During an excavation of a site of the corded ware culture in the Saale-Unstrut-Valley (ca. 3000 BC) in Germany, a soil sample from the pelvis of a human skeleton was studied under palaeoparasitological aspects. Eggs of the trematode
Fasciola hepatica
and of the nematode genus
Capillaria
were found.
This is the first case of a direct association of a
F. hepatica-infestation to both a prehistoric human skeleton and domesticated animal remains. Sheep and cattle bones were present at the same site and
F. hepatica eggs were found in bovine samples. This strongly points toward an existing infection cycle, involving humans as a final host.
