Did Medieval peasants use human excrement as fertilizer in a widespread sense, and is that why they had to boil everything picked from the field? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

Did Medieval peasants use human excrement as fertilizer in a widespread sense, and is that why they had to boil everything picked from the field?

by spermwhalejail

Source of claim: Terry Jones's Medieval Lives, episode 1.

I don't really understand why this necessitated boiling more than animal excrement normally does, if that was the case. Would be delighted to be filled in.

NayLay

I'm not sure about having to boil it. But I do know that in Flemish and Brabant medieval cities, the right to pick up human excrement from the city was sold to the highest bidder. They would then sell it to the surrounding countryside. So yes, human excrement was a valuable form of human waste in the middle ages.