Romans Faced Head-To-Head Battle (Lice)

BBC ^ | 3-31-2004

[blam]

Romans faced head-to-head battle

Head lice were common among Roman soldiers in Cumbria

A new exhibition in Cumbria has revealed that Roman foot soldiers faced a battle of a different kind against a microscopic foe. The Romans, sent to the northern front of the empire and Hadrian's Wall, came head to head with lice.

A new display of items from an excavation outside Carlisle Castle includes a soldier's comb with a fully intact, three-millimetre-long louse.

Archaeologists say the louse is around 2,000 years old.

The dig was part of Carlisle City Council's Gateway City Millennium Project which took place between November 1998 and March 2001.

The excavation was located within the Roman fort of Luguvalium, which was founded in AD72-3.

Some of the finds from the excavation are on display in the castle, and the exhibition is being relaunched in April to include some newly-conserved finds.

'Rare insight'

Archaeologist Carol Allen, who has been working on the project, said the louse was from excavations in the earliest part of the fort.

She said: "The louse is one of the largest and most complete ever found in the Roman world."

Fellow archaeologist John Zant said thousands of artefacts were discovered at the Carlisle site and many have been well preserved.

He said: "We are very fortunate in Carlisle because the earliest Roman levels from where this comb came are waterlogged.

"So we have a lot of artefacts which we wouldn't normally have, made of wood and leather and even textile.

"It gives us a rare insight into what was happening in a Roman fort in the first century AD.

"It is one of only around six Roman sites in western Europe where you get this kind of evidence surviving so it is particularly important."

[billorites]

Good night, sleep tight...

[dasboot]

Archaeologists say the louse is around 2,000 years old.

A Kerry ancestor?

Bill relates, "That's a good-lookin' louse; I could have gotten with that!"

[Leroy S. Mort]

She said: "The louse is one of the largest and most complete ever found in the Roman world."

Wasn't France part of the Roman world? They have some big ones there to this day.

[Savage Beast]

I wonder if this could be related to the Roman obsession with hair removal. I know that hair was removed for cosmetic reasons, but prevention of louse infestation could have been its original basis.

[blam]

"I wonder if this could be related to the Roman obsession with hair removal."

I didn't know that, Good observation...and connections.(James Burke)

[dasboot]

The Kelts used to cake lime in their hair to combat lice, I've read.

[blam]

"The Kelts used to cake lime in their hair to combat lice, I've read."

..and, pubic hair, hee, hee?

[FreedomCalls]

I would have never guessed that Roman soldiers had ANYTHING in common with anti-war protesters, but live and learn.

[dasboot]

klack......klack......klack....klack..klack.klack klackklackkclackllackKLACKLACKLACKLACKLACK.......

[GMMAC]

.... lousy Romans.

[txhurl]

As many parents now realize, this is truly a horrific thing, these lice.

As you know, blam, anthropo-bio-cauldo-entero-galaxospherical type dude you are: bugs develop immunities to human-developed toxins real quick.

Study was done at HARVARD about 10 years ago showing human head lice here in the US were no longer killed by our Pronto, Rid, etc. They'd developed immunity.

Lice can't be gotten rid of short of a GD turban, anymore, once it sets into a elementary school group.

[eddie willers]

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!

[blam]

"Study was done at HARVARD about 10 years ago showing human head lice here in the US were no longer killed by our Pronto, Rid, etc. They'd developed immunity. "

Thanks, didn't know that.

[momfirst]

Study was done at HARVARD about 10 years ago showing human head lice here in the US were no longer killed by our Pronto, Rid, etc. They'd developed immunity.

Well, gee, I didn't need Harvard to tell me that (two kids through elementary school) I hear toothpaste does a pretty good job - is flouride a pesticide?

[txhurl]

Toothpaste works? Not a problem for us anymore, but I'd sure like to pass the info on if it does????

[dasboot]

I hear toothpaste does a pretty good job - is flouride a pesticide?

Prolly works on the same basis as lime: no access to follicle on which to lay eggs, and no access to skin from which to suck blood. Minty fresh, too!

[txhurl]

Here ja go.

Sparring Over Head Lice

Premature release of study results embroils NPA, Harvard School of Public Health and Warner-Lambert in a three-way dispute.

The battleground over head lice has spread beyond the heads of American children. While parents await a cure-all to counteract harmless pests, a controversy over whether resistance is developing to a widely used chemical - and how such information should be disseminated - is coming to a head.

The dispute began when the National Pediculosis Association (NPA), a not-for-profit health education agency, released information suggesting that a study it had funded concluded that head lice in two test markets had developed resistance to permethrin, the active ingredient in Nix cream rinse, marketed by Warner-Lambert, Morris Plains, NJ.

end excerpt

[txhurl]

Lime? Like powdered?

Forgive me. My daughter has beautiful long blonde hair that was constantly 'brushed' thru elementary school friends and our battles with those bugs 'bout drove me nuts. Really.

I'd love to know what really works.

[momfirst]

Toothpaste was the only thing that worked for my mom on my brother, so she says. Cake a tube or two on the head, work it in real good and rinse after it crusts for a while. IMO, A good buzz cut will work better than any chemical on a boy - girls are the hard ones.