Plant Foods In The Past: A Review Of The Evidence From Northern Europe

Summary

Remains of food plants are mainly found preserved on archaeological sites ascharred grain and chaff from crop processing residues, as waterlogged seeds andpollen from wells, pits and ditches, and as very abundant waterlogged (andsometimes mineralised) remains in cesspits and sewers. Results from the studyof such remains show that in the prehistoric period (more than 2000 years ago)cereal food was the mainstay, with some semi-domesticated fruit and a range ofplants which were probably gathered from the wild. With the Romans came agreat range of plant foods which seem to have been new to the area, some ofwhich were brought into cultivation and others imported from warmer parts.After the Romans, however, there seems to have been a change back to a prehistoricsimplicity of diet for some centuries followed by a gradual return ofmany of the Roman introductions, although the food grains have changed, withrye being particularly important. The many 15/16^th century latrine remainsstudied show a mainly cereal diet with large amounts of fruit eaten by moderatelywealthy townsfolk. Somewhat later, imports from the tropics like blackpepper seem to have become common enough, judged from findings. The fewresults from 18/19^th century deposits show still greater change in diet. Thegreat rate of new discoveries and further analytical techniques being appliedwill probably add much more detail to the outline presented here.