Today, many people are fortunate enough to be able to strive to find work that they consider "meaningful" and "fulfilling."
Yeah. We're pretty spoiled. Because there have been some weird and terrible gigs throughout the course of human history.
Here are 24 particularly striking, gross, or just plain odd jobs from way back in the day.
Drake Baer and Vivian Giang contributed to previous versions of this article.
SEE ALSO: 14 weird jobs you'll be surprised to know exist
Groom of the Stool
This job stinks!
The Groom of the Stool — formally titled, the Groom of the King's Close Stool — was responsible for helping the king to go to the toilet.
Yes, seriously.
This post was actually considered an esteemed position in early modern England. These lucky courtiers were known for keeping royal secrets, enjoying considerable power at court, and even getting to wear the king's hand-me-downs, according to Historic UK.
Resurrectionist
Resurrectionists would dig corpses out of graveyards and sell them to medical schools. Controversy over this practice came to a head upon the discovery of the crimes committed by 19th century serial killers William Burke and William Hare. These two "resurrection men" couldn't wait to merely dig up bodies. They actually murdered people in order to sell their corpses to an instructor at an Edinburgh private anatomy school, according to the New York Academy of Medicine.
Fuller
Fullers were responsible for Ancient Rome's dirty laundry.
No one likes cleaning clothes, but how bad could it be?
Pretty bad, actually.
Fullers had to stand in tubs filled with water and alkaline chemicals — oftentimes that meant stale urine collected from public restrooms, according to the Encyclopedia of Ancient History— and stomp, scrub, and wring the cloth to get it clean.
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