Scientists say the 20cm long poo which was dug up by archaeologists, shows whoever it belonged to ate a diet largely of meat and bread but suffered from parasites

A giant Viking poo “as irreplaceable as the Crown Jewels” remains the largest human turd on record.

Archaeologists excitedly dug up the mighty dung from a site in York almost 50 years ago and was traced all the way back to the 9th century.

Measuring up at 20cm long and 5cm wide, the specimen has fascinated experts who say whoever was responsible, was not in a good way.

The York Archaeological Trust unearthed the poo – scientifically known as a large paleofaeces or coprolite – during an excavation in 1972, before the plot became a Lloyds Bank.

Tests on the coprolite revealed it had survived more than a thousand years intact and due to the known settlement in York, most likely belonged to a Viking man, LadBible reports.

The poo can be seen at the Jorvik Viking Centre(Image: Jorvik Viking Centre)

Researchers worked out the poo was made up of predominantly meat and bread based diet with and the outside even being described as ‘moist and peaty’.

Evidence of poor nutrition was not the only thing tests revealed however, as ‘several hundred parasitic eggs’ found in the poo, suggest the Viking was riddled with intestinal worms.

The coprolite had been built up over a good few days of no pᴀssing.

Gill Snape, a student conservator on a placement with the York Arcaeological Trust, said: “Whoever pᴀssed it probably hadn’t performed for a few days, shall we say. This guy had very itchy bowels.”

In 1991, York Archaeological Trust paleoscatologist, Dr Andrew Jones was clearly blown away by the size and importance of the poo currently on show at the Jorvik Viking Centre.

Dr Jones said: “This is the most exciting piece of excrement I’ve ever seen. In its own way, it’s as irreplaceable as the Crown Jewels.”

After surviving centuries, even millennia as a whole 20cm long part, it disastrously split into three pieces in 2003.

During a school trip, a teacher reportedly knocked the poo’s display by accident, sending it crashing down to the floor.