Meanings of food in medieval Britain and Ireland: themes

Abstract

Food is central to our understanding of the social, economic and cultural history of the medieval past. Its study sits at the nexus of disciplines, of different classes of sources and data, and of different academic approaches, from studies of historical documentation, to the physical remains of food waste, retrieved from archaeological excavation, to the chemical analysis of human bone in isotope studies or organic residues in cooking vessels, and the contributions of anthropology and contemporary food science. Essays in the special issue focus particularly on cereals and food security; and secondly, on questions of food culture.