecal-based pharmacological treatments are widely attested in Greco-Roman medical texts," stated lead author Dr Cenker Atila, of Turkey's Sivas Cumhuriyet University. "The use of faeces as a form of treatment was known in the ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, and Roman worlds, based on written sources.

"However, until now, there had been no archaeological evidence of this practice. The vessel's contents revealed a distinctive blend of human faecal biomarkers.

"And aromatic compounds such as carvacrol, a major constituent of thyme oil. These results align with classical prescriptions that combined dung with odour-masking agents to enhance patient compliance."

The researchers are now examining additional museum-held vials and ceramic vessels across Turkey to determine whether other ancient pharmacy specimens have survived.

If successful, we could be approaching a revoltingly intriguing reassessment of Roman medical practices - complete with herb-infused toilet knowledge concealed in plain view.

Contemporary medicine has, mercifully, progressed - though present-day faecal microbiota transplants (administered professionally in clinics for severe gut infections) demonstrate that, centuries afterwards, the notion that something from the intestines can aid healing isn't completely unfounded.

The Romans, it appears, were ahead of their time, albeit with a considerably less appetising administration method.

2,000-year-old Roman jar discovery proves ancient medics used human poo to treat sick - The Mirror