So, What Was the Manger Really Like?

The scene is familiar to billions the world over: a ramshackle but warm stable, a newborn baby lying in a manger, and a collection of livestock standing peacefully in the background. But was it really like that? What animals would actually have there been in a Bethlehem stable 2000 years ago, and what else was lurking in the shadows and dirt?

There are no first-hand accounts of the birth of Jesus. Nevertheless, the archaeology of the region has given us a wealth of information on the history of domestic animals, and veterinary science allows us to make educated guesses about the animals likely to have witnessed such an event. Our sketch of the Nativity scene is in no way definitive, but it represents a best guess at what might have been around.

Most of the familiar farmyard animals were firmly domesticated by Jesus's time, possibly because wild animals were being over-hunted and people needed another food source. "With the exception of the turkey, all livestock animals had been domesticated a long time before the birth of Jesus," says Albano Beja-Pereira of the University of Porto in Portugal.

This all tells us that the popular picture of the Nativity attended by familiar livestock animals like cows, sheep and donkeys is at least archaeologically plausible, if unverifiable. But what else might have been there?

The obvious answer is insects and parasites, in huge numbers. Densely packed creatures are always tempting targets for parasites looking for a home, and domestic animals are no exception.

Anyone hanging around a stable would have been irritated by the bazaar fly, the Middle East equivalent of the common housefly. As well as buzzing around infuriatingly, the fly can also spread the eye disease trachoma.

Plenty of insects bite humans, and some are willing to venture indoors. Stable flies mostly feed on the blood of livestock, particularly cattle, but they do sometimes bite humans as well. Aside from the obvious harmful effects of having one's blood sucked, some of these flies carry anthrax.

It's best to be careful when using straw as bedding, too. It is often infested with straw itch mites, one of the most aptly named organisms around. They do not feed off humans, preferring to eat other insects, but if they get on your skin they can cause dermatitis.

Annoying and potentially harmful as these species are, their unpleasantness pales in comparison with that of the sheep bot fly. Adult females squirt live maggots up the noses of sheep, where they crawl up into the sinuses and head cavity. The maggots spend the winter there, feeding on the animal's mucous membranes. In spring they crawl back down into the nostril and get sneezed out.

Notwithstanding their name, the flies don't limit themselves to sheep. Unlucky humans can wind up with maggots living in their throats or up their noses, which can cause fever. Particularly unfortunate individuals suffer ophthalmomyiasis – maggots living in their eye sockets.

We won't even mention rats and mice. All in all, if you are about to give birth, try and arrange to do so somewhere other than a stable.
___
You can read the entire article by Michael Marshall, "Away in a Vermin-Infested Manger," here.