Thursday, February 23, 2012

Where can I find information about foods eaten in prehistoric Ireland?

I just finished reading food historian Regina Sexton's book "A Little History of Irish Food," in the hopes she would have such information. Unfortunately, her material is a bit unclear on that subject. What were the native foods in Ireland--circa 500 BC? The Romans introduced many foods, so is there information that deals with earlier times?Where can I find information about foods eaten in prehistoric Ireland?well, we know prehistoric people ate a lot of pork. Huge amounts of pig bones have been found from the time of the winter solstice near Stonehenge. The culture of ancient Ireland was similar, and in celtic myth you can see that wild boars (and the killing of them) created great status in the warrior society. The Champion's portion, awarded to the greatest warrior, was the largest,tastiest bit of a roasted boar.

Sheep and oxen had also been domesticated, and ox bones have been found deposited around burial mounds from funerary feasting. As ox horns often had a solar connection, these were sometimes placed in monuments ritually too.

Alcohol seems to have been around since about 2500 BC, around the time of the Beaker people, who were in both Britain and Ireland. Traces have been found inside beakers placed in barrows. The drink was probably something like mead or a type of beer. Some have suggested the Beaker people had some kind of a male drinking cult--and that they are probably the people who brought the celtic languages to Britain and Ireland.

Of course there were berries and fruit--crab apples (the little ones, big apples came with the Romans) and a grape seed was found in Dorset, England from the neolithic (sahowing that the climate was warmer.)

They had grain from the neolithic onwards,so presumably had bread or some kind of porridge, and on some sites there has been evidence of seafood consumption--although in other places, people didn't touch it at all even though they lived by the sea, so perhaps for some it was taboo.Where can I find information about foods eaten in prehistoric Ireland?I am pretty sure prehistoric refers to the Dinosaur era





Potatoes and Guinness usually

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