An Ancient Douche Was Found Underneath New York’s City Hall

Just how ancient a douche was discovered? Well, 200 years old to be precise. A turn-of-the-18th-century douche! A pre-Civil War douche! A douche used by a lady who may have boned Alexander Hamilton! What a douche! Want details? Of course you do. The find comes from Chrysalis Archaeology, after they unearthed a two centuries old trash pile under New York City’s City Hall. What they found was a lot of trash. From DNAinfo:

The centuries-old trash, in a pile found three feet underground and extending to a depth of about six feet was also filled with liquor bottles and various items associated with food waste, suggesting it may have all came from one celebratory event.

And one mystery item.

… a  3-inch artifact ….initially baffled archaeologists.

“At first we thought it was maybe a spice-grinder or needle case,” said Alyssa Loorya, president of Chrysalis Archaeology, the firm that oversaw the dig… “We were stumped.”

Until they realized it was a douche. Made of mammal bone. A bone douche. And what did the ladies of old New York use these douches for?

Women used them for contraception, shooting solutions of astringents made from minerals or tree roots and barks into themselves before or after sex.

Let me get that straight. They shot tree bark into their vaginas in an effort to increase fertility?

Okay.

/praises modern medicine for hours on end.

[H/T Gawker, Image via Chrysalis Archaeology]