Food Production and Distribution Flashcards
What was the overwhelming amount of time and effort put into in pre-industrial society?
Food production
Food was effectively the only income anyone had
Yes
What was the most important element of the AS diet?
Wheat, Barley and to lesser extent oats and rye
How did crop type change over the period?
At the beginning, barley was the most common cereal in England, by the norman conquest, wheat was
Why did wheat overtake barley as the preferred cereal?
It made nicer bread (no nutritional advantage - just that barley bread was denser and didnt rise as well)
Some saints lives’ they eat barley bread to demonstrate humility
Also maybe cos wheat an Italian thing and elite emulation
What was the popularity of barley in the period?
Still remained the 2nd highest cereal used - probs cos good for malting
Although oats and rye were not preferred…
…they were more robust (can grow in conditions not suitable for wheat - which requires fertile but well-drained soil)
What were some common weeds in the period?
Oats was one even though also deliberately farmed
Another was corncockle which was poisonous
How badly did weeds affect crop and how might this problem be addressed?
Not clear how badly affected crop/got into flour
Some ways of addressing it:
- Repeated ploughing before sowing
- Fast growing annual weeds die down before the harvest
- Height of crops (higher than now) probs made it hard for weeds to grow in between (esp. w/ broadcasting technique)
- And taller crop meant could reap it higher and hopefully avoid the weeds
How did EME view bread?
The requirement for a proper meal (like pasta and potatoes are today)
How was flour ground and what were some consequences of this?
Had to be hand ground in a quern
Hard work - average modern westerner lasts 30 minutes with enough flour for a few roles
What was one hazard in bread?
The meal would almost certainly contain grit from the surface of the mealstones - would wear away teeth so that by middle age dentine would be exposed (so painful probs hard to eat)
But Banham isnt clear on how much bread would need to be consumed for this to happen - everyday? Status ailment like gout?
Who likely had to grind flour?
Likely female role - Aethelberht apparently had a whole female class of slave “identified by their task of grounding flour” (B)
Because its such hard work, it probs was the case that most slave in every household participated in this grinding
How might bread be a status thing?
Because women had to do loads of other jobs as well as grind flour (weaving, spinning, milking etc.) a small household would only make bread occasionally
Because of this investment in time and energy, poorer folk were probs more likely to make pottage
Why might poorer folk eat pottage as their everyday meal?
Much less time and energy than bread - could stick it in a pot on the fire (which in winter would be burning anyway) and leave it for the day. When jobs finished you’d get back and it’d be ready to eat
What were the main ingredients of pottage?
Cereals and pulses with other things like leeks and cabbage
What appaers to be AS opinion on leeks, garlic, and onions?
All viewed similarly: all share leac (leek) compounds in their names - eg garlic = ‘spear leek’
Leek was definitely the most important though - veg garden = leactun (‘leek-enclosure’)
Why were leek, onions, garlic, and wild cabbage favoured veg?
Could be stored in winter and more hardy
Had a strength of flavour (By modern standards, wild cabbage so strong its inedible)
How was land used?
The best land was used for cultivation, rough land for pasture, the worst land as woodland
What were spades like bakc then?
Wooden with an iron edge for cutting - probs used for cultivating land that was either too steep or too wet for a plough; or if these people couldnt afford/didnt have access to a plough
How might fertiliser have been used in this period?
Likely smeared when and where it was needed
From low-levels of dung fauna from EM sites compared with Roman or post-conquest suggests it was taken out pretty immediately
What might fertilisation depend upon?
How close livestock was to fields/homes - having a plough team probs meant more likely to be able to fertilise stuff
What are the two main types of plough?
- Ard/scratch plough: Digging stick turned over so it could be pulled by and animal
- Heavy plough: Has a coulter (cuts a line for the shave to follow) and a Mouldboard (turns over the sod sliced by the shave, and has wheels
In practice these categories arent so clear cut
What was arguably the most important feature of a plough and why?
The Mouldboard
Turning over the sod made it much more effective at de-weeding
Could also create ridge and furrow fields meaning cereals (wheat) could be grown on previously waterlogged/heavier soil fields
What are the possible dates for heavy ploughs?
May have been used as early as Roman Britain but earliest evidence is a 6kg coulter at Lyminge, Kent
Few physical remains for ploughs cos wood rots and metal too valuable not to reuse (plus big coulters harder to lose)
Why might ploughing be harder for an ard plough?
Would have to keep going over the fields with the plough to de-weed (cos only cuts lines, not turn over the soil) - might spend all winter ploughing
What are some of the arguments B&F make for and against ploughing in january (as calendar suggests)?
Against:
- Too cold for sowing (and maybe ground frozen too)
For:
- Apparently wheat and rye could still live in winter
- Best time to sow is when the ground is still moist and weeds havent germinated
What, according to the calendar, did a plough team look like?
3 men with 4 oxen - boy driving oxen on (oxherd), driver, sower following (exeter riddles)
How might have harvest operated?
Reaping team of 4: 3 reapers and 1 collector
19thCE Oxfordshire women reaping and man collecting but calendar all men (but drawn by monks so might be bias - no women at all in the calendar)
What happened immediately after the harvest?
Crop was stood to dry in the fields - fastest drying = wheat (a few days in south, 8 days in the borders)
What do insect remains at York suggest?
AS cereals were stacked outside much more than stored inside like Roman and Norman periods
What was threshing?
The ears of the cereal were spread on the floor and beaten with a wooden flail to remove individual grains
Done indoors and barefoot (for cleanliness) in December in calendar
What was required for threshing?
Experience and skill to beat alternately (cos flails are long they could get in the way of the other person)
Describe a flail
Two bits of woods connected with strong but flexible material (leather or something)
Handle ~1m long and made of ash (which could last a lifetime), cudgal slightly shorter and stouter made of blackthorn, holly, or some knotty crab stick - lasted maybe a couple of winters
Where is the earliest representation of a tally?
December picture in calendar - notches on a hazel branch then cut lengthways so have two copies
What does the Oxherd mention to Aelfric in his ‘colloquey’?
That he must stay with the oxen all night to make sure they arent stolen
What does David Hill say about sheep?
“The most useful animal on the farm was the sheep”
What does David Hill say about agriculture?
“The foundation of all Anglo-Saxon life was its agriculture”
What does David Hill claim labourers carried with them everywhere?
A knife and a hone stone
Why were pigs an important foodstuff?
Cos could be eaten head to tail
Who was treated much better than other servants?
The Fowler - even given a ring and a horse sometimes?
What were the terms for Lord, lady, and ceorl?
- Hlaford = Bread-keeper
- Hlafdige = Bread-kneader
- Hlafaeta = Bread-eater
Remember Laets also described as Hlafaeta of Ceorls too in Kentish laws
What were difficult to distinguish between in the archaeology?
Ovens for bread and kilns for drying or parching grain
What was beer probably the main source of in AS diet?
Sugars
Why might malt be mentioned in some food rents?
Easier to store
What is some possible evidence for hops being used for beer?
- 10thCE boat found in the Thames at Graveney, Kent which had fruiting hops which were only used for brewing - being shipped elsewhere
- Hops are native to Britain
- Kent (more-recently0 known to be hop growing country
What made beer here ale rather than larger?
Yeast a ‘top-fermenting straight’ which formed a head on the brewing vessel - probs also collected for bread?
What other things could beer make?
malt-vinegar too
Banham says, “beer and its products would be so ubiquitous that their role in the domestic economy must have been of considerable importance”
Beer would have been much weaker than today
Yes
What was particularly important about beer and drinking?
Drinking played a vital social role for families, lords, and retainers to get to know each other a lot better
Follow/create “obligations between host and guest” and form relationships that would impact their quality of life (B)
What were most plough harnesses?
Neck/shoulder yokes - animals could pull harder this way
What evidence suggests ix teams were likely shared?
E Irish and Welsh lawcodes
What is a hide all about and how might this inform conceptions of it?
All about labour capacity
In any given landscape, people would know how much a hide was but may be different in different areas (eg yorkshire dales vs winchester)
What is the most likely size for a plough team in this period?
2 oxen with maybe 2 subs
What is the most likely concept of a hide?
How much land a plough team could work in 3 wks (so depends on geographical area)
What is reverse transhumance and where did it occur?
Take herds to lowlands in summer and uplands in winter
Mostly in coastal/estuary areas
What was the deal with big horses?
Not alot of evidence for them but elites probs always desired to have big eens (like cars - some flashy eens but most people had regular eens)
From skeletons, tallest horse found = 13 1/2 hands high (modern pony < 14 hands)
What is the largest type of meat found and why might this be?
Beef and possibly cos larger bones so more survive
Where are pigs mostly consumed?
Mostly in elite households - not found much elsewhere
Pigs also have more than one baby so bigger surplus to eat
How did the community look after pigs?
Probably all together - travelled long distances sometimes (eg Melrose –> Galloway)
Where were cattle sometimes?
Likely woodland - natively woodland animals
How much venison was consumed?
Not much (probs cos elites and hunting like today)
What sort of function did chickens serve?
Probs mostly for eggs and then eaten when old
What is one indicator of the relationship between elites and horses?
Eomer = ‘famous horse’ - ancestor of the Mercians
Lots of names include horse within it
Why might horses and dogs not be found in household waste?
Poss buried like pets today
Also sacrifices would probs consume the animal and this would be done in a different location to the household
What might Ine’s law on fence and meadow suggest?
Hayfield single and communal (cos each responsible for a section)
Who rounded up livestock?
Likely a group/communal activity
What did hideage probably only refer to?
Arable land - again agric super important to life and econ
Why were smiths probably unfree?
Cos Gesith can take them with him if hes leaving an estate in Ine’s code
Where was food usually stored?
In the roof - natural (accidental?) smoking
Was fish traded at this time?
Likely not and consumed locally - probably didnt save well until the discovery of smoking/preservation
Shrimp and crabs and that may be poor people food or just exclusive to the coast cos not mentioned in the mainstream literature
Also rubbish just thrown into the sea
