Anglo-Saxon kings were mostly veggie but peasants treated them to huge barbecues, new study argues

Date:
April 21, 2022
Source:
University of Cambridge
Summary:
Very few people in England ate large amounts of meat before
the Vikings settled, and there is no evidence that elites ate
more meat than other people, a major new bioarchaeological study
suggests. Its sister study also argues that peasants occasionally
hosted lavish meat feasts for their rulers. The findings overturn
major assumptions about early medieval English history.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Very few people in England ate large amounts of meat before the Vikings settled, and there is no evidence that elites ate more meat than other
people, a major new bioarchaeological study suggests. Its sister study
also argues that peasants occasionally hosted lavish meat feasts for
their rulers. The findings overturn major assumptions about early medieval English history.


==========================================================================
* 'You are what you eat' isotopic analysis of over 2,000 skeletons
by far
the largest of its kind.

* Early medieval diets were far more similar across social groups than
previously thought.

* Peasants didn't give kings food as exploitative tax, they hosted
feasts
suggesting they were granted more respect than previously assumed.

* Surviving food lists are supplies for special feasts not blueprints
for
everyday elite diets.

* Some feasts served up an estimated 1kg of meat and 4,000 Calories in
total, per person.

Picture medieval England and royal feasts involving copious amounts
of meat immediately spring to mind. Historians have long assumed that
royals and nobles ate far more meat than the rest of the population and
that free peasants were forced to hand over food to sustain their rulers throughout the year in an exploitative system known as feormor food-rent.

But a pair of Cambridge co-authored studies published today in the
journal Anglo-Saxon England present a very different picture, one which
could transform our understanding of early medieval kingship and society.

While completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge, bioarchaeologist
Sam Leggett gave a presentation which intrigued historian Tom Lambert
(Sidney Sussex College). Now at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Leggett
had analysed chemical signatures of diets preserved in the bones of
2,023 people buried in England from the 5th - 11th centuries. She then cross-referenced these isotopic findings with evidence for social status
such as grave goods, body position and grave orientation. Leggett's
research revealed no correlation between social status and high protein
diets.

That surprised Tom Lambert because so many medieval texts and historical studies suggest that Anglo-Saxon elites did eat large quantities of
meat. The pair started to work together to find out what was really
going on.

They began by deciphering a food list compiled during the reign of
King Ine of Wessex (c. 688-726) to estimate how much food it records
and what its calorie content might have been. They estimated that the
supplies amounted to 1.24 million kcal, over half of which came from
animal protein. The list included 300 bread rolls so the researchers
worked on the basis that one bun was served to each diner to calculate
overall portions. Each guest would have received 4,140 kcal from 500g
of mutton; 500g of beef; another 500g of salmon, eel and poultry; plus
cheese, honey and ale.



==========================================================================
The researchers studied ten other comparable food lists from southern
England and discovered a remarkably similar pattern: a modest amount of
bread, a huge amount of meat, a decent but not excessive quantity of ale,
and no mention of vegetables (although some probably were served).

Lambert says: "The scale and proportions of these food lists strongly
suggests that they were provisions for occasional grand feasts, and not
general food supplies sustaining royal households on a daily basis. These
were not blueprints for everyday elite diets as historians have assumed."
"I've been to plenty of barbecues where friends have cooked ludicrous
amounts of meat so we shouldn't be too surprised. The guests probably ate
the best bits and then leftovers might have been stewed up for later."
Leggett says: "I've found no evidence of people eating anything like
this much animal protein on a regular basis. If they were, we would
find isotopic evidence of excess protein and signs of diseases like
gout from the bones. But we're just not finding that." "The isotopic
evidence suggests that diets in this period were much more similar
across social groups than we've been led to believe. We should imagine
a wide range of people livening up bread with small quantities of meat
and cheese, or eating pottages of leeks and whole grains with a little
meat thrown in." The researchers believe that even royals would have
eaten a cereal-based diet and that these occasional feasts would have
been a treat for them too.



========================================================================== Peasants feeding kings These feasts would have been lavish outdoor events
at which whole oxen were roasted in huge pits, examples of which have
been excavated in East Anglia.

Lambert says: "Historians generally assume that medieval feasts were exclusively for elites. But these food lists show that even if you allow
for huge appetites, 300 or more people must have attended. That means
that a lot of ordinary farmers must have been there, and this has big
political implications." Kings in this period - including Raedwald,
the early seventh-century East Anglian king perhaps buried at Sutton Hoo
- are thought to have received renders of food, known in Old English
as feorm or food-rent, from the free peasants of their kingdoms. It
is often assumed that these were the primary source of food for royal households and that kings' own lands played a minor supporting role at
best. As kingdoms expanded, it has also been assumed that food-rent was redirected by royal grants to sustain a broader elite, making them even
more influential over time.

But Lambert studied the use of the word feorm in different contexts,
including aristocratic wills, and concludes that the term referred to
a single feast and not this primitive form of tax. This is significant
because food-rent required no personal involvement from a king or lord,
and no show of respect to the peasants who were duty-bound to provide
it. When kings and lords attended communal feasts in person, however,
the dynamics would have been very different.

Lambert says: "We're looking at kings travelling to massive barbecues
hosted by free peasants, people who owned their own farms and sometimes
slaves to work on them. You could compare it to a modern presidential
campaign dinner in the US.

This was a crucial form of political engagement." This rethinking could
have far-reaching implications for medieval studies and English political history more generally. Food renders have informed theories about
the beginnings of English kingship and land-based patronage politics,
and are central to ongoing debates about what led to the subjection of England's once-free peasantry.

Leggett and Lambert are now eagerly awaiting the publication of isotopic
data from the Winchester Mortuary Chests which are thought to contain the remains of Egbert, Canute and other Anglo-Saxon royals. These results
should provide unprecedented insights into the period's most elite
eating habits.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Cambridge. Original
written by Thomas Almeroth-Williams. The original text of this story is licensed under a Creative Commons_License. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Skeleton,_food_lists,_helmet_and_artwork ========================================================================== Journal References:
1. Sam Leggett, Tom Lambert. Food and Power in Early Medieval
England: a
lack of (isotopic) enrichment. Anglo-Saxon England, 2022; 1 DOI:
10.1017/ S0263675122000072
2. Tom Lambert, Sam Leggett. Food and Power in Early Medieval England:
Rethinking Feorm. Anglo-Saxon England, 2022; 1 DOI: 10.1017/
S0263675122000084 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220421094123.htm

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