Medieval Food

This chapter compares key ordinances and statutes issued in selected Irish (Dublin and Waterford) and Prussian (Thorn and Königsberg) cities in the fourteenth century. The authors treat these sources as ‘program texts’, that is, texts conveying the intentions of legislators who wanted to socially discipline residents in various spheres of life, that is to reinforce their own
authority while shaping social attitudes towards certain matters. An analysis of parallel sources indicates that in both Prussian and Irish cities of the fourteenth century regulations concerned a wide spectrum of issues related to civic security, broadly conceived. Clusters of regulations were designed, for example, to ensuring an adequate quality of basic foodstuffs, city hygiene and fire prevention. The authors identify, within this spectrum of regulation, a number of very similar disciplinary ordinances adopted independently of each other in the two regions under study, including those controlling producers and places of sale, opposition to speculation, the labelling of products, control of weights and measures, and the regulation of animal husbandry. Regional differences mainly refer to the type of goods regulated. These close parallels are shown to demonstrate intersections between the solutions they adopted to similarly perceived problems, given both universal elements of developing fourteenth-century urban life and their parallel peripheral, colonial positions. Statutes and ordinances adopted by municipal governments expressed an intent to shape specific social attitudes mainly by means of disciplinary entries, that is, items of regulation dictating punishments for misbehaviour within the urban space. It is argued that by referring to the linked ideas of the ‘common good’ and the consent of the residents, statutes and ordinances were made a tool for legitimizing the social and political order (as defined in Section 6, above) of the community, or changes introduced to it. Therefore, tendencies to control production and trade, to discipline social behavior and to legitimize the decisions of narrow ruling groups appeared near contemporaneously in these unrelated parts of Europe. Primary sources: The main sources for Ireland shall be Dublin town books and borough customs, containing more than 130
ordinances from the fourteenth century, supplemented by similar, though less extensive, records of Waterford ‘laws and usages’. Additionally, recorded ‘acts’ by the mayor, bailiff’s and commons of Dublin (as published in CARD) shall be consulted. The main sources for Prussia shall be the surviving Koenigsberg bylaws of 1385 and 1394, and the surviving
bylaws of Toruń (newtown) 1300–1350 and (oldtown) 1345–1547.

Draft article describing some of the most striking examples of double-chambered ovens which exist in the castles of the Military Orders in the Near East, and discussion about their functioning and use : Crac des chevaliers (Syria), Arsuf (Israel), Belvoir (Israel), Chastelet (Israel), Gibelin (Israel) and Kerak (Jordan)

Light Night is an annual event of arts and culture across the city of Leeds (www.lightnightleeds.co.uk). Light Night 2015 saw over 600 members of the public visit the installation 'Illuminating the Middle Ages', jointly organised by the Leeds University Union Medieval Society, the Leeds International Medieval Congress, and Commercial & Campus Support Services, University of Leeds. The event was conceived by Rose Sawyer, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds, who co-ordinated all the logistical aspects, liaised with external partners including projectionists and Workshop Theatre (University of Leeds), and arranged volunteers to present different installations. The installation was envisioned as an immersive interpretation of the experience of approaching a medieval shrine. Inspiration was taken from sites such as the seventh-century crypt of Hexham Abbey, where pilgrims approached through an underground passageway before emerging into the shrine. Light Night visitors entered through a specially constructed tunnel, which was darkened and rigged with speakers playing medieval chants as well as subsonics designed to heighten the atmosphere, before emerging into sights, smells, tastes and sounds inspired by the Middle Ages.

Photographs of the event can be found at: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/ims/impact/lightnight2015.html

This paper investigates the diets of neighboring Christians and Muslims in late medieval Spain (here 13th–16th centuries) through the analysis of the stable isotopes of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) in adult human and animal bone collagen. Twenty-four Christians and 20 Muslims are sampled from two adjacent and contemporaneous settlements in the township of Gandía on the Mediterranean coast, together with the remains of 24 animals. Statistical differences in both δ13C and δ15N reveal that the diets of the two faith communities differed, despite living side-by-side. These differences may relate to inequalities in their access to foodstuffs, particularly to C3/C4 grain and/or possibly terrestrial meat sources, though cultural preferences are also highlighted. Isotopic values for animals were also found to vary widely, both between and within species, and this provides a window into the local livestock economy

This paper presents an overview of the current state of research on Roman, Late Antique and medieval agriculture in the Iberian Peninsula through the study of archaeobotanical samples (seeds and fruits) collected on a large number of rural and urban sites spread throughout Iberia's geography. It includes published and unpublished data. The plant taxa of economic interest are grouped into various categories: cereals, cereal chaff, legumes, domesticated fruits, oil/fibre plants, condiments and spices, and wild species. According to the data, naked wheats and hulled barley are the dominant cereal species throughout the Iberian Peninsula. There are, nonetheless, particularities like the prevalence of hulled wheats (mainly emmer and spelt) in the North-west. Cultivated fruits also show a great diversity, and new species such as Morus nigra or Prunus armeniaca appear for the first time in the archaeobotanical record. There are also novelties regarding herbs and spices.

Archaeological research of monasteries primarily focuses on reconstructing the monastic architecture and the use of space, often referring to historical sources. During such research projects, food consumption by the monastics is often neglected in archaeobotanical and -zoological research. This paper presents the results of research carried out on plant and animal remains which were recovered during the 2017 excavation of the former convent of Yesse at Haren, which functioned from 1215 until 1594. This interdisciplinary research shows that it is possible to nuance what was eaten by the convent’s residents, which contributes to a better understanding of the products that were consumed in medieval monastic institutions in the Netherlands.

The study of medieval and modern food ways is founded on the careful interpretation of recipe books since its beginnings as a scientific field of research. However, other methods have emerged over the years, often inspired from disciplines such as medieval archaeology, as well as historical re-enacting of medieval techniques. First of all, the archaeology of material culture has been developing new approaches based on experimental methods. Following that trend, Aurélie Chantran has been conducting researches on medieval cooking for several years. Based on copies of medieval potteries and controlled experimental conditions, her work contributed to characterize physical transformations of food associated to boiling, frying or grilling. Associations between observed cooking traces and stigmata recorded on archaeological material have been made possible, opening the way for a technical and cultural analysis of medieval cookware. Fabian Müllers’ researches have been led in the experimental field as well. An experienced historical cook, Fabian has been leading re-enactments of various medieval recipes for years, basing his experiences on data extracted both from medieval recipe books and archaeological researches. His work has led himself to comparative studies of various medieval methods of cooking in terms of performance and energy use. Following more traditional field and archive-based methods, Charles Viaut interests himself in cooking structures and remains in medieval elite sites as well as recipe mentions out of cookery books. Parallel interpretation of archaeological data and medieval domestic accounts have led him to an approach of medieval cooking in its archaeological context and in a long-term perspective. Development of parallel methods and theories give way, from these researchers’ point of view, to a more comprehensive and concrete approach of medieval foodways.

Watch the roundtable on YouTube : https://youtu.be/eCxPJSC3MRU

Aurélia Borvon et Charles Viaut, « Des bestes médiévales aux espèces linnéennes : Autour de la classification de quelques espèces consommées en contexte castral au Moyen Âge », Appréhender les catégories zoologiques dans les sociétés du passé, Workshop international, Paris, Sorbonne Université, 22-23 mars 2019