Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-lvtdw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-16T15:32:32.376Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Food and drink in European prehistory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Jacqui Wood
Jacqui Wood*
Affiliation:
Cornwall Celtic Village
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

There is a wealth of archaeological evidence, from bones excavated in prehistoric middens, piles of fruit stones and sea shells, that give us concrete indications of food consumed at various prehistoric sites around Europe. In addition to this information, we have pollen analysis from settlement sites and charred plant macrofossils. Wetland archaeology informs us in much more detail about not only the types of foods that were being eaten in prehistory but also, in some cases, their cooking techniques. This paper will explore whether or not a popular misconception about the daily diet in prehistory has its roots in the analysis of stomach contents of various bog bodies found in Europe.

De la faune provenant des fouilles de dépôts de cuisine préhistoriques, au tas de noyaux de fruits et de coquilles marines, nous avons une profusion d'evidence archéologique qui nous donne une indication concrète du type de nourriture consommée sur différents sites préhistoriques européens. A toutes ces informations on peut ajouter les résultats obtenus par l'analyse des pollens de sites sédentaires et les macrofossiles de plantes carbonisées. L'archéologie des régions marécageuses nous apporte des informations trés détaillées non seulement en ce qui concerne la nourriture de nos ancêtres préhistoriques mais aussi au sujet des techniques de cuisine utilisées. Cet article se penche sur l'origine d'une misconception populaire au sujet de la diète journalière en préhistoire, et se demande si l'analyse du contenu de l'estomac de plusieurs corps retrouvés dans les tourbières de l'Europe pourrait bien être responsable.

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Es gibt eine Vielfalt an archäologischen Zeugnissen, aus prähistorischen Abfällen ergrabene Knochen, Haufen von Obstkernen und Muschelschalen, die uns konkrete Hinweise auf Nahrung geben, die auf verschiedenen prähistorischen Fundstätten Europas verzehrt wurde. Zusätzlich hierzu stehen uns Pollenanalysen aus Siedlungen und verkohlte Makroreste von Pflanzen zur Verfügung. Die Feuchtbodenarchäologie liefert weit detailliertere Informationen nicht zur zu den Nahrungsmitteln, die unsere prähistorischen Vorfahren aßen, sondern auch zu ihren Kochmethoden. Dieser Artikel untersucht, ob eine verbreitete falsche Vorstellung von der täglichen Ernährung in der Prähistorie in der Analyse von Mageninhalten von verschiedenen europäischen Moorleichen wurzelt.

Keywords

bog bodiescooking techniquesethnologyfogousprehistoric Europesalt production
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , 2000 , pp. 89 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 Sage Publications 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, S.H., 1985. Tybrind Vig: a preliminary report on a submerged Ertebolle settlement on the west coast of Fyn. Journal of Danish Archaeology 4:52–69.Google Scholar
Audouze, F. and Buchsenschutz, O., 1991. Villages and Countryside of Celtic Europe. London: BCA Google Scholar
Avery, M., 1982. The Neolithic Enclosure, Abingdon. CBA Research Report No. 44. Oxford: CBA.Google Scholar
Buck, P., 1974. The Coming of the Maori, 2nd edn. Christchurch, New Zealand: Whitcoulls.Google Scholar
Buckley, V., 1990. Burnt Offerings. International Contributions to Burnt Mound Archaeology. Dublin: Wordwell.Google Scholar
David, E., 1977. English Bread and Yeast Cookery. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Davidson, M.W. ed., 1992. Everyday Life through the Ages. London. Readers Digest.Google Scholar
Diodorus, Siculus, 1699. In Booths Diodorus the Sicilian Fifteen Books to which are Added the Fragments of Diodorus that are Found in the Bibliotheca of Photius, Vol. 5. Printed by Edward Jones for A. and J. Churchill at the Black Swan in Paternoster Row.Google Scholar
Dolukhanov, P.M., 1992. Evolution of lakes and prehistoric settlement in north-western Russia. In Coles, B. (ed.), The Wetland Revolution in Prehistory. WARP 6:96. Exeter: Short Run Press.Google Scholar
Dyer, J., 1990. Ancient Britain. London: B.T. Batsford.Google Scholar
Evershed, P. and Dudd, S.M., 1998. Direct demonstration of milk as an element of archaeological economics. Science 282:1478–1481.Google Scholar
Firth, R., 1957. We, the Tikopia. A Sociological Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Harris, D., 1997. First farmers were colonists after all. British Archaeology 27:8–9.Google Scholar
Harris, D., Hooper, S. and Trudglan, P., 1984. Excavation of three cairns on Stannon Downs, St Breward, Cornwall. Cornish Archaeology 23:141–154. (This paper is a summary of excavations carried out during 1976 and 1977.)Google Scholar
Herodotus, 1957. The Histories: 4 Volumes. The Loeb Classical Library. London: Heinemann, Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Higgenbotham, E.A.K., 1977. Excavations at Wooley Barrows, Morwenstow, Cornwall. Cornish Archaeology 16:10–16.Google Scholar
Holubetzg, A., 1997. Cooking and eating among the Siriono of Bolivia. In Kuper, J. (ed.), The Anthropologists' Cookbook, 2nd edn: 159–160. London: T.J. International.Google Scholar
Jackson, A., 1997. Faroese fare. In Kuper, J. (ed.), The Anthropologists' Cookbook, 2nd edn: 37–40. London: T.J. International.Google Scholar
Keating, G. G., 1908. The History of Ireland, Vol. 2. The Irish Texts Society. London: Dinneen.Google Scholar
Masson, M., 1974. The Compleat Cook or the Secrets of a Seventeenth Century Housewife Rebbeca Price. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Google Scholar
Mollat Du Jourdin, M., 1993. Europe and the Sea. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Nowakowski, J., 1991. Trethellan Farm, Newquay: excavations of a lowland Bronze Age settlement and Iron Age cemetery. Cornish Archaeology 30:57–59; 140–141.Google Scholar
O'Drisceoil, D.A., 1990. Fulachta Fliadh: the value of early Irish literature. In Emer, Condit (ed.), Burnt Offerings, International Contributions to Burnt Mound Archaeology (compiled by Buckley, V.): 157–160. Dublin: Wordwell.Google Scholar
O'Kelly, M., 1954. Excavations and Experiments in Ancient Irish Cooking-Places. Dublin: Royal Society of Antiquities of Ireland.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., 1993. Bronze Age Britain. London: Batsford/English Heritage. Peacock, D.P.S., 1969. A Romano-British salt-working site at Trebarveth, St Keverne. Cornish Archaeology 8:47–55.Google Scholar
Piotrowski, W., 1992. Biskupin fortified settlement and its environment and archaeological studies. In Coles, B. (ed.), The Wetland Revolution in Prehistory. WARP 6:90–91. Exeter: Short Run Press.Google Scholar
Pliny The, Elder, 1967. Natural History, 10 Volumes. Translated by Rackham, H., edited by Page, T.E., Capes, E., Rouse, W.H.D. and Post, L.A. London: Heinemann, The Loeb Classical Library.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, J. and Straker, V., 1996. The Early Environment of Scilly. Cornwall: Archaeological Unit Publication.Google Scholar
Renfrew, J., 1985. Foods and Cooking in Prehistoric Britain. London: English Heritage Publication.Google Scholar
Reynolds, P., 1976. Farming in the Iron Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, D.E., 1993. Crop Plants in Danish Prehistory. Copenhagen: Arkeologiske Udgravninger 1 Danmark.Google Scholar
Rowley-Conwy, P., 1997. York. In sorrow thou eat all thy days. British Archaeology 21:7.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A., 1981. Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution. In Hodder, I., Isaac, G. and Hammond, N. (eds), Patterns of the Past: 276–282. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Strabo, 1969. The Geography of Strabo, 8 Volumes. Translated by Jones, H.L., edited by Page, T.E., Capes, E., Rouse, W.H.D. and , L.A. Post. London: Heinemann, The Loeb Classical Library.Google Scholar
Straker, V., 1991. Trethellan Farm, Newquay. Cornish Archaeology 30:161–165.Google Scholar
Struve, K., 1967. Die Moorleiche von Datgen: ein Diskussionsbetreige zur Stafopferthese. Offa 24:33–76.Google Scholar
Tacitus, 1948. Tacitus on Britain and Germany. Middlesex: Penguin.Google Scholar
Tierney, J.J., 1960. The Celtic Ethnography of Posidonius. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 60 Section C, No. 5.Google Scholar
Tomasi, G., 1982. The lake-dwellings of Lake Ledro. Natura Alpina. Rivista della societa di scienze naturali del trentino 33:17.Google Scholar
Turner, R.C. and Scaife, R.G., (eds), 1995. Bog Bodies. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Hillary, 1998. Egyptian Food and Drink.Google Scholar
Wise, J.H., 1965. Ancient Hawaiian civilisation. A series of lectures delivered at the Kamehameha schools. London: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar