Food plants, fruits and foreign foodstuffs: the archaeological evidence from urban medieval Ireland
Department of Archaeology, Connolly Building, Dyke Parade, University College Cork
[Accepted 4 December 2014. Published 15 May 2015.]
Abstract
The historical record is largely used to qualify the consumption of cultivated crops, and other food plants, such as fruits, vegetables, herbs and imported goods in the medieval Irish diet. Despite our rich literary sources, evidence for horticulture as well as the use of collected and exotic foodstuffs in medieval Ireland is still under-represented, and the remains of such plants rarely survive to make any inferences on the subject. The increase in archaeobotanical research in Ireland is producing a valuable archaeological dataset to help assess the nature, composition and variation of food plants in the medieval diet. Botanical remains preserved in anoxic deposits provide a unique snapshot of the diversity of plants consumed at a site, including information on processing techniques, storage and seasonality. With particular reference to urban medieval sites dating from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, this paper will present and appraise the archaeological evidence for the use and consumption of cultivated, wild and imported foodstuffs, and the areas of research that still need to be addressed.
Introduction
The main source of information for the types of food plants consumed in medieval Ireland, including agricultural production, is documentary evidence.1 Over the last 20 years however, the increase in archaeobotanical studies has contributed greatly to research in the areas of arable agriculture, diet and food-processing in Ireland.
The main advantage of using documentary sources is the precisely dateable data that exists providing a calendrical marker for the archaeological record. Early medieval law tracts such as the eighth century AD Bretha Déin Chécht2 and literature associated with saints’ lives3 also provides details on crops and food plants based on a hierarchical system. From the thirteenth century records on land use, landholdings, agricultural practices and food liveries featured prominently in the accounts of Anglo-Norman demesnes, manorial holdings and monastic estates in Ireland.4 While reference to crop yields, and gardens and orchard produce are found in these sources, explicit details on fruit, vegetable and herb consumption is scarcer.5 These accounts only provide information on land managed directly by the estate rather than on the people who held individual leasings. The content of these records can be selective in what was recorded, with more emphasis on food consumption from rich households and imported goods. Evidence, therefore, for food consumption is more likely to be available for the upper social classes with little regard for other social groups, such as the tenant farmer, the peasantry and urban populations.6
Since the 1980s, archaeobotanical studies in Ireland have been on the increase, largely driven by Mick Monk’s work on charred macroscopic cereal remains.7 In the last fifteen years the nature of infrastructural projects and commercial developments greatly changed archaeological excavation practices in Ireland. These practices included strategic and rigorous sampling of archaeological features and deposits for the recovery of environmental material, such as plant macrofossils.8 As a result, the archaeobotanical evidence for field crops is now well represented and this new corpus of environmental data has contributed greatly to our knowledge of past agricultural practices. In order to facilitate the analyses and synthesise of this data, research projects such as the Cultivating Societies Project9 and the Early Medieval Archaeological Project10 have been influential in disseminating much of this unpublished work. This information is playing a pivotal role in redefining our understanding of past agricultural practices as well as their impact on societal and landscape change.
Archaeobotanical studies also play a vital role in interpreting urban life in medieval Ireland due primarily to the organic matrix11 of these sites. The Viking Dublin excavations carried out by the National Museum of Ireland12 represent the most prominent work undertaken in this area. These campaigns provided a unique opportunity to implement sample strategies for the recovery of animal and plant remains in an attempt to interpret the food-processing practices and diet of a growing urban centre in the ninth and tenth centuries AD. Fruits, vegetables, lesser-known field crops and imported foodstuffs, were among the plant remains recorded, offering new insights into the variety of food available and consumed during the medieval period. The archaeobotanical works carried out by Frank Mitchell13 of Trinity College Dublin and later by Siobhán Geraghty14 produced a body of archaeological information that was central to understanding daily life in medieval Dublin and became a paradigm for other urban medieval projects that followed.15
Archaeobotany is now recognised as an essential component of archaeological interpretation and historical justification, and can complement documentary sources to offer important contributions to the study of medieval agriculture, horticulture and the use of wild food plants. While both sets of evidence suffer from differential survival and varying degrees of preservation, the disparity between these sources must also be appreciated as they will inevitably provide conflicting sets of evidence. Despite this, it has become apparent that a multidisciplinary approach is required in order to fully understand medieval food economy and the theoretical and taphonomical problems facing archaeological interpretation.
The documentary and archaeobotanical evidence presented for cultivated plants has focused predominantly on cereals in the medieval Irish diet. This can result in a poorer understanding of the role of other food plants, such as fruits, vegetables, pulse crops, herbs and imported foodstuffs. Historical sources for food produce from orchards and gardens as well as gathered wild plants are scarce and are often discussed generically as ‘fruit’ and ‘vegetables’.16 Archaeobotanical evidence has revealed more about the variety of non-cereal food plants and garden produce through the diverse plant remains that have survived in waterlogged and organic deposits in both rural17 and urban18 contexts. Through these physical remains, we can garner a much better understanding of how garden produce, imported fruits and wild plants were processed, utilised and consumed. This is especially significant when charting the diet of the lower classes and urban populations, which often went undocumented.
In order to gain a better understanding of the variety of food plants consumed in medieval Ireland, we need to consider the archaeological evidence that survives which represents these foodstuffs. In particular the evidence for fruit, vegetables, herbs and lesser known field crops, all of which can be underrepresented in both the historical and the archaeological records. The emergence of the Norse towns in the ninth and tenth centuries and their subsequent growth during the Anglo–Norman settlement in the late twelfth and the early thirteenth centuries stimulated a growing urban population which required a sustainable source of readily available foodstuffs. The increase in trade also had a major contribution in diversifying food in medieval Ireland where foodstuffs and other commodities were exchanged at a local and international level. To understand the range of food plants consumed by urban dwellers, this paper will present archaeobotanical evidence from known urban medieval sites in Ireland, such as Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Drogheda and Wexford, including new additions from Cashel, Co. Tipperary, and Kilkenny City. The results will be evaluated in order to interpret how harvested, gathered and imported foodstuffs were utilised by urban settlers, and what new information they can contribute to medieval food and drink practices.
Urban living
The period from the late twelfth century to the early fourteenth century saw a vast and rapid increase in the establishment of boroughs and urban markets as a consequence of the economic growth that was developing under the Anglo–Norman administration. Cashel and Kilkenny, which began as early medieval ecclesiastical settlements, were two such towns that grew into prominent urban centres under the new Anglo–Norman economic system.19 This rise in urban living promoted a commercial economy trading in both local and foreign commodities, which included a variety of foodstuffs. In Cashel, for example, the granting of an eight-day annual fair by King Henry III would have greatly encouraged a market economy, opening up the town to foreign traders.20 In order to encourage urban settlement, new occupiers were given a burgage plot upon which to build a house, including subsidiary buildings, sheds, cesspits, wells, an orchard, and a garden for herbs and vegetables.21
This rise in urban living would have required a strategic system of waste management. While rivers and lakes22 would have been considered the most convenient way of disposing of domestic refuse, including faecal remains and sewage in urban areas, the main feature to contain a wealth of information concerning diet, waste disposal, health, hygiene and settlement history were cesspits.23 While the historical record merely mentions their presence as part of a burgage plot, interpreting such features requires a combined understanding of the archaeological and biological record to help with their interpretation.24 0nce they fell into disuse, cesspits were rarely emptied; instead they were covered over to save on the cost of disposal. This accumulation of organic material becomes inert and sterile, providing the perfect anoxic environment for plant preservation. Cesspits could be simple cut features or lined with wood or stone (Pl. I).25 Since cess material was often dumped into open drains, ditches and pits, and mixed with occupation layers, interpreting medieval plant debris which has accumulated under urban conditions must be done with caution.
As part of this paper, four sites from Cashel and eight sites from Kilkenny City will be referenced and discussed in the context of other urban centres in Ireland (Table 1). The archaeological excavations at these sites were carried out in advance of commercial development, including alterations and extensions to existing buildings. Cashel and Kilkenny are both listed as historic towns in the Record of Monuments and Places26 and are therefore protected under the National Monuments Acts 1930–2004. This includes their historic core, which contains numerous sub-elements of archaeological and historic interest, as described in the Urban Archaeological Surveys for County Tipperary and County Kilkenny. Any proposed development works within the confines of these areas are, therefore, subject by law to appraisal in order to determine the impact and affect that the works may have on archaeological heritage. To facilitate the archaeological interpretation of these sites and in line with archaeological licensing procedures, strategic sampling of archaeological deposits was undertaken. The programme of post-excavation works from these locations included archaeobotanical analysis of the soils sampled, the results of which have been collated for the purpose of this paper (Table 2).
In Cashel, the sites at Chapel Lane and Bank Place fronted onto the north side of Main Street, Wesley Square on the south side of Main Street and the site at Friar Street located at the eastern side of that Street (Fig. 1). While medieval to post-medieval activity was recorded, the majority of archaeological evidence was centred on thirteenth- and fourteenth-century burgage activity. At Friar Street, the remains of a post-built rectangular structure including a possible cesspit were recorded. At Wesley Square, a series of pits were identified along with the remains of a later stone structure and cemetery. Evidence for industry was found, at Chapel Lane, where a cobbler’s workshop and possible occupation was evident, while iron-working or a smithy was located at Bank Place.27
PL. I—Top left: a reconstruction of a cess disposal (illustration prepared by Henry Buglass (David Smith, ‘Defining an indicator package to allow identification of “cesspits” in the archaeological record’, Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013), 526–43: 540, Fig. 3); top right: unlined medieval cesspit (photo: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, Kilkenny Archaeology); bottom: medieval stone-lined cesspit (photo: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, Kilkenny Archaeology).
TABLE 1—Summary of sites discussed from Cashel and Kilkenny.
a Soil samples averaged 10 litres in volume. Samples were selected and processed in consultation with an archaeobotanist as part of the post-excavation programme for each site. Two types of processing techniques were employed; Dry samples rich in charred remains were processed using a system of flotation. Flots were collected in sieve meshes measuring 300 microns, retents were collected in sieve meshes measuring 1mm; Samples from obvious anoxic deposits or those deemed to be potentially waterlogged were processed using a wet-sieving technique through a bank of sieves, with meshes measuring 250 microns to 2mm, in order to ensure the recovery of small seeds and finer plant parts. Considering other environmental material, such as insect remains, wood, charcoal and mollusca, a subsample of approximately 3-5 litres was processed for the purpose of archaeobotanical analysis. Examinations of these residues were carried out using a stereo microscope ranging in magnification from × 4.8 to × 56. Archaeobotanical material was identified using comparative seed collections and illustrative seed keys (e.g. A-L Anderberg, Atlas of seeds part 4: Resedaceae-Umbelliferae (Stockholm, 1994); W. Beijerinck, Zadenatlas der Netherlandsche Flora (Wageningen, 1947); N. J. Katz, S.V. Katz and M. G. Kipiani, Atlas and keys of fruits and seeds occurring in the quaternary deposits of the USSR (Moscow, 1965). Soil samples were processed in line with industry standards and guidelines as outlined in the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI), Environmental sampling guidelines for archaeologists (Dublin, 2006); and D. Pearsall, Palaeoethnobotany: handbook of procedures, 2nd edn (San Diego, CA, 2000).
TABLE 2—The plant macrofossil remains recovered from sites in Cashel and Kilkenny.a
a Nomenclature and taxonomic order follows Clive Stace, New Flora of the British Isles (Cambridge, 2010).
The identifications refer to seeds unless otherwise stated; ’cf.’ denotes a tentative identification; since sampling and methodological procedures differed bewteen each site. For the purpose of this paper, the quantification of individual seeds is based on relative abundance using an abundance key (+, ++, +++, ++++ and D) where + = rare (< 10); ++ = occasional (11 - 50); +++ = frequent (51–100); ++++ = abundant (> 100); D = dominant (500+).
FIG. 1—Location of sites discussed from Cashel, Co. Tipperary (after Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd./Headland Archaeology Ltd); inset: aerial view of archaeological excavation at Chapel Lane, Cashel (looking south). (Photo: Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd/Headland Archaeology Ltd.)
The sites from Kilkenny fall within the two main boroughs established in Kilkenny—Irishtown and Hightown. Bishop’s Palace and Brennan’s Yard were located to the north-west in the borough of Irishtown; Parliament Street was situated adjacent to the commercial High Street at the centre of the borough of Hightown, while Friary Street/Garden Row and 11, 12 and 26 Patrick Street were located to the south-west of Hightown. Talbot Tower formed part of the south-western extremity of the medieval town (Fig. 2). With the exception of Bishop’s Palace and Talbot Tower, the sites were characterised as typical medieval burgage plots, where refuse pits and plot boundaries were identified. A drying kiln was present at Friary Street/Garden Row, while cess deposits were recorded from Irishtown/Brennan’s Yard. The site at Parliament Street, which once housed the thirteenth-century Grace’s Castle, later became a gaol in the sixteenth century before its conversion to a courthouse in the eighteenth century. The excavation revealed numerous refuse medieval pits, cesspits, a wood-lined cesspit and long, shallow linears comprising domestic debris and cess material (Pl. II). The programme of environmental analysis from this site included an assessment of the plant macrofossils, insect, pollen and wood remains, and is the most extensive and comprehensive environmental project undertaken for medieval Kilkenny to date.
FIG. 2—Location of sites in Kilkenny City, Co. Kilkenny (after John Bradley, ‘The early development of the medieval town of Kilkenny’, in William Nolan and Kevin Whelan (eds), Kilkenny: historical and society interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin, 1990), 63–74, Fig. 3.1).
PL. II—Left: medieval levels at Parliament Street, Kilkenny; top right: series of linear medieval ditches at Parliament Street, Kilkenny; bottom right: medieval wooden-lined cesspit at Parliament Street, Kilkenny. (Photos: Arch-Tech Ltd.)
Daily fare of starchy staples
Crop harvest and cereal-based products
Irish texts dating from the early medieval period to the later medieval period refer to a well-balanced and healthy diet.28 This diet comprised bread and milk, providing the main source of carbohydrates and proteins required by the body. Cereals were the principal food consumed from the early to the later medieval period primarily through pot-based dishes, ale and breads29 and this differed considerably from person to person. The documentary evidence30 provides extensive information about cereal-based products and this is supported by the growing corpus of archaeobotanical evidence from Irish archaeological sites.31 Cereal remains (grains and chaff), including other field crops, such as legumes, commonly survive on archaeological sites in charred form as a result of exposure to fire. The frequency with which they appear to have been exposed to firing events ensures their relative ubiquity and abundance on archaeological sites. Wheat, oat, barley and rye were all typical crops cultivated during the medieval period, but vary in frequency and composition depending on location, environmental conditions, cultural preference and use (Pl. III).
PL. III—–Charred macrofossil remains of cultivated cereals and pulse crops recorded from medieval archaeological sites in Ireland. Wild radish is a wild plant often recorded with cereal crops in archaeobotanical assemblages. (Photos: Susan Lyons.)
The archaeological evidence for crops on urban sites is surprisingly less than expected32 especially considering the frequency of cereal remains in charred assemblages on rural sites.33 One reason for this may be the plant remains which survived the different stages of food preparation. Since large-scale flour production was carried out in mills located primarily in the rural hinterland, one would expect cereal remains to be a rarity in urban contexts. It has been surmised then that their presence in towns is perhaps for animal fodder, fuel, seed corn or as a consequence of transit.34 The ubiquity of charred cereal remains on rural sites is particularly associated with features such as kilns and hearths, which can provide insights into crop-processing techniques and potentially cultivation at a local level, something often missing from historical records. The evidence for waste products and cooking debris is also more prolific at these sites, since open features such as ditches, pits and gullies were frequently used as a dumping ground for this material. In contrast, crop-processing within urban centres is more difficult to define and therefore interpret, since the character of rural and urban settlement and their use of space clearly differed. It must be stated, however, that the presence of cereal remains does not in itself indicate if a site was a producer (involved with crop cultivation) or consumer (receiving crops in a processed or semi-processed state) site.35 While rural settlement would have engaged in producer/consumer activities, it is most likely that urban communities were largely end consumers where evidence for cereal remains reflects predominantly consumption.
Grain-based products, such as breads, porridges and gruels were consumed by grinding the grain into flour or meal. Evidence for this in an urban context is found in faecal remains from cesspits at Fishamble Street, Dublin,36 Arundel Square, Waterford,37 and similarly at Coppergate in York38 which contained frequent fragments of cereal spermoderm (bran), with wheat/ rye tentatively identified from Dublin and Waterford. During the medieval period the primary use of grain was in bread-making, with most being baked from wheat flour.39 Wheat, in contrast to oat and barley, has a high gluten content, which determines flour quality and is an essential component for producing leavened bread.40 The superior quality of wheaten flour was more desired than the heavy flat coarse breads of oat and barley,41 which were viewed as inferior varieties.42 Wheat was often thought of as a luxury food of the higher social classes in early Ireland43 but became a staple crop from the thirteenth century as part of the Anglo–Norman system of intensive cereal production.44 Monastic/penitential bread, a common staple of the Benedictine rule of the Cistercians and Augustinian orders required coarse flat bread to be consumed.45 This was made from an inferior flour of barley, oats and pulses baked on ashes or made into dried biscuits.46 Only the finest wheat flour was permitted on Sundays and in the making of the wafer-thin sacramental Host.47 Despite the documentary evidence for the use of wheat in bread-making, the recovery of whole wheat grains from urban sites can be low.48 This is based on the assertion that bulk crop-processing, including milling wheat for flour, was a large-scale operation carried out under seigneurial control on rural demesnes.49
While wheat was recorded from most urban medieval deposits, values were generally lower from Hiberno–Norse occupation layers compared to later medieval phases. Instead, barley (six-row) and oat (common, bristle and wild varieties) dominated assemblages from Viking and Hiberno–Norse sites in Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Wexford.50 With a notable increase in wheat values from thirteenth-century occupation layers in Wexford and at a number of sites in Dublin,51 oat predominates from similar phases in Waterford and from Washington Street and South Main Street, Cork.52 Evidence for wheat was low from Cashel, however, it is frequently recorded along with oat from Kilkenny, most notably from a series of thirteenth/fourteenth-century refuse pits on Patrick Street53 and a later medieval/post-medieval crop-drying kiln on Friary Street.54 This trend follows a similar pattern emerging from other archaeobotanical datasets in Ireland, where wheat rarely dominants on sites predating c. AD 1200,55 but more prevalent on late twelfth- and thirteenth-century settlements.56 It was documented as being grown by the Irish population during this period, however it rarely became part of their own diet, instead being used as payment of a tithe or rent to local landlords.57
While hulled wheat, such as emmer and possible spelt wheat have been identified from Friary Street, Kilkenny,58 and Friar Street, Cashel,59 identifications are tenuously based on grains rather than chaff. In the absence of cereal chaff, it can be difficult to distinguish between different species of wheat in the archaeological record.60 In most instances, however, it is naked or freethreshing wheat, such as bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) which are recovered from Irish medieval sites, with some evidence for the bread/club and rivet/durum variety (T. aestivum/compactum L.; T. turgidum/durum Desf.).61 Despite the sheer volume of cereal grains being identified from medieval sites in Ireland, spelt wheat and rye are still grossly under-represented, compared to archaeobotanical records from the Continent.62 In Britain, there is a shift from spelt wheat to naked wheat recorded in Anglo–Scandinavian and later medieval sites, while rye values decrease during this time.63 This increase in naked wheat could be more cultural than environmentally driven. Taste may have been one factor for wheat preference in different locations. Bread and spelt flour is of high quality, producing a light, white bread, which was favoured by northern and western European regions, while rye bread, common in more easterly areas, was flat and coarse.64
From a practical view point, naked wheat requires less processing than hulled wheat, where the grain is difficult to detach from the outer glumes or hulls. In addition, spelt wheat has a lower yield per acre than bread wheat, which would make is less commercially viable.65 Being less labour intensive, naked wheat would therefore produce a high and stable yield, more suited to the rigors of Anglo–Norman agriculture practices. This could go some way to explaining its frequency in some later medieval archaeobotanical assemblages. More locally, archaeobotanical research in Ireland is revealing that higher incidences of wheat are recorded from sites in Leinster compared to Munster66 and the data from urban sites in these regions also supports this pattern. This perhaps reflects the breadth of Anglo–Norman settlement within these areas and that cultural preference was also a significant factor in crop variation at different geographical locations within Ireland.
Crop-drying in an urban context was not unusual as kilns and a possible oven were found in back yards of medieval properties on Peter Street and Back Lane, Waterford. Kilns generally represent large-scale crop-drying, so their presence could reflect a commercial activity, such as baking or brewing. This activity is characterised by the number of bakehouses recorded in Dublin67 in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and in breweries associated with religious houses at Holy Trinity and Christ Church Cathedral and Dublin Castle.68 Bread-baking in Cashel is also documented where a bakehouse is mentioned in a charter dating to 1230.69 In Kilkenny, the grain from the kiln at Friary Street was interpreted as evidence for brewing. A mixed composition of predominantly wheat and oat displayed signs of germination, a feature of malted grains.70 While there is some documentary evidence from Dublin that wheat was used in ale-making, oat was the preferred grain for malting and brewing, certainly up until the fourteenth century.71 Oat was cheap and widely available and used in the brewing of inferior ales, while wheat produced a more superior brew. The preponderance of oat identified from archaeological deposits in Cashel may also signal local ale-making, especially since brewing was a historically attested activity within the town, with some 38 practising brewers recorded.72 In contrast to the brewing industry in England, barley was the preferred brewing grain at this time, seen perhaps as being superior to oatbrewed ales, as reported by English travellers to Ireland in the seventeenth century: ‘scarce outside of Dublin and few other towns will you meet with any good beer or any reasonable bread for your money, only you may have some raw, muddy, unwholesome ale, made solely of oats’.73
Another supporting feature for potential brewing at Friary Street, Kilkenny, was the high frequency of cereal chaff and straw present. The use of certain types of fuel in a kiln permeated various flavours into the malted grain, many of which were considered undesirable. While most brewers used wood, straw imparted the least taste, which helped to produce a clean-tasting ale.74 Since ale was produced without the use of hops, it spoiled quicker particularly ales of ordinary strength. This feature would have greatly affected the trade and transport of ale, prompting ale-making industries, such as those associated with religious houses, to dry malted grains locally. Valued for its nutritional and sustaining abilities,75 ale became a staple in the diet of medieval people, including penitential orders,76 so demand was high.
Whether beer was being brewed in Ireland at this time is uncertain. The practice of brewing beer involves the use of hops and in Britain the transition from unhopped ales to hopped beer is documented from the fourteenth century.77 Archaeological finds of hops do occur but are infrequent and it is difficult to ascertain if they represent a cultivated variety.78 Hops were included in gardens, although they were also grown as a specialist field crop.79 Earliest archaeological finds for hops were recovered from tenth- and eleventh-century deposits at Hedeby, Germany, from Birka, Sweden, and Svendborg, Denmark,80 eleventh- and twelfth-century deposits at Novgorod, Russia,81 and from Anglo–Scandinavian York,82 suggesting that hops came into Northern Europe as early as the tenth century. Flavourings such as sweet gale and bog myrtle were found alongside hops from York, Novgorod and fourteenth-century deposits in Aberdeen,83 however no such combination has been recorded from Ireland to date. The identification of a hop seed from a later medieval cess deposit at Irishtown/Brennan’s Yard84 is an interesting find, since hops were not native to Ireland. At Parliament Street, Kilkenny,85 evidence for hop/hemp pollen was identified from a medieval cesspit on the site, possibly through human waste or domestic rubbish, suggesting it may have been growing locally. While it is difficult to separate hop from hemp pollen,86 the presence of the hop seed from Irishtown/Brennan’s Yard helps to confidently assume that the pollen could have derived from hops. From this evidence, it is possible to infer that hops were growing in urban gardens in Kilkenny and potentially being consumed. In addition to flavouring beer, hops had medicinal uses such as treating skin ulcers and inflammation.87
Since bread and ale were considered the two staples of life, the majority of grain and grain-based products were brought into the towns and sold at city markets for this purpose.88 The purchase of whole grains would also have been important in order to facilitate food supplies through the winter, especially for urban communities, who depended on seasonal produce. Oat was the most prominent grain recorded from both archaeological and documentary evidence during the medieval period.89 Since oat could tolerate difficult growing conditions and damp climates, it became the primary foodstuff for all classes, although it was often associated with poorer communities.90 Oats would have provided more nutrition than wheat or barley, having a higher protein, fibre and amino acid content than any other cereal.91 The recovery of whole grains from occupational layers on many urban sites in Ireland indicates that cereals were stored in towns without having to be milled. One such example is Friar Street, Cashel,92 where a mixture of crops and pulses were recovered from a fourteenth-century burnt structure,93 representing the remains of grains stored for domestic consumption. The presence of oat, barley and wheat in this context may be incidental rather than contamination. Growing a mixed crop, known as dredge or maslin, was well documented in England94 and suggested by Geraghty95 for crop assemblages in Viking Dublin. Sowing mixed crops together had an economic incentive, since it ensured the probability of a decent yield. Interestingly, the oat and barley grains from Cashel still had hulls and chaff attached, while the wheat grains did not, evidence that oat and barley were not fully processed. Oat chaff and a variety of arable weed seeds were also plentiful from samples at Chapel Lane, Cashel; Parliament Street, Kilkenny; and medieval Waterford96 suggesting that oats were being processed within the town or were being stored in a semi-clean state. This can be carried out in a domestic context quite easily, using a quern stone, known as ‘shelling’ or ‘graddaning’, where the grains are parched in a pot over a fire or rolled with hot pebbles in a basket.97 Oat had a number of different uses, which depended on availability, use and personal taste. It could be baked into flat cakes, or added to pottage and stews and malted and brewed into inferior ales, as discussed. It was frequently used in making porridge rather than bread as it was easy to digest, and simple and quick to prepare and cook, compared to barley.98 Porridge was a common dish in the diet of children in medieval Ireland,99 but oatmeal made of water and buttermilk was viewed as an inferior dish and considered an unhospitable dish to serve to travellers.100 Since oat was also commonly used for horse fodder (grain and chaff),101 its preponderance in the archaeological record suggests it was being cultivated for both human and animal consumption. Animals kept in urban areas would have required a constant supply of fodder so unprocessed crops could reflect areas where there was a market for fodder goods, such as poorer consumers and urban hinterlands.102 Food storage was essential to a stable urban economy given that most food plants, including staples such as crops, were produced seasonally in temperate regions. The ability of cereals to be stored for long periods of time added great value to maintaining a balanced diet throughout the winter. A cache of whole grains was therefore a versatile resource, providing a household with much-needed ingredients for a variety of food and liquid dishes as well as feed for animal stock.
Other field crops—peas, beans, lentils and flax
Other field crops recorded from medieval Ireland are pulse crops or legumes. Traditionally, they were used primarily for animal fodder, especially vetch103 and as a foodstuff in times of famine or a bad harvest.104 The historical evidence for peas, beans and vetches is a mention in early medieval Irish law tracts of the eighth century and they are well documented in thirteenth and fourteenth-century manorial accounts for food liveries, maintenance agreements and government purveyance records.105 In fourteenth-century Dublin, 50% of peas and beans recorded from the manor at Clonkeen were given to servants and the remainder were sent to Glasnevin and Grangegorman to be used in horse bread.106 If Clonkeen is typical of the settlements in the Dublin region at this time, then legumes played an important part in the diet of the poorer classes. Most legumes are toxic in their raw state (have a negative effect on absorbing nutrients in the body), so they require soaking, fermenting or sprouting in order to ensure that they are safe to eat. Once dried, they could be stored easily for the winter months and were a good source of fat, starch, protein and Vitamins B, C and K. Between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, Spencer’s survey of historical documents pertaining to foodstuffs suggests that dried peas and beans were commonly made into flour or as part of a pottage dish consumed by both the rich and poorer classes107 and archaeological evidence for this practice was recorded from Viking Birka.108 ‘Pottage’ by its very meaning translates to: that which is cooked in a pot’, a common stew-like dish consumed by both the rich and poorer classes.109 This dish could be made from a variety of different ingredients ranging from the simplest plain-boiled cereal gruels to more luxurious stews which included meats, fish and vegetables.110 Beans were commonly used in sweet dishes, such as puddings and are mentioned in many medieval recipe books of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.111
The presence of pulse crops in the archaeological record, however, is less impressive and they rarely survive, possibly as a result of taphonomic factors.112 Their seeds do not preserve well in waterlogged conditions, especially if ground into flour and since their processing does not require them to be dried, their chances of becoming charred is infrequent. Horse/broad bean and probably field pea were cultivated and eaten in Viking Dublin dating from the eleventh century.113 In medieval Waterford, charred field pea fragments were recovered from deposits dating from the eleventh to the thirteenth century114 and from thirteenth/fourteenth-century deposits in Drogheda, Co. Louth. Their frequency in the archaeological record increases from the thirteenth century115 coinciding with the arrival of the Anglo–Norman population, probably as part of their crop-rotation system.116 Both peas and beans were also recorded charred from medieval deposits associated with cess material, refuse pits and occupational layers at Cashel and Kilkenny. Their occurrence in kiln deposits from Friary Street, Kilkenny,117 indicates that they were being dried locally prior to storage in seed form. Storage in a domestic context, alongside other whole grains, as in Friar Street, Cashel,118 represents a cache of foodstuffs for long term use possibly through the winter. As well as cultivated legumes, ‘wild’ legumes were found at many medieval sites in Ireland, particularly vetches (Vicia spp.). While there is no documentary evidence for the cultivation of vetches during this period, there are extensive historical sources for their cultivation in medieval England, principally as fodder and also as famine food.119 It has been argued that by the fourteenth century, the scale and distribution of vetch cultivation on some English demesnes signal their status as a significant field crop.120 This also corresponds with the earliest accounts of vetches being used on a large scale to feed draught animals.121 It is difficult to establish if vetch remains recovered from the Irish archaeological record represent cultivated produce or weeds inadvertently harvested with cultivated legumes, or indeed an uncultivated plant gathered for consumption. Some of the largest vetch assemblages to date (in excess of 100 charred seeds) have been recovered from later medieval settlement sites at Boyerstown, Co. Meath,122 and Busherstown, Co. Offaly.123 The absence of chaff makes it difficult to identify these seeds to species, however based on the size of the seed and the length of the hilum (seed scar), Vicia spp. predominates, with lesser incidences for Lathyrus spp. Similar mixed vetch assemblages have also been recorded from later medieval deposits at Carrickmines Castle, Co. Dublin,124 and the Cistercian Abbey at Bective, Co. Meath.125 Vetch seeds are recovered together with other cultivated legumes and cereal crops from kiln and hearth deposits and as refuse debris in pits, diches and gully features from these sites. While this indicates that they were dried with mixed crops, potentially to be used in grainbased produce, the distinction between human and animal product is still under-researched. While much is still unknown about the use of vetches in the medieval diet, such assemblages should still be considered when interpreting medieval food economy in the context of other cultivated crops and food plants.
Peas and beans were planted in late spring for harvesting in August or September after they had dried in the pod. While there is documentary evidence for cultivation on large rural demesnes126 as a cultivated field crop, it is unknown if they formed part of an intensive cropping regime.127 Other than a foodstuff, legumes have the ability to fix nitrogen in soils, thus making cultivation plots more productive in the long term.128 Wheat occurs frequently on Irish archaeological sites were legumes are also present,129 which is interesting because wheat is a rather demanding crop that requires good-quality nitrogenous soils. Recent research in crop-rotation systems has demonstrated that planting legumes in order to increase crop yields can take many years.130 The apparent association between wheat and legumes in Irish archaeological deposits requires more careful attention, and perhaps further research before it can be determined if legumes were indeed being cultivated to help to improve crop yields.
Despite their low frequencies in urban contexts, there are archaeological signals for legume storage and possible cultivation at a local level. One biological indicator for their presence on site is the bean weevil (Bruchus sp.), a product pest found in stored peas and beans which was identified in cess pits from Parliament Street, Kilkenny,131 and Temple Bar West, Dublin.132 Pollen associated with the pea family (Fabaceae spp.) was also identified from the cesspits at Parliament Street, Kilkenny;133 a potential indicator that legumes were growing on a small scale in urban gardens. While these plants would have been very beneficial at a time when grain was in short supply or after a poor harvest,134 it must also be acknowledged that factors such as seasonality and cultural preference would also have determined how and when legume crops were consumed.
Lentils are extremely rare from Irish archaeobotanical assemblages and to date have been recorded in charred form from just a few medieval sites, namely Clonfad 3, Co. Westmeath,135 and Naas, Co. Kildare,136 although their contextual integrity is ambiguous. The largest lentil cache recorded in Ireland to date was identified from a post-medieval pit at Patrick Street in Dublin.137 While no documentary evidence exists for the cultivation of lentils in Ireland, they are found alongside other pulse crops, which suggest that they may have been grown as part of a mixed legume crop in medieval Ireland. It is also possible that these represent imported crops, as thought to be the case for contemporary lentil finds in Britain.138
The presence of flax from medieval sites adds to the diversity of crops cultivated in medieval Ireland. The cultivation of flax would have provided linen obtained from the stalks by retting, animal fodder from the leaves and oil from the crushed seeds, which had uses in cooking and lighting.139 The presence of flax in cesspits, along with other cess indicators, such as cereal bran, fruit seeds, fish bone and insect ova is a good indication of food debris.140 Linseed was eaten with grains and pulses in breads and stews as archaeological evidence from Viking Birka141 and Coppergate142 can attest. Evidence for flax, together with other food plant remains was recorded from eleventh-century cess deposits at Fishamble Street, Dublin,143 a thirteenth-century cesspit from John Dillon Street, Dublin,144 Waterford and South Main Street, Cork.145 It was also identified from other thirteenth and fourteenth-century sites in Dublin, Cork and Wexford,146 however, its status as a foodstuff is more difficult to ascertain. Its presence alongside cherry and sloe stones, blackberry pips and a grape seed from thirteenth-century refuse deposits in Chapel Lane, Cashel,147 hints at potential food debris, as the seeds were crushed in some cases. While documentary evidence for flax cultivation in the medieval period is rare, later medieval sources from England suggest that it grew as a garden crop, indicating small-scale cultivation on individual holdings and in gardens.148 Flax-drying may have taken place at Friary Street, Kilkenny,149 along with pulse crops, which could imply that it was growing in urban areas and being stored in seed form. Flax would have grown well and produced higher yields on smaller plots where nutrient-rich loamy soils from organic debris were common.150
‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose . . .’: seasonal contributions to medieval diet
Written evidence for the consumption of fruit, vegetables, nuts and wild plants in the medieval period is largely under-represented and as Christopher Dyer points out, is often dismissed by historians as a marginal or trivial aspect of the medieval diet.151 Despite the scarcity of horticulture practices in medieval documents, reference to gardens and their produce can be found in many of the later medieval deeds, charters, household accounts, manor surveys and seigneurial records.152 Gardens and gathered wild produce did not constitute the mainstay of food production but provided the population with a proportion of their diet on a seasonal basis. The consumption of many plant-based foods (fruit, nuts, vegetables, herbs and wine) during the medieval period was subject to seasonal fluctuation. Functional and economic factors such as weather, cycle of crop growth, and the storage and distribution of commodities also played a part in affecting food supplies.153 Cultural factors must also be considered, where religious calendars, such as Christmas and Lent, would have impacted on diet and food preferences.
The value of gathered foodstuffs and garden and orchard produce provided both a quantitative and a qualitative element to the medieval diet. In times of food shortage, these natural foodstuffs played a vital role in food production on a seasonal basis. Indeed, this probably led to surplus food supplies, which may have been sold to less self-sufficient consumers, such as the lower classes and urban occupiers. These foodstuffs also supplied people with much-needed nutrition, being a good source of vital vitamins and minerals, which aided balanced eating. The development of an urban market economy and an increase in trade during the later medieval period would have inevitably diversified foodstuffs providing a wider spectrum of fruits and vegetables to a greater number of people.
Historical sources from Ireland document the presence of a vegetable garden outside settlement enclosures as early as the seventh and eighth centuries AD.154 This is supported in the archaeological record, where small enclosures excavated at a number of early medieval sites, such as Cahercommaun, Co. Clare,155 and Boyerstown and Castlefarm, Co. Meath,156 have been interpreted as possible garden plots. Evidence for artificially deepened garden soils has also been identified from early medieval ecclesiastical sites, namely Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly, and Illaunloughan, Co. Kerry.157 The function of gardens whether in rural or urban areas was to supply the household with seasonal additions to their diet. From the thirteenth century large secular and ecclesiastical estates would have had well-stocked managed gardens. The lower classes and urban households had access to a small plot for growing vegetables and fruits and would have engaged in small-scale horticulture to facilitate their own dietary needs.158 In medieval Britain, estates bordering towns were growing garden and orchard produce, which provisioned the urban markets with local fresh supplies.159 It has also been suggested by Dyer that horticulture was being practised more in urban areas than rural settlements.160 This would mean that towns were more self-sufficient in providing themselves with garden produce and did not engage to a great extent with the surrounding agrarian economy. Interaction between towns and rural settlement should be reflected in the archaeological record, however, the physical plant remains may not survive to address these questions. Furthermore, preservation conditions may obscure the picture of garden cultivation on agrarian sites, producing a view that garden history is linked to social class and urban environments. Using the current archaeological evidence, more research is needed in the garden plant spectrum from rural settlements in order to assess their place in the medieval food economy. While archaeobotany can provide evidence for the presence of cultivated, wild and collected food plants from urban areas, contextualising this data can sometimes prove difficult, especially in the absence of defined features or well-stratified contexts. It should not be assumed that samples represent in situ deposits. Long periods of occupation will produce multiple layers of middens, increasing the impact of residual and intrusive remains through mixing and disturbance. Identifying sites with limited occupation as well as with a prescribed use of space may yield the best results for interpreting urban food storage, processing activities and horticultural practices.
In the archaeological record, the differential preservation of plant parts is largely based on the part of the plant that has survived. Many non-cereal food plants are rarely exposed to fire and are more likely to be found in wet, anoxic deposits. The edible parts of vegetables and some herbs are soft, so their survival in the archaeological record can be scarce. Food plants valued for their leaves and roots are often under-represented in medieval archaeological deposits as they are generally harvested before the plant goes to seed.161 In contrast, seeds of herbs and wild plants—where the seed was the part used— fruit stones and nutshells can be over-represented since their robust woody structure ensures that they survive longer (Pl. IV).162 Even when ‘wild’ plant seeds are recovered in charred form, they are cautiously interpreted and more often dismissed as arable weed intrusions or fuel debris. One such assemblage from thirteenth/fourteenth-century kilns and a well at Clonfad, Co. Westmeath,163 contained a plethora of wild plants, which historically have both culinary and medicinal qualities. While their presence in these features was interpreted as being the remains of crop-processing waste, perhaps more attention should be given to these plants in the context of other known cultivars and to the possibility that they potentially represent food plant debris rather than crop contaminants. One problem with interpreting vegetables is that they may derive from native wild plants and differentiating cultivated varieties from their wild relatives can be difficult.164 Their presence in contexts such as cesspits and deposits containing domestic waste together with a series of other biological indicators should also be considered and appropriately evaluated in order to help to establish if they indeed derive from food debris.165
PL. IV—Examples of typical fruits and herbs recorded from medieval archaeological sites in Ireland. (a) blackberry/bramble/raspberry (Rubus fruticosus/idaeus); (b) wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca); (c) bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus); (d) apple (Malus spp.); (e) wild cherry (Prunus avium); (f) blackthorn/sloe (Prunus spinosa); (g) fig (Ficus carica); (h) grape (Vitis vinifera); (i) celery (Apium graveolens); (j) parsley (Aethusa cynapium). (Photos: Susan Lyons.)
Fruits and nuts
One of the most ubiquitous food plants recovered from urban sites, especially from cesspits and cess deposits are fruit remains.166 Their abundance is partly the result of the high seed content in some fruits, such as blackberry and strawberry but also their robust woody structure can survive well in these environments.167 The dominance of fruit seeds has coined the expression for this typical assemblage as a ‘medieval fruit salad’.168 Smaller pips are usually swallowed whole with the fruit, such as blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, apple, grape and fig, so they are most likely the remains of food which had passed through the human digestive tract unaltered. Larger fruits such as cherry and plum may be more difficult to swallow and would have been discarded upon eating, so may not be associated with excrement as much as the former fruits.169 Some of the earliest urban medieval evidence comes from eleventh-century pits at Fishamble Street and Winetavern Street170 where a wide range of fruits were identified. Cherries, sloes, rose, rowan, blackberry, bilberry, apple and haws were commonly recorded in seed form, with apple endocarp also present from Fishamble Street.171 A large mass of faecal matter from Winetavern Street contained abundant sloes, blackberry and strawberry seeds, representing direct fruit consumption.172 Similar fruit assemblage in varying quantities features prominently in later thirteenth and fourteenth-century cesspits and cess deposits from Chapel Lane, Cashel; Kilkenny; Cork; Drogheda; Athenry, Co. Galway; and Waterford.173 With the exception of an early thirteenth-century deposit at High Street, Dublin,174 evidence for bilberry seems confined to earlier Hiberno–Norse occupation in Dublin and Wexford175 similar to Anglo–Scandinavian sites in England, such as Coppergate.176 Whether this signifies a cultural preference in the diet of Viking settlers is unknown. Geraghty makes the point that bilberries grow some 10km south of Dublin City, so effort was required to transport them into the town.177
Fruit species such as bilberry, bramble, blackberry, haws and elderberry and possibly raspberry were scarcely mentioned in the historical record probably since they were gathered wild. The historical evidence suggests that they were being cultivated from the sixteenth century.178 Apples were the most frequently mentioned fruit in both the early Irish texts and later medieval sources.179 Crab/wild apple is native to Ireland and would have provided a good crop of small sour apples.180 The historical records clearly distinguish between sweet, fragrant and wild apples, and in the Betha Brigde from the Book of Lismore, apples were stored in a haggard and given as prized gifts.181 Varieties of apples in later medieval Ireland may have included costards, pearmains and bitter-sweets, the latter being used for cider-making.182 Pears were rarely recorded prior to the Anglo–Norman period, and varieties included wardens, sorels, caleols and gold knopes.183 They were usually cooked and eaten in puddings and pies.184 The use of fruit as relishes and as an accompaniment to dishes is well documented in the early medieval lives of the saints and in the Aislinge Meic Conglinne.185 An eighth-century text An Irish penitential, mentions a herbal broth given to the sick known as brothchán.186 Brothchán was made with oatmeal and herbs and many texts refer to the health benefits of this dish.187 This dish was often served with the addition of relishes on Sundays. These relishes included honey or assorted seasonal fruits, an early form of muesli perhaps.188 It was also viewed as a luxury dish, and was used by penitential monks in lieu of bread and water during times of fasting.189 In addition to apples, other fruits used in this muesli’ dish included blackberries/ sloes/mulberries/hazelnuts and other nuts. Aisling Meic Conglinne mentions purple berries and a little sloe tree, together with cabbage/kale and nuts.190 This implies that blackberries were stewed in gruel, a mix of oatmeal, honey, fruits and nuts which featured regularly in the diet of all classes.191 Despite the historical evidence for apples and pears, their presence in the archaeological record is surprisingly low compared to fruits such as blackberry and raspberry. While taphonomy may play a part here, it is also worth considering how different fruits were being consumed, processed and cooked, altering their physical remains and hence distorting their archaeological signal. For example, eating apples raw was frowned upon by medieval physicians, and common practice in England and the Continent was to press them into cider and verjuice (vinegar).192 In times of surplus supplies, they were also fed to swine.193
Nuts in the form of hazelnuts were commonly recorded in both the documentary and archaeological record194 and their importance in the early medieval diet is highlighted by the numerous historical references to them.195 They would have been gathered in autumn and suitable for storing through the winter. At Fishamble Street, the recovery of both whole and fragmented nuts suggests they may have been consumed as whole nuts and ground into meal, known as maothal.196 While well documented as a foodstuff in medieval Ireland, the ubiquity of hazelnut shells from the archaeobotanical record can perhaps be misleading. A good source of Vitamins A and K, they were certainly a nutritious addition to any dish, however, taphanomy must be considered when discussing how certain fruit and nut remains survive and they should be interpreted with caution.
For fruits and vegetables to be enjoyed out of season, they had to be preserved, generally by drying and, depending on the foodstuffs, using honey and brine.197 Food storage was essential to a stable urban economy given that most food plants, including staples, are produced seasonally in temperate regions. Storage of other plant produce will have been straightforward (hazelnuts, walnuts, linseed, field beans, peas, garlic, parsley and celery) would have been stored dry and could survive for many months. Apples could be harvested slightly later than many other fruits, and were easily dried, which provided a nutritious food source during the winter months.198 Soft fruits, such as raspberry, blackberry, bilberry and strawberries, could only survive storage beyond a day or two, cooking them would ensure that they kept for several days, but longer term storage would require preserving them in honey or in ferments.199 Raspberries, elderberries, blackberries and bilberries were not cultivated because they grew quickly and profusely in wild thickets. Cultivation would not have increased their fruit production either making for an unprofitable return.200 Fruit and berries picked in late summer, could however be preserved in jams and preserves out of season, which can make seasonality difficult to discern in some cases. At Temple Bar West, the fruit stones and insect remains recorded successfully charted the seasonal use of a cesspit at the site.201 In a similar project, a pit from Parliament Street, Kilkenny,202 containing abundant cherry, sloe and blackberry represented seasonal fruit produce deposited in late summer or early autumn. At Chapel Lane, Cashel,203 a deposit of predominantly blackberry and bramble seeds could also reflect seasonal food debris. Haws ripened later in the autumn, and although tougher to digest, may have been eaten as a ‘last resort’ food in the absence of other fruits,204 which could account for their lower occurrence in the archaeological record. Not all fruit remains should be regarded as human food however. Elder tree stumps, for example, where identified in situ at Coppergate, evidence that they grew as part of the urban vegetation.205 Their seeds, therefore, would have entered deposits and become part of the archaeological record.
Evidence for fruit-processing was identified from High Street, Dublin, where the remains of an early thirteenth-century fruit press containing the macrofossil remains of cherry, plum, strawberry, fig and bilberry was found. 206 The debris was interpreted as fruit waste for fermentation, a common method of juice extraction documented in many European medieval sources.207 While juice content can be high (75%), it is a laborious task and may not have been used for large-scale juice production.208 Many religious houses, manorial estates and high-status residences were recorded as having a cider press so as to facilitate their own personal needs.209 This suggests, therefore, that the fruit press from High Street could have been providing produce for a wealthy or religious household.
In Winetavern Street, an eleventh-century pit containing an abundance of fruit debris (cherry, sloe, bilberry, blackberry, apple and haws) with pulp still attached, was also considered to be the waste remains of fruit-processing.210 Whole fruit stones of sloes and cherry identified from medieval Waterford and Parliament Street, Kilkenny, where plums were also identified, were both interpreted as being a possible by-product of food production rather than consumption.211 Parliament Street’s position adjacent to a market on High Street, Kilkenny,212 would have been at the centre of commercial activity in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Food-processing may have been one such activity carried out to facilitate urban demand, including the growing number of monastic orders, friaries and hospitals that were being established.213
The excellent preservation of fruit pulp from Fishamble Street214 and High Street could be the result of the fruit having been pickled in alcohol or acetic acid.215 Some fruits, such as sloes were quite bitter and difficult to digest. It is therefore unusual that they are one of the most ubiquitous fruits found in faecal matter or associated with cess material. Their abundance in the archaeological record therefore deserves some attention. It has been suggested that they are the remains of prunes, rather than sloes in their raw state.216 While prunes may have been imported from warmer climates, they could be easily kiln or oven dried—a process which is used in making acid fruit, such as sloes and crab apples more palatable.217 According to James Greig, this made them easier to digest and could explain the high incidence s of Prunus (cherry/sloes/plum) type species found in faecal remains. Documentary evidence details the juice of sloes, and sometimes of crab apples, in making verjuice.218 This unfermented acidic juice was commonly used as a preservant and, in cooking, it was added to sauces.219 The juice of sloes also had medicinal qualities.220 A seventeenth-century traveller to Ireland who required a remedy for an ailment documented its use: ‘. . . being troubled with an extreme flux . . . the syrup and conserve of sloes well boiled, after they have been strained . . . boiled in water until they be softened, and then strained . . .’221
While the preponderance of fruit stones from many urban pits and cess deposits suggests a diet rich in seasonal produce, it is very possible that these remains represent food-processing, in the form of fruit extraction for juices, preserves and verjuice, as much as direct foodstuffs. Such activities would have been carried out in late summer or early autumn when fruits were plentiful. This surplus of fruit stock may not have been so easily conserved, so converting it to juices and preserves would ensure its longevity. The versatility of verjuice as a common cooking ingredient would have kept demand for this condiment high and since sloes and apples were plentiful in season, both elite and non-elite households may have had access to this product or the makings of it. This could go some way to explaining the high incidence of sloes in the archaeological record.
It is also worth mentioning that during the medieval period, fruit consumption had a somewhat medicinal fervour and was classified on a sociological scale depending on dietetic considerations. This was borne out of the classical theory that food was categorised by energy patterns which effected general well-being.222 To maintain health and balance, certain foodstuffs were classified as amicable, while others could cause aggravation. For example, fruits such as plums, cherries, blackberries and grapes were ‘cold’ foods and difficult to preserve, so should be eaten at the beginning of a meal, and were considered unhealthy for the ill, the young and the elderly.223 It was believed that different fruits held qualities to treat specific conditions—bilberry was used for blurry vision; cherry and elder for coughs and colds; blackberry for stomach complaints; plum for indigestion; apple pulp was applied to swellings and smallpox scars; while strawberry juice was used to clean teeth.224
Herbs, vegetables and edible plants
Since the early medieval period documentary sources mention the use of vegetables such as leek, onion/garlic,225 celery and cabbage/kale as well as herbs like sorrel, cress and parsley.226 The importance of vegetables in the diet of the sick and ailing is repeatedly mentioned in the early documents. Celery is particularly valued, as it prevents sickness, relieves thirst and does not affect wounds.227 The frequency with which these plants are referred to in early medieval texts strongly implies that they may have been subjected to some degree of cultivation.228 Archaeological evidence for celery, watercress and cabbage/mustard/turnip, and garlic/onion seeds were also recorded from Hiberno–Norse and medieval Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Cashel and Kilkenny sites.229 Vegetative remains are unusual on archaeological sites, however, leaf tissue of the onion family and cabbage/turnip remains have been recovered from faecal remains in medieval York230 and Chester,231 but not in Ireland to date. Root vegetables such as carrot are cited in Aislinge Meic Conglinne,however archaeological evidence is scarcer. Wild carrot was identified from medieval Dublin232 as at Anglo–Scandinavian York233 but their status as a root vegetable is dubious. Other wild plants with ethnographic references include goosefoot or fat hen, sorrel, knotgrass, black bindweed, redshank, nettle and wild radish or charlock.234 Many of these were served as condiments with bread and seasonal foodstuffs.235 Early medieval documentary sources, such as the saints’ lives contain numerous references to the consumption of nettle and sorrel. A. T. Lucas postulates that nettles and charlock may have been a common feature in the diet of the poorer classes, especially in times of severe food shortages, and that this knowledge of famine foods may have been borne out of antiquity.236 Wild garlic and watercress also get a special mention in the twelfth-century poem Buile Suibhne,237 while cabbage, which features particularly in monastic diets, was frequently mentioned as a foodstuff in Aisling Meic Conglinne.238 During Lent, garlic/onion and celery were permitted and encouraged to be consumed as these would preserve other valuable food stocks, such as butter and salted meats.239
Sheep’s sorrel is also a common find from these sites and is documented as a salad ingredient and as a flavouring for fish.240 Cabbage/mustard/turnip was also present in Drogheda. Herbs such as fennel, dill and black mustard were recovered from Drogheda, Wexford and Kilkenny,241 while mint was identified from Dublin, Kilkenny and Cork.242 Seeds of marjoram were also present from mid-twelfth to thirteenth-century house deposits at Washington Street, Cork.243 Another common plant recorded from urban deposits in Ireland was yarrow. Although a wild plant, yarrow was grown for medicinal purposes in a vicar’s garden in Glasgow in the sixteenth century.244 In addition, dead nettle species, nettle, plantain, water bistort, cinquefoil and elder are other wild plants that were used in fifteenth-century herbal medicines.245 Some herbs grown specifically for their leaves, such as parsley, are also represented by their seeds perhaps from herbs gathered in autumn and dried. Since the seeds from many of these herbs provides their distinctive flavours, their occurrence in the archaeological record, especially in cess deposits suggests strongly that they were ingested.246
Fat hen and knotgrass were frequently recorded from Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Cashel and Kilkenny.247 Fat hen has edible leaves similar to spinach and was a common vegetable eaten in Ireland up until the eighteenth century.248 Another common wild plant recorded from urban deposits is nipplewort and while often interpreted as a weed of cultivation, may have been eaten in salads and used for treating chest complaints.249 It is possible that fat hen, knotgrass and redshank were being cultivated separately as food grains by the late medieval period,250 and their preponderance on archaeological sites collectively with known cultivars would certainly help to support this. They may have been ground into flour as flavour enhancers,251 used as a foodstuff to provide gruel or coarse bread for the poorer classes and as a supplement to grain when crop yields were low.252 Direct evidence for such consumption was found in Dublin, where faecal matter containing a high quantity of fat-hen seeds was recorded from eleventh-century occupation deposits at Fishamble Street, Dublin.253 Similar remains comprising the crushed seeds of knotgrass, fat hen and chickweed were identified from the pelvic area of a skeleton at High Street, Dublin, both of which were interpreted as the remains of a gruel dish.254 The term ‘condiment’ suggests that they were used to add flavour to bland or less palatable foods. Herbs were important in providing flavour to foods prepared with grains or dried legumes.255
Another common plant recovered with known foodstuffs from Cork, Dublin, Waterford, Drogheda, Cashel and Kilkenny in the medieval period was corncockle. A former cereal weed, it is now extinct in Ireland, however, its presence from a number of medieval cess deposits shows that it was consumed, possibly in a milled product like bread or flour.256 Corncockle was often processed with grains during milling probably because its seeds were quite large and may have escaped sieving. This species is also a farinaceous food, containing starch, so it would have been easily incorporated into flourprocessing.257 The remains found in Irishtown, Kilkenny, and Chapel Lane, Cashel,258 were generally fragmentary, suggesting that they were ground with cereals. Similar results have been obtained in faecal remains from Fishamble Street, Dublin,259 containing finely ground fragments of corncockle, probably as a result of being milled, consumed with cereal food and passed through the digestive system.260 Fragments of corncockle were also obtained from pit samples together with other cultivars and wild taxa at Waterford and Temple Bar West.261 Interestingly, this species contains the toxic githagin which can cause illness, such as gastrointestinal problems, when eaten in large amounts.262 Its presence in milled products could represent rudimentary cereal-processing associated with domestic rather than industrial milling,263 however, it may also be intentional, becoming an acquired taste or supplementing grain reserves during periods of bad harvest or food shortages. While it is difficult to establish herb cultivation through archaeobotany, their presence in deposits collectively with known food waste may not be incidental and needs more attention. Their documented use as culinary and medicinal ingredients makes them a credible foodstuff. A statistical approach to interpreting these datasets may help to highlight patterns in the records in order to establish the relationships between different plant communities and their cultivated counterparts.
Foreign foodstuff
Not all sources of garden produce were local, wealthier households enjoyed foods from the Continent and around the Mediterranean, imported in dried or preserved form, such as grapes, dates, figs, raisins, walnuts and almonds. In wealthy households in England, preserved fruits and nuts were often bought in preparation for the Christmas season and before Lent, as these luxuries were a relief to the mundane fish and cereal dishes consumed during this period, making dishes more palatable.264
While there is no direct evidence for grape-growing in medieval Ireland, it has been surmised that vines were grown by early medieval monasteries based on historical sources.265 Documentary sources describe a wine trade between Ireland and Biscay from the seventh century AD266 and early Irish texts make reference to wine imported from Bordeaux for the celebration of the Eucharist and church feasts.267 The establishment of the Norse towns in the ninth and tenth centuries stimulated trade, including the importation of wine, however, no archaeological evidence for grape dating to this period is known, despite finds in York and Norwich.268 The earliest evidence for grape to date has tenuously been recorded from an early twelfth-century pit excavated at Bishop’s Palace, Kilkenny,269 and from late twelfth-century (Hiberno–Norse) pit deposits at South Main Street, Cork,270 where fig was also identified. These finds were in low numbers so intrusive action cannot be ruled out, especially in light of later occupation, which was recorded at these sites. For the most part, archaeological evidence for grapes dates from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and finds have been recorded from Cork, Waterford, Wexford, Drogheda, Cashel and Kilkenny.271 Interestingly, this coincides with economic prosperity in these areas272 and the arrival of many European monastic orders.273 Grapes would have been imported as a luxury product probably in dried form, with wine or cork wood.274 Late medieval purveyance and administrative records contain abundant information on the wine trade to Ireland.275 This is also supported by the corpus of ceramic wares from excavations in France and England,276 a byproduct of the flourishing wine trade that existed between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Most wine imported into Ireland, as in England would have been consumed within fifteen months of the grape harvest, so consumers would have been influenced by the agricultural cycle and trade on the Continent.277 In England, wine fleets arrived from Gascony in France in late autumn with households receiving their first barrels around November and then subsequently in spring.278 Throughout the year wine consumption would fluctuate depending on availability and religious occasion; with high wine consumption at Christmas, Easter and Corpus Christi,279 while reserves were lower prior to harvest in October and during Lent in February and March.
Another luxury item frequently recorded from urban sites is fig. While identified from Anglo–Scandinavian York, fig remains from archaeological sites in Ireland emerge at about the same time as grape in the early thirteenth century and often together in the same features.280 The fig recorded from late twelfth-century deposits at South Main Street, Cork, however, could be one of the earliest finds in Ireland.281 Based on their frequent recovery from sewage/ cess material, it has been suggested that figs may have been more accessible than other luxury foodstuffs at this time.282 Figs were the cheapest of all food imports from Europe, with the exception of the Lenten period, when demand for fruits and nuts, which were out of season, were higher.283 They would have been imported dried for long-term storage and records document that they arrived from Europe by the shipload.284 Furthermore, as a food known for its blood pressure lowering and blood thinning properties, they were eaten after bloodletting, a regular feature of monastic life.285 Whether they were consumed by all social classes is difficult to interpret, however, using the archaeological evidence alone. Fig, as well as grape, was recovered from largely domestic contexts in Wexford, Drogheda, Cork, Dublin and Waterford, where high status occupation was difficult to define in most cases. In Kilkenny, however, the presence of fig from occupation deposits at Grace’s Castle, Parliament Street,286 and a grape seed from Bishop’s Palace strongly signifies high status in both cases. In contrast, fig and grape were absent from Cashel, where more utilitarian settlement was recorded overall. While this could reflect the sampling strategies employed, it is possible that these goods were not as widely consumed here, due, in part perhaps, to their availability but also to distribution. Port towns had more access to foreign goods, so transport to inland centres would have been an onerous and laborious task. Kilkenny’s position on the River Nore would have eased the transporting goods from the port of Waterford for example, however, the absence of a river system through Cashel, made imports less readily available, which, in turn, may have increased their market value, allowing access only to those who could afford them.
Walnuts were another luxury imported into Ireland during this time, possibly from France or Germany.287 Archaeological evidence is rare, however, their recovery from eleventh and twelfth-century deposits in Fishamble Street, Dublin,288 and Waterford289 suggests that imports to Ireland may have been slightly earlier than fig and grape. Walnut macrofossils were also recorded in a thirteenth-century culvert on Winetavern Street alongside grape and in a sixteenth-century deposit with fig on John’s Street, Drogheda.290 The accumulating evidence for walnut macrofossils and pollen records on many British sites suggests that walnut was grown in Britain during the medieval period,291 and may have found a market in neighbouring Ireland. Unlike Britain, evidence for walnut in the pollen record is unknown for medieval Ireland, so it is difficult to ascertain if it was growing here. While ground walnuts, recorded as an ingredient in soups and sauces,292 may not survive in the archaeological record, the scarcity of walnut husks or hulls is more unusual, considering their robust nature. Since it is unknown whether walnuts were imported in their husks or not, it is worth mentioning that their hulls were commonly used in order to produce a brown/black dye, as recorded from Viking sites in Britain and Denmark (Hedeby)293 and in later medieval documents as a component of ink.294 This non-culinary use for walnuts could also account for their general absence from archaeological deposits, particularly features containing cess and faecal remains. On a more holistic note, walnuts were documented as a medicinal cure for gallstones and to treat ringworm.295
Archaeological evidence for almond is also relatively absent in Ireland and Britain, despite the numerous finds from European sites dating from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries.296 Almond shell recovered from Shrewsbury Abbey and from a drain in Plymouth are just a few published accounts from British medieval sites,297 while the only known archaeological finds from Ireland are from post-medieval Cork.298 Documentary evidence does exist, however, for almonds being brought into Ireland from the twelfth century, including the purchase of almonds in Kilkenny c. 1400.299 Historically, almond kernels were ground down into flour and milk.300 Similar to walnut, as a result, these would not be easily identified archaeologically. In addition to their use as a foodstuff, burnt almond shells produce a black pigment, which was highly prized by medieval painters301 and, while not historically attested may have also been included in animal feed.
While the archaeological evidence for imported foodstuffs is relatively limited, records of grape and fig are steadily increasing, suggesting that these foods were the most common imports. Their presence, largely from cess deposits containing faecal matter, strongly indicates consumption either directly or as processed products. In the case of walnuts and almonds, taphonomy is an unlikely factor as to why they do not survive in anoxic deposits, as demonstrated by the abundance of hazelnut shell and fruit stones frequently recovered. Consideration must therefore be given to how these foodstuffs were transported, processed and consumed, and their alternate uses in the medieval economy. To date recovery of such exotics in Ireland is almost exclusively from urban settlement, where the presence of markets and fairs would have allowed access to a wider variety of local and foreign foods. One exception is a recent find of fig seeds from a fourteenth-century well at Caherduggan Castle, Doneraile, Co. Cork.302 The presence of an import such as fig is a significant find in the context of a rural settlement and confirmed the high-status nature of this site. Outside of the major urban medieval centres, exotic foodstuffs are rarely identified in the archaeological record. The nature of preservation on urban sites is likely to play a major part in this; however sites like Caherduggan Castle are proving that imported goods were distributed beyond the towns. The high value of these imports reflects increased trading and prosperity, and they would have been seen as social symbols, available to the higher echelons of society and monastic houses.
Differentiating between wealthy and lower-class households in an urban context can be more difficult based on the archaeobotanical evidence alone. Sampling strategies largely focus on known features, such as cesspits, while sampling of ancillary features like drains and ditches can be less systematic, based on time and budget constraints. This can produce bias assemblages, which in turn distorts interpretations, and can provide misinformation about the site and those who used it. This is certainly another research area that needs to be addressed and can only be undertaken by combining artefactual and contextual evidence with other biological indicators, specifically faunal remains and insect assemblages.
Conclusion
Archaeobotanical datasets offer a unique opportunity to glimpse aspects of past diet and food-processing, albeit an incomplete and distorted one. Taphonomic restrictions, however, can hinder the spectrum of plants identified and so caution is required when interpreting this material. While emphasis is generally on ingredients or raw produce rather than complete dishes, significant information on how food plants were used at the local level can help with archaeological and historical interpretation.
An appraisal of the archaeological evidence for the use of plant remains in urban medieval Ireland has revealed some interesting results. The range of cereal crops and exotic plants recorded in Ireland is somewhat lower than sites in Britain and Europe, influenced perhaps by personal tastes and cultural preference as much as by environmental factors and market resources. The archaeobotanical data has highlighted some chronological and geographical variation in crop use, something that historical sources cannot recognise. Whole grains/seeds were stored and dried on urban sites often in a semi-clean state, implying that there may have been a direct association and interaction with local agrarian suppliers.
Garden produce and gathered foodstuffs were somewhat of a paradox, both cheap and easy to grow, but, historically, not a major component of the medieval diet. Archaeological and palaeoecological evidence shows that low-scale gardening was being practised. The surplus supplied by native seasonal fruits would certainly have promoted the processing of fruit-based products and their abundance in the archaeobotanical record suggests that they were consumed by a large portion of the urban population. It is important to emphasise that leafy vegetables are grossly under-represented in the record, which greatly obscures the range of cultivated garden plants up for discussion. Garden plants, wild plants and fruits are also unevenly distributed, as the greatest diversity survive in the anoxic environment of an urban context. It remains elusive as to what extent these plants were present on agrarian sites and as to what extent the rural economy facilitated the food supplies of neighbouring urban markets. Through archaeobotany, some of the earliest physical evidence for exotic and imported foodstuffs (walnut, fig and grape) has been recorded. To avoid distorting the picture of imported goods, consideration must be given to how nuts such as almonds and walnuts were transported, stored and processed as foodstuffs before eliminating them from any discussion altogether.
Archaeobotany has opened up a number of research avenues for urban sites that require further exploration. The proliferation of urban growth influenced the range of foods available, how foodstuffs were stored and the extent to which they were processed on site. The composition and storage of cereal crops and legumes can potentially help to tease out human supplies from animal feed, something that the historical records cannot extrapolate. Evidence for brewing is still tenuous, however some signals in the record should not be overlooked for malting practices, especially in the context of drying kilns and this is certainly an area of interest that deserves further research. The role of pulse crops in the medieval economy also needs more attention. The extent to which pulse crops were cultivated in the medieval period is still unknown and the use of vetches as a plausible foodstuff also needs to be addressed, especially in the context of known cultivars. Little is known about the cultivation of fruit trees during this time, however, future research on charting changes to stone size and shape could provide a basis for interpreting material derived from wild or domesticated trees. More diligence is also needed when sampling and identifying vegetative parts and cereal bran, an area which would diversify known plant assemblages and broaden the debate on medieval gardens and horticulture. Medieval towns were dependent on the imports of bulk food supplies from their immediate hinterlands or beyond, so developing a relationship with producer sites was vital. Using a statistical approach, a review of the archaeobotanical record for wild species could highlight links between different plant associations, with a view to defining potential food plants. This, in turn, would offer new insights into urban and rural garden and horticulture practices as well as how they differed. Analysing plant macrofossil remains can also go some way to distinguishing between elite and non-elite urban occupation, strengthened particularly by combining this data with faunal assemblages. Conversely, however, sampling and research agendas do militate the information provided by archaeobotanical research. To answer many of the questions posed, a comprehensive evaluation of the data in the context of other biological remains, artefacts and contextual evidence would allow for an informed and overdue discussion on urban living conditions in medieval Ireland to take place.
Acknowledgements
This paper would not have been possible without access to unpublished archaeobotanical reports and results from my environmental archaeology colleagues—Abi Brewer, Mary Dillon, Nikolah Gilligan, Penny Johnston, Dr Meriel McClatchie, Mick Monk, Dr Eileen O’Reilly and Dr Bettina Stefanini— for which I am most grateful. I would like to thank Mick Monk for his thoughts and comments while compiling this paper. Thanks also to Cóilín Ó Drisceoil (Kilkenny Archaeology) and Rubicon Archaeological and Heritage Services Ltd for supplying archaeological reports, site photos and graphics. Permission to use the cesspit illustration in Plate I was granted by the Journal of Archaeological Science (courtesy of Dr David Smith of the Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology Department at the University of Birmingham). Finally, I would like to thank the archaeology editor of Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C, Professor Elizabeth FitzPatrick, and production editor, Lucy Hogan, for their support and patience.
* Author’s e-mail: susan.lyons@ipean.ie
doi: 10.3318/PRIAC.2015.115.11
1 For an example of early medieval references see Fergus Kelly, Early Irish farming: a study based mainly of the law-tracts of the 7th and 8th centuries AD (Dublin, 1997); for examples of later medieval references see James Mills (ed.), The Account Roll of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, 1337–46 (Dublin, 1996).
2 D. A. Binchy, ‘Bretha Déin Chécht’, Ériu 20 (1966), 1–66; Kelly, Early Irish farming, 27; Regina Sexton, ‘Porridges, gruels and breads: the cereal foodstuffs of early medieval Ireland’, in Michael Monk and John Sheehan (eds), Early medieval Munster: archaeology, history and society (Cork, 1998), 76–86.
3 Edward J. Gwynn and Walter J. Purton (eds), ‘The monastery of Tallaght’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 29C (1911–12), 115–70; Edward J. Gwynn, ‘An Irish penitential’, Ériu 7 (1914), 121–95; Edward Gwynn, ‘The teaching of Máel Ruain’, Hermathena 44: 2nd suppl. (2 vols, Dublin, 1927), vol. 1, 2–63. Charles Plummer, Lives of Irish saints (2 vols, Oxford, 1922), vol. 1, 126–7.
4 Mills, Account Roll of the Priory of the Holy Trinity; James Mills (ed.), Calendar of Justiciary Rolls, 1295–1303 (Dublin, 1905). James Mills (ed.), Calendar of Justiciary Rolls, 1305–07 (Dublin, 1914).
5 Christopher Dyer, ‘Gardens and garden produce in the Later Middle Ages’, in Christopher Woolgar, Dale Serjeantson and Tony Waldron (eds), Food in medieval England: diet and nutrition (Oxford, 2006), 27–40; Terence Reeves-Smyth, Irish gardens and gardening before Cromwell (Cork, 1999), reproduced in John Ludlow and Noel Jameson (eds), Medieval Ireland: the Barryscourt Lectures I–X (Kinsale, 2004).
6 Christopher Woolgar (ed.), Household accounts from medieval England records of social and economic history (London, 1992–3), 17–18.
7 Mick Monk, ‘Charred grain from Killederdadrum’, in Con Manning, ‘The excavations of the Early Christian enclosure of Killederdadrum in Lackenavorna, Co. Tipperary’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 84C (1984), 265–7; Mick Monk, ‘Plant remains’, in James Mallory and Peter Woodman, ‘Oughtymore: an Early Christian shell midden’, Ulster Journal of Archaeology 47 (1984), 56; Mick Monk, ‘Evidence from macroscopic plant remains for crop husbandry in prehistoric and early historic Ireland: a review’, Journal of Irish Archaeology 3 (1985–86), 31–6; Mick Monk, ‘Excavations at Lisleagh ringfort, north County Cork’, Archaeology Ireland 2:2 (1988), 57–60; Mick Monk, ‘The archaeobotanical evidence for field crop plants in early historic Ireland’, in Jane M. Renfrew (ed.), New light on early farming: recent developments in palaeo-ethnobotany (Edinburgh, 1991), 315–28.
8 Interpretation of archaeobotanical remains is also dictated by archaeological practice, where variation in project constraints, research agendas, sample policies, methodologies and classification all play a part in objectifying the results.
9 Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research (INSTAR) Programme Awards fund thematic archaeological research, for example, the Cultivating Societies project (2008–2010), INSTAR ref. no.: 16682 and 16717, available at: www.chrono.qub.ac.uk/instar/ (last accessed 14 March 2015). Nikki Whitehouse, Meriel McClatchie, Phil Barrett, Rick Schulting, Rowan McLaughlin and Amy Bogaard, ‘INSTAR—Cultivating societies’, Archaeology Ireland 24:2 (2010), 16–19; Meriel McClatchie, Amy Bogaard, Sue Colledge, Nikki Whitehouse, Rick Schulting, Phil Barrett and Rowan McLaughlin, ‘Neolithic farming in north-west Europe: archaeobotanical evidence from Ireland’, Journal of Archaeological Science 51 (2014), 206–15.
10 Early Medieval Archaeological Project (EMAP), 2008–2012, INSTAR ref. no.: AR03743. Finbar McCormick, Thom Kerr, Meriel McClatchie and Aidan O’Sullivan, ‘The archaeology of livestock and cereal production in early medieval Ireland AD 400–1100’, Reconstructing the early medieval Irish economy. EMAP Report 5.1 (2011), EMAP2, Grant no.: AR02180.
11 Organic material is preserved by waterlogging in anoxic conditions, as in pits, ditches and wells, where features have been dug below the water table, in low-lying areas and old river channels. In urban medieval centres, successive layers of organic matter from household rubbish, building materials and faecal remains also provide a stable environment for this type of organic preservation. In anoxic conditions, microorganism activity and oxygen is greatly reduced which slows down organic decay.
12 The National Museum of Ireland carried out ten excavation campaigns ahead of Dublin City Corporation building developments between 1962 and 1981. The best-known of these was Wood Quay, but excavations also took place at Fishamble Street, John’s Lane, Christchurch Place, High Street and Winetavern Street. These came to be known collectively as the Dublin Excavations; Brendán Ó Ríordáin, ‘Excavations at High Street and Winetavern Street, Dublin’, Medieval Archaeology 15 (1971), 73–85; Patrick Wallace, ‘Wood Quay’, in Thomas Delaney (ed.), Excavations 1975–76 (Belfast, 1977), 31–2; Patrick Wallace, ‘Dublin’s waterfront at Wood Quay: 900–1317’, in Gustav Milne and Brian Hobley (eds), Waterfront archaeology in Britain and northern Europe, British Archaeology Report 41 (London, 1981).
13 Frank Mitchell, Archaeology and environment in early Dublin (Dublin, 1987).
14 Siobhán Geraghty, Viking Dublin: botanical evidence from Fishamble Street (Dublin, 1996).
15 John Tierney and Martha Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, in Maurice Hurley and O. M. B. Scully (eds), Late Viking and medieval Waterford excavations 1986–1992 (Waterford, 1997), 854–93; Brenda Collins, ‘Plant remains’, in Claire Walsh, Archaeological excavations at Patrick, Nicholas and Winetavern Street (Dublin, 1997), 228–36; Meriel McClatchie, ‘The plant remains’, in Rose Cleary and Maurice Hurley (eds), Excavations in Cork City 1984–2000 (Cork, 2003), 391–413.
16 Margaret Murphy and Michael Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages: settlement, land-use and economy (Dublin, 2010), 355; Dyer, ‘Gardens and garden produce’, 27.
17 A cesspit excavated at Athenry Castle contained a variety of edible fruits and the remains of a coprolite, Brenda Collins, ‘Plant remains’, in Cliona Papazian, Brenda Collins and Margaret McCarthy, ‘Excavations at Athenry Castle, Co. Galway’, Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 43 (1991), 1–45: 25–7; waterlogged deposits at Augherskea, Co. Meath, produced potential evidence for non-cereal food plants in the form of seeds from mint and cabbage/turnip/mustard species, Christine Baker, ‘Occam’s duck: three early medieval settlement cemeteries or ecclesiastical sites’, in Christiaan Corlett and Michael Potterton (eds), Death and burial in early medieval Ireland in the light of recent archaeological excavations (Dublin, 2010), 1–21; Apple pips, fig seeds and cherry stones were also recently identified from a waterlogged well and ditch deposit dating to a fourteenth-century well at Doneraile, Co. Cork; Susan Lyons, ‘The plant remains’, in Patricia Long, ‘Assessment report on archaeological excavations on the R581 Doneraile to Newtwopothouse Road Realignment Scheme, Co Cork’, unpublished report, Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd, 2013.
18 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment; Geraghty, Viking Dublin; McClatchie, ‘The plant remains’; Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’; Frank Mitchell and Camilla Dickson, ‘Plant remains and other items from medieval Drogheda’, Circaea 3:1 (1985), 31–7; Edward Bourke, ‘Life in the sunny south-east: housing and domestic economy in Viking and medieval Wexford’, Archaeology Ireland 9:3 (1995), 33–6. For an urban example but not a port town, see Sarah Cobain, ‘The plant remains and charcoal macrofossil remains from Navan Gate Street and Mill Street’, in Denis Shine and Matthew Seaver, ‘Towards the Rogues’ Castle: Excavations on Navan Gate Street, Trim’, in Michael Potterton and Matthew Seaver (eds), Uncovering medieval Trim (Dublin, 2009), 150–3.
19 The medieval town of Cashel was a planned development founded in a charter by Archbishop Donatus O’Lonergan in 1216. Tadgh O’Keeffe, ‘Cashel’, in Anngret Simms and John Andrews (eds), More Irish country towns (Cork and Dublin, 1994), 161–2: 160. A castle was established in Kilkenny in 1173, but expanded under William Marshall between 1207 and 1225, cited in John Bradley, ‘The early development of the medieval town of Kilkenny’, in William Nolan and Kevin Whelan (eds) Kilkenny: historical and society interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin, 1990), 63–74: 66.
20 Edmond O’Donovan, ‘Excavations at Friar Street Cashel: a story of urban settlement AD 1200–1800’, Tipperary Historical Journal (2004), 3–90: 10.
21 John Bradley, ‘Towns in medieval Ireland’, Archaeology Ireland 5:3 (1991), 25–8: 26. A typical Anglo–Norman urban design was a system of burgage plots, which were long strips of land set at right angles to the main route ways through the town and adjacent streets.
22 Ernest Sabine, ‘Latrines and cesspools of medieval London’, Speculum 9 (1934), 303–21.
23 James Greig, ‘Gardrobes, sewers, cesspits and latrines’, Current Archaeology 85 (1982), 49–52; Lisa Moffett, ‘Fruits, vegetables, herbs and other plants from the latrine at Dudley Castle in central England, used by the Royalist Garrison during the Civil War’, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 73 (1992), 271–86; Allan Hall, ‘A brief history of plant foods in the city of York: what the cesspits tell us’, in Eileen White (ed.), Feeding a city: York. The provision of food from Roman times to the beginning of the twentieth century (Totnes, Devon, 2000), 22–41: 24.
24 David Smith, ‘Defining an indicator package to allow identification of “cesspits” in the archaeological record’, Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (2013), 526–43; Allan Hall, Andrew Jones and Harry Kenward, ‘Cereal bran and human faecal remains from archaeological deposits—some preliminary observations’, in Bruce Proudfoot (ed.), Site, environment and economy, British Archaeological Reports International Series 173 (Oxford, 1983), 85–104; Harry Kenward and Allan Hall, ‘Enhancing bio-archaeological interpretation using indicator groups: stable manure as a paradigm’, Journal of Archaeological Science 24 (1997), 663–73.
25 Evidence from medieval Waterford, where both lined and unlined cess/rubbish pits were recorded, noted that rubbish accumulated quickly which may have resulted in the construction of a new pit, or the emptying and reuse of the pits themselves (Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 889).
26 Cashel, Co. Tipperary (RMP TS061-026); Kilkenny City (RMP KK019-026) courtesy of the Archaeological Survey Database, available at: www.archaeology.ie/archaeological-survey-database (14 March 2014).
27 See www.archaeology.ie/archaeological-survey-database (18 March 2015).
28 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 317; A. T. Lucas, ‘Irish food before the potato’, Gwerin 3:2 (1960), 8–43: 8.
29 Lucas, ‘Irish food before the potato’, 4–28; Sexton, ‘Porridges, gruels and breads’, 239.
30 Plummer, Lives of Irish saints.
31 McCormick et al., ‘The archaeology of livestock and cereal production’, 45.
32 Mitchell and Dickson, Plant remains and other items’; Collins, Plant remains’, 1997; Tierney and Hannon, Plant remains’; McClatchie, The plant remains’; Mitchell, Archaeology and environment.
33 McCormick et al., The archaeology of livestock and cereal production’; Penny Johnston, ‘Macrofossil plant remains’, in O’Donovan, Excavations at Friar Street Cashel’, 59–67: 61.
34 James Rackham (ed.), Environment and economy in Anglo–Saxon England: a review of recent work on the environmental archaeology of rural and urban Anglo–Saxon settlements in England: proceedings of conference held at the Museum of London, 9–10 April, 1990, British Archaeology Report No. 89 (Oxford, 1994), 115.
35 McCormick et al., ‘The archaeology of livestock and cereal production’, 56.
36 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 31.
37 Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 889.
38 Hall, ‘A brief history of plant foods in the city of York’, 29.
39 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 431.
40 Regina Sexton, Cereals and cereal foodstuffs in the early historic period’, unpublished MA thesis, University College Cork, 1993, 98.
41 Kuno Meyer (ed.), Betha Colmáin maic Lúacháin: life of Colmáin son of Lúachan, Todd Lecture Series 17 (Dublin and London, 1911); Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 142; Sexton, ‘Porridges, gruels and breads’, 79.
42 Kuno Meyer, The vision of MacConglinne (London, 1892), 15.
43 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 219.
44 Kenneth Nicholls, Gaelic and Gaelicized Ireland in the Middle Ages (Dublin, 2003), 201.
45 Maria Dembinska, Fasting and working monks: regulations of the fifth to the eleventh centuries’, in Alexander Fenton and Eszeter Kisbán (eds), Food in change: eating habits from the Middle Ages to the present day (London, 1986), 155.
46 Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 157; Dembinska, ‘Fasting and working monks’, 155.
47 Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 163.
48 Penny Johnston, Analysis of carbonised plant remains’, in Christine Baker, ‘Excavations within the manor of Merrion Castle, Dublin’, in Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin VIII (Dublin, 2008), 275–82.
49 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 414.
50 Geraghty, Viking Dublin; McClatchie, The plant remains’; McClatchie, Non-wood plant macro remains from 36–39 South Main Street, Cork’, in Maurice Hurley and Ciara Brett (eds), Archaeological excavations at South Main Street 2003–2005 [Cork City] (Cork, 2014), 429–39, 435; Abi Brewer, Archaeobotanical report for Washington Street Cork (02E0034)’, unpublished report, University College Cork, 2007; Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’; Bourke, ‘Life in the sunny south-east’, 35.
51 Susan Lyons, ‘Plant macrofossil remains from Hammond Lane, Dublin (03E0721)’, unpublished report, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd, 2004; Susan Lyons, ‘Plant macrofossil remains from James Joyce Street, Dublin 1 (03E0879)’, unpublished report, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd, 2004; Abi Brewer, ‘Plant remains’, in Jacinta Kiely, ‘Archaeological excavations at 56–60 South Main Street, Wexford’, Eachtra Journal 14 (2003), 35–41.
52 Brewer, ‘Archaeobotanical report for Washington Street, Cork’.
53 Penny Johnston, The plant remains’, in Jacinta Kiely, Archaeological excavation report 26 Patrick Street, Kilkenny, County Kilkenny 99E0165’, unpublished report, Eachtra Archaeological Projects, 2000.
54 Penny Johnston, ‘Analysis of the plant remains Friary Street/Garden Row, Kilkenny (01E0569)’, unpublished report, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd, 2002.
55 McCormick et al., ‘The archaeology of livestock and cereal production’, 46.
56 Monk, ‘Evidence from macroscopic plant remains for crop husbandry’, 34.
57 Aidan Clarke, ‘The Irish economy 1600–60’, in T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin and F. J. Byrne (eds), Early modern Ireland 1534–1691 (London, 1991), 168–86: 170.
58 Johnston, ‘Analysis of plant remains from Friary Street/Garden Row, Kilkenny’.
59 Penny Johnston, ‘Macrofossil plant remains’, in O’Donovan, ‘Excavations at Friar Street Cashel’, 59–67.
60 Gordon Hillman, Sarah Mason, Dominique de Moulins and Mark Nesbitt, Identification of archaeological remains of wheat: the 1992 London workshop’, Circaea 12 (1996), 195–209.
61 McCormick et al., ‘The archaeology of livestock and cereal production’, 51.
62 Tanja Märkle, ‘Nutrition, aspects of land use and environment in medieval times in Southern Germany: plant macro analysis from latrines (late 11th to 13th centuries AD)at the town of Überlingen, Lake Constance’, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 14 (2005), 427–41.
63 Hall, ‘A brief history of plant foods in the city of York’, 27.
64 Märkle, ‘Nutrition, aspects of land use and environment in medieval times in Southern Germany’, 433; Petr Kocár, Petr Cech, Radka Kozáková and Romana Kocárová, ‘Environment and economy of the early medieval settlement at Zatec’, Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica Natural Sciences in Archaeology 1:1/2 (2010), 45–60.
65 Märkle, ‘Nutrition, aspects of land use and environment in medieval times in Southern Germany’, 433.
66 McCormick et al., ‘The archaeology of livestock and cereal production’, 51.
67 Example of a bakehouse is Schoolhouse Lane cited in Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 431; H. F. Berry, ‘History of the religious gild of St. Anne, in St Audeon’s Church, Dublin, 1430–1740’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 25C (1904–5), 21–106.
68 Anne Robinson, ‘The history of Dublin Castle to 1684’, unpublished PhD thesis, University College Dublin, 1994, 73.
69 Thomas Laffan, ‘Abstracts from the ancient records of the corporation of Cashel, 1673–1780’, The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, ser. 5 XIV (1904), 30–40.
70 Johnston, ‘Analysis of plant remains from Friary Street/Garden Row, Kilkenny’.
71 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 313.
72 O’Keeffe, ‘Cashel’, 161–2.
73 George O’Brien, Advertisements for Ireland (Dublin, 1923), 35.
74 Annie Owen (ed.), Walter of Bibbesworth, Le Traite de Walter de Bibbesworth (Paris, 1929), 201.
75 Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 130.
76 Gwynn and Purton, ‘The monastery of Tallaght’, 115–80.
77 Henry Corran, A history of brewing (London, 1975), 24.
78 James Greig, Plant resources’, in Grenville Astill and Annie Grant (eds), The countryside of medieval England (Oxford, 1988), 109–27: 115.
79 Greig, ‘Plant resources’, 115.
80 Hanne Jensen, The Nordic countries’, in Willem van Zeist, Krystyna Wasylikowa and Karl-Ernst Behre (eds), Progress in Old World palaeoethnobotany (Rotterdam, 1991), 335–46; Grethe Jørgensen, ‘Medieval plant remains from the settlements in Mollergade 6’, in Grethe Jørgensen, Kristen Jesperen and Kjeld Christensen (eds), Analyses of medieval plant remains, textiles and wood from Svendborg (Odense, Denmark, 1986), 45–84.
81 Mick Monk and Penny Johnston, Plants, people and environment: a report on the macro-plant remains within the deposits from Troitsky Site XI in medieval Novgorod’, in Mark Brisbane and David Gaimster (eds), Novgorod: the archaeology of a Russian medieval city and its hinterland, The British Museum Occasional Paper 141 (2001), 113–17: 114.
82 Hall, Jones and Kenward, Cereal bran and human faecal remains from archaeological deposits’.
83 James Dickson, ‘Plant remains’, in John Murray (ed.), Excavations in the medieval burgh of Aberdeen, 1973–81 (Edinburgh, 1982), 177–81.
84 Johnston, ‘Analysis of plant remains from Friary Street/Garden Row, Kilkenny’.
85 Bettina Stefanini, Preliminary pollen assessment: Kilkenny Court House, Kilkenny’, unpublished report, Arch-Tech Ltd, 2009. There is no absolute dating evidence for this feature, but based on relative dating through stratigraphy, it has been postulated that it dates to at least the fifteenth or sixteenth century, Maeve Saundersson, Preliminary archaeological report for Kilkenny Courthouse, Parliament Street, Kilkenny, County Kilkenny (08E0462)’, unpublished report, Arch-Tech Ltd, 2009.
86 Benjamin Gearey, Allan Hall, Harry Kenward, M. J. Bunting, M. C. Lillie and John Carrott, Palaeoenvironmental assessment of samples from Morton Lane, Beverley’, unpublished report, West Yorkshire Archaeological Services, Hull, 2002.
87 Märkle, ‘Nutrition, aspects of land use and environment in medieval times in Southern Germany’.
88 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 432.
89 Monk, ‘The archaeobotanical evidence for field crop plants’; Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 313.
90 Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 142.
91 Mick Monk, ‘Oats: The superfood of early medieval Ireland’, Archaeology Ireland 25:1 (2011), 36–9: 37.
92 Johnston, ‘Macrofossil plant remains’.
93 This structure was radiocarbon dated using charcoal and a date of 1280–1408 cal. AD (2 sigma) was obtained, O’Donovan, ‘Excavations at Friar Street Cashel’, 27.
94 Herbert Hallam, Rural England 1066–1348 (Glasgow, 1981).
95 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 49.
96 Susan Lyons, The environmental remains’, in Colm Moloney and Caitriona Gleeson, ‘Final report on archaeological excavations at Chapel Lane, Cashel, County Tipperary’, unpublished report, Headland Archaeology Ltd, 2005; Susan Lyons, The plant macrofossil remains’, in Maeve Saundersson, Preliminary archaeological report for Kilkenny Courthouse’; Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 890.
97 David Robinson, ‘Botanical remains [Kirk Close]’, in Philip Holdsworth (ed.), Excavations in the medieval Burgh of Perth 1979–1981, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph, ser. 5 (Edinburgh, 1987), 199–209 cited in Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 890.
98 Lucas, ‘Irish food before the potato’, 9; Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 143.
99 Mentioned in the Cáin Iarraith (‘The law of the fosterage fee’) cited in Kelly, Early Irish farming, 331.
100 Meyer, The vision of MacConglinne,14–6.
101 James Langdon, The economics of horses and oxen in medieval England’, Agricultural History Review 30:1 (1982), 31–40.
102 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 313.
103 Langdon, ‘The economics of horses and oxen in medieval England’, 32.
104 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 314.
105 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 323; Christopher Dyer, English diet in the later Middle Ages’, in Trevor Aston, Peter Coss, Christopher Dyer and Joan Thirsk (eds), Social relations and ideas: essays in honour of R H Hilton (London, 1983), 191–214.
106 Mills, Account Roll of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, 180–1; Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 315.
107 Collin Spencer, British food: an extraordinary thousand years history (London, 2002), 57.
108 Peas were ground up like cereals and mixed with other meal in baked bread, cited in Jensen, ‘The Nordic countries’, 345.
109 Christopher Dyer, Seasonal patterns in food consumption in the latter Middle Ages’, in Woolgar, Serjeantson and Waldron, Food in medieval England, 201–14: 214.
110 Peter Brears, Cooking and dining in medieval England (London, 2012), 215.
111 Constance Hieatt and Sharon Butler, Curye on Inglish: English culinary manuscripts of the fourteenth-century (including the Forme of Cury) (London, 1985).
112 Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 889.
113 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 26; Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 103.
114 Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 858.
115 Susan Lyons and Meriel McClatchie, ‘New insights into legume production in early medieval and medieval Ireland’, (2012), in the Royal Irish Academy Committee for Archaeology, Revealing the past: archaeological research in Ireland (Dublin, 2012).
116 Monk, ‘Evidence from macroscopic plant remains for crop husbandry’, 34.
117 Johnston, ‘Analysis of plant remains from Friary Street/Garden Row, Kilkenny’.
118 Johnston, ‘Macrofossil plant remains’.
119 Bruce Campbell, English seigniorial agriculture, 1250–1450 (Cambridge, 2000), 228–30.
120 Bruce Campbell, ‘The diffusion of vetches in medieval England’, Economic History Review 41:2 (1988), 193–208: 196.
121 Langdon, ‘The economics of horses and oxen in medieval England’, 32.
122 Archaeological Services, Durham University, ‘Appendix 15: Boyerstown 1: plant macrofossil, charcoal, cremated bone and mollusca analysis’, in Kevin Martin, M3 Clonee—north of Kells Contract 3 Navan Bypass: report on the archaeological excavation of Boyerstown 1, Co. Meath (A023/13, E3105) (Dublin, 2009), courtesy of the National Road Authority. A large cache of vetch seeds was recovered from a kiln where a charred oat grain was radiocarbon dated to 1650–1950 cal. AD (Beta 247105).
123 Penny Johnston, ‘Appendix 4: Plant remains’, in Eachtra Archaeological Projects, N7 Castletown to Nenagh (Contract 1): archaeological excavation report from Busherstown, Co. Offaly E3661 (2012), 154–71.
124 Susan Lyons, ‘Analysis of the plant macrofossil remains from Carrickmines Castle, Co. Dublin (00E0525/02E1532)’, unpublished report, Valerie Keeley Ltd, 2011. Vetches are recorded with charred oat, wheat, barley and peas from a gully feature which was radiocarbon dated to 1150–1270 cal. AD (SUERC–36184, 835+/–30 BP) and a well radiocarbon dated to 1430–1620 cal. AD (SUERC–36183, 420+/–25 BP). Radiocarbon dates are provided courtesy of Valerie Keeley Ltd.
125 Susan Lyons, ‘Analysis of the plant macrofossil and charcoal remains from Bective Abbey, Co. Meath’, unpublished report, Bective Abbey Project, Royal Irish Academy research project (2010–2012), 2013. Vetch seeds were found alongside a large mixed cache of charred cereal crops, peas and beans from a kiln/barn structure, which was radiocarbon dated to the late thirteenth century (date courtesy of Matthew Stout).
126 John Wynchedon, a Cork landowner who died in 1306, held property including ten acres of barley and peas, cited in Gearóid Mac Niocaill, ‘Socio-economic problems of the late medieval Irish town’, in David Harkness and Mary O’Dowd (eds), The town in Ireland (Belfast, 1981), 7–22: 14.
127 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 314.
128 Robert Allen, ‘The nitrogen hypothesis and the English agricultural revolution: a biological analysis’, Journal of Economic History 68:1 (2008), 182–210.
129 Lyons and McClatchie, ‘New insights into legume production in early medieval and medieval Ireland’.
130 Allen, ‘The nitrogen hypothesis and the English agricultural revolution’, 191.
131 Eileen Murphy, ‘Preliminary analysis of insect remains from excavations at the Courthouse, Parliament Street, Kilkenny City (08E0462)’, unpublished report, Arch-Tech Ltd, 2009.
132 Eileen Reilly, ‘The contribution of insect remains to an understanding of the environment of Viking age and medieval Dublin’, in Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin IV (Dublin, 2002), 41–62.
133 Stefanini, ‘Preliminary pollen assessment’.
134 Lucas, ‘Irish food before the potato’, 15; Sexton, ‘Porridges, gruels and breads’, 81.
135 Alison Vaughan-Williams, ‘Archaeobotanical analysis’, in Paul Stevens (ed.), ‘N6 Kinnegad to Kilbeggan Dual Carriageway. Archaeological excavation final report, vol. 2. Ministerial Direction: A001/036. Registration No.: E2723: Clonfad 3, Clonfad Townland, Co Westmeath’, unpublished report, Valerie Keeley Ltd, 2009.
136 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 316.
137 Collins, ‘Plant remains’, 1997, 230.
138 Allan Hall and Jacqueline Huntley, A review of the evidence for macrofossil plant remains from archaeological deposits in northern England, Research Department Report Series no. 87 (London, 2007), 248.
139 P. J. Reynolds, Iron-Age farm: the Butser experiment (London, 1979), 66–7.
140 Greig, ‘Gardrobes, sewers, cesspits and latrines’, 52.
141 Jensen, ‘The Nordic countries’, 37.
142 Hall, ‘A brief history of plant foods in the city of York’, 29.
143 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 45.
144 Penny Johnston, Plant remains John Dillon Street, Dublin (98E0158)’, unpublished report, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd, n.d.
145 Susan Lyons, Plant remains from 40–48 South Main Street, Cork’, in Hurley and Brett, Archaeological excavations at South Main Street, 250–9; Meriel McClatchie, ‘Non-wood plant macro remains’.
146 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment; Collins, Plant remains’, 1997, 232; Bourke, ‘Life in the sunny south-east’, 35.
147 Lyons, ‘The environmental remains’.
148 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 45; Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 317.
149 Johnston, ‘Analysis of plant remains from Friary Street/Garden Row, Kilkenny’.
150 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 19.
151 Dyer, ‘Gardens and garden produce’, 27.
152 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 351; Dyer, Gardens and garden produce’, 27.
153 Dyer, ‘Seasonal patterns in food consumption’, 201.
154 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 368.
155 Hugh O’Neill Hencken, Cahercommaun, a stone fort in County Clare’, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquarians of Ireland 68 (1938), 1–82.
156 Linda Clarke, ‘M3 Clonee-North of Kells, Contract 3, Navan Bypass. Report on the archaeological excavation of Boyerstown 3, Co. Meath. Ministerial Directions No.A023/015, E3107’, excavation report, ACS Ltd, 2009. Available at: www.m3motorway.ie/Archaeology/Section3/Boyerstown3/ (July 2014); Aidan O’Connell and Allister Clark, ‘Report on the archaeological excavation of Castlefarm 1, Co. Meath’, unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd, 2009.
157 Heather King (ed.), Clonmacnoise studies: seminar papers vol. 2 (2 vols, Dublin, 2003); Jenny White Marshall and Claire Walsh, Illaunloughan Island: an early medieval monastery in County Kerry (Bray, 2005).
158 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 349.
159 Alan Vince, Saxon urban economies: an archaeological perspective’, in Rackham, Environment and economy in Anglo–Saxon England, 108–19: 116.
160 Christopher Dyer, The consumer and the market in the later Middle Ages’, Economic Historical Review XLII (1989), 305–27.
161 Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 856.
162 Lisa Moffett, The archaeology of plant foods’, in Woolgar, Serjeantson and Waldron, Food in medieval England,41–55: 54.
163 Vaughan-Williams, ‘Archaeobotanical analysis’.
164 Frank Green, ‘Problems of interpreting differentially preserved plant remains from excavations of medieval urban sites’, in Allan Hall and Harry Kenward (eds), Environmental archaeology in the urban context (London, 1982), 40–6; James Greig, Archaeobotanical and historical records compared: a new look at the taphonomy of edible and other useful plants from the 11th to the 18th centuries AD’, Circaea 12 (1996), 211–47: 221.
165 Smith, Defining an indicator package to allow identification of cesspits”’, 537; Greig, ‘Gardrobes, sewers, cesspits and latrines’, 50.
166 Greig, Gardrobes, sewers, cesspits and latrines’, 50; Mitchell, Archaeology and environment; Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’; Collins, ‘Plant remains’, 1997.
167 James Greig, Plant foods in the past: a review of the evidence from Northern Europe’, Journal of Plant Foods 5 (1983), 179–214: 204; Hall, ‘A brief history of plant foods in the city of York’, 24.
168 Robin Dennell, Seeds from a medieval sewer in Woolster Street, Plymouth’, Economic Botany 24:2 (1970), 151–4; James R. A. Greig, ‘The investigation of a medieval barrel-latrine from Worcester’, Journal of Archaeological Science 8 (1981), 265–82: 272.
169 Greig, ‘The investigation of a medieval barrel-latrine from Worcester’, 271.
170 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 27; Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 32.
171 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 32.
172 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 29.
173 Lyons, ‘The environmental remains’; Lyons, The plant macrofossil remains’; McClatchie, ‘The plant remains’; McClatchie, Non-wood plant macro remains’; Lyons, Plant remains from 40–48 South Main Street, Cork’; McClatchie, Non-wood plant macro remains’; Mitchell and Dickson, Plant remains and other items’; Collins, Plant remains’, 1991; Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’.
174 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 27.
175 Geraghty, Viking Dublin; Bourke, ‘Life in the sunny south-east’, 35.
176 Hall, ‘A brief history of plant foods in the city of York’, 31.
177 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 32.
178 Greig, ‘Archaeobotanical and historical records compared’, 215.
179 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 259; Apples were also well referenced in the Rule of Céili Dé, cites in D. A. Binchy, Corpus Iuris Hibernici (6 vols, Dublin, 1876), vol. 2, 502–19; Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 355; Greig, Archaeobotanical and historical records compared’, 215.
180 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 259.
181 Meyer, The vision of MacConglinne, 38, 79, 100; Gwynn, ‘The teaching of Máel Ruain’, 31; Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 146.
182 Reeves-Smyth, Irish gardens and gardening before Cromwell, 117. Cider-making was more popular in England at this time, cited in Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 355.
183 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 355.
184 Murphy and Potterton, The Dublin region in the Middle Ages, 355.
185 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 324.
186 Comes from the word bó, the quality of cow that produced milk for fine boiling, Kelly, Early Irish farming, 324.
187 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 349; Patrick Henry, A linguistic survey of Ireland: preliminary report’, Lochlann: a review of Celtic studies 1 (1958), 49–208: 163.
188 Gwynn, ‘The teaching of Máel Ruain’, 28, §45; Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 146. A recipe for muesli from Richard Barber, Cooking and recipes from Rome to the Renaissance (London, 1973). A Renaissance recipe for black muesli: ingredients: ½lb black grapes, 2 apples, 2 pears, 1oz sugar, ºlb oatmeal, ½pt water. Method: boil pears and apples until soft. Peel, core, chop into cubes. Pip and halve grapes. Mix fruit, sugar and oatmeal, and add water. Bring to boil, stirring continuously. Serve with milk and sugar to taste.
189 Gwynn, ‘The teaching of Máel Ruain’, 2§1.
190 Meyer, The vision of MacConglinne, 35, 77—‘son of fair oatmeal gruel, of sprouty meat-soup, with its purple berries, of the top of effeminate kale, son of soft white midriff, son of bone-nourishing nut-fruit, son of Abel, son of Adam’.
191 Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 146.
192 Melitta Weiss Adamson, Food in medieval times: food through history (London, 2004), 19.
193 Dennell, ‘Seeds from a medieval sewer’, 154.
194 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 305; Greig, ‘Plant foods in the past’, 205.
195 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 305.
196 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 46; Maothal has been interpreted as a dish consumed during fasting. It consisted of nutmeal and milk, but also oatmeal, milk and cheese, cited in Eugene O’Curry, On the manners and customs of the ancient Irish (New York, 1873, repr. in 1971), ccclxc–ccclxvi.
197 Dyer, ‘Seasonal patterns in food consumption’, 213.
198 Greig, ‘Plant foods in the past’, 117.
199 Allan Hall and Harry Kenward, ‘Setting people in their environment: plant and animal remains from Anglo–Scandinavian York’, in Richard Hall, David Rollason, Mark Blackburn, David Parsons, Gillian Fellows-Jensen, Harry Kenward, Allan Hall, Thomas O’Connor, Dominic Tweedle, Ailsa Mainman and Nicola Rogers (eds), The archaeology of York: aspects of Anglo–Scandinavian York (Oxford, 2004), 400.
200 Teresa McLean, Medieval English gardens (New York, 1982), 238.
201 Penny Johnston, ‘Macroscopic plant remains from excavations at Temple Bar West’, unpublished report, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd, 2000; Reilly, ‘The contribution of insect remains’, 41–62: 55.
202 Lyons, ‘The plant macrofossil remains’.
203 Lyons, ‘The environmental remains’.
204 Listed in James Kelly’s Scottish Proverb in 1791, cited in John Simpson, The concise Oxford dictionary of proverbs (Oxford, 1984), 121.
205 Hall, ‘A brief history of plant foods in the city of York’, 32.
206 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 26.
207 Charles Bamforth and Robert Ward, The Oxford handbook of food fermentations (Oxford, 2014), 159.
208 Bamforth and Ward, The Oxford handbook of food fermentations, 159.
209 Christopher Dyer, Everyday life in medieval England (London, 2001), 125.
210 Collins, ‘Plant remains’, 1997.
211 Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 882; Lyons, ‘The plant macrofossil remains’.
212 Bradley, The early development of the medieval town of Kilkenny’, 67
213 Bradley, ‘The early development of the medieval town of Kilkenny’, 73.
214 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 33; Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 27.
215 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 37.
216 Norman Gras, The early English customs system—a documentary study of the institutional and economic history of the customs from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries (Cambridge, 1918), 45.
217 Robert Wiltshire, ‘The effects of food processing on palpability of wild fruits with a high tannin content’, in H. Kroll and R. Pasternak (eds), Res archaeobotanicae International Workshop for Palaeoethnobotany: Proceedings of the ninth Symposium, Kiel 1992 (Kiel, 1995), 385–97.
218 McLean, Medieval English gardens, 268. In the Account of the Holy Trinity, Dublin, records of the Seneschel mention verjuice bought for 8d, Mills, Account Roll of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, 101.
219 McLean, Medieval English gardens, 268; John Russell recommended verjuice to be cooked with chicken, veal and bacon, cited in Frederick Furnivall (ed.), BABEES book of manners and meals in olden times (London, 1868), 152.
220 Nicholas Culpeper, Complete herbal: consisting of a comprehensive description of nearly all herbs with their medicinal properties and directions from compounding the medicines extracted from them (London, 1826), 158–9.
221 William Brereton, Travels in Holland, the united provinces, England, Scotland and Ireland, 1634–1635 (2 vols, Manchester, 1844), vol. 1, 371.
222 Judith Griffin, Mother Nature herbal (Woodbury, MN, 1997), 105.
223 Griffin, Mother Nature herbal, 105.
224 Griffin, Mother Nature herbal, 105.
225 The word caineann is often used interchangeably for garlic and onion in the early medieval text, however, Donnchadh Ó Corráin maintains that caineann refers to shallots or Welsh onions, cited in Kelly, Early Irish farming, 253; D. A. Binchy, ‘Bretha Crólige’, Ériu 12 (1938), 1–77: 21, 23, 40. Garlic, leek and onion derive from the Allium spp., the seeds of which can be difficult to separate in archaeobotany.
226 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 253.
227 Binchy, ‘Bretha Crólige’, 36 §45; Whitley Stokes (ed.), The martyrology of Oengus the Culdee (London, 1905) cited in Lucas, ‘Irish food before the potato’, 31.
228 Lucas, ‘Irish food before the potato’, 32
229 Geraghty, Viking Dublin; Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 26; McClatchie, ‘The plant remains’; Lyons, ‘Plant remains from 40–48 South Main Street, Cork’; Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’; Lyons, ‘The environmental remains’; Lyons, ‘The plant macrofossil remains’.
230 Philippa Tomlinson, ‘Vegetative plant remains from waterlogged deposits identified at York’, in Jane Renfrew (ed.), New light on early farming (Edinburgh, 1991), 109–19.
231 James Greig, ‘Plant remains’, in S. W. Ward (ed.), Excavations at Chester: 12 Watergate Street in 1985: Roman Headquarters building to medieval, Grosvenor Museum Archaeological Excavation and Survey Reports 5 (1988), 59–69.
232 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 26.
233 Hall, ‘A brief history of plant foods in the city of York’, 33.
234 McClatchie, ‘The plant remains’, 401.
235 Gwynn, ‘An Irish penitential’, §3 and 6; Gwynn, ‘The teaching of Máel Ruain’, 16; D. A. Binchy, ‘The old Irish penitential’, in Ludwig Bieler (ed.), The Irish penitentials Scriptores, Latin Hiberniae (5 vols, Dublin, 1963), vol. 5, 262; Sexton, ‘Porridges, gruels and breads’.
236 A. T. Lucas, ‘Nettles and charlock as famine food’, Breifne 1:2 (1959), 137–46: 146.
237 James O’Keeffe, Buile Suibhne (Dublin, 1931, repr. 1975), 982–3.
238 Gwynn and Purton, ‘The monastery of Tallaght’, 132; Kelly, Early Irish farming, 256.
239 Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 162.
240 Lucas, ‘Nettles and charlock as famine food’, 137; M. F. Moloney, Irish ethnobotany and the evolution of medicine in Ireland (Dublin, 1919), 39.
241 Mitchell and Dickson, ‘Plant remains and other items’; Bourke, ‘Life in the sunny south-east’, 35; Lyons, ‘The plant macrofossil remains’; Johnston, ‘The plant remains’.
242 Geraghty, Viking Dublin; Lyons, ‘The plant remains’; Brewer, ‘Archaeobotanical report for Washington Street, Cork’.
243 ‘Brewer, ‘Archaeobotanical report for Washington Street Cork’.
244 James Dickson and William Gauld, Mark Jameson’s physic plants, a sixteenth century garden for gynaecology in Glasgow?’, Scotland Medieval Journal 32 (1987), 60–2.
245 W. R. Dawson, A leechbook or collection of medicinal recipes of the 15th century (London, 1934).
246 Hall, A brief history of plant foods in the city of York’, 29; Greig, Gardrobes, sewers, cesspits and latrines’, 51.
247 Mitchell and Dickson, Plant remains and other items’; Collins, Plant remains’, 1997; Mitchell, Archaeology and environment; Geraghty, Viking Dublin; McClatchie, The plant remains’; Tierney and Hannon, Plant remains’; Lyons, The environmental remains’; Lyons, The plant macrofossil remains’; Kiely, Archaeological Excavation Report 26 Patrick’s Street, Kilkenny 99E0165’; Bruce Sutton and Penny Johnston, Archaeological excavation report 99E0757ext—Stratham Street, 12 Patrick Street, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny’, Eachtra Journal 14 (2007), 144–7; Jacinta Kiely and Antonia Doolan, ‘Archaeological excavation report (06E0230)—11 Patrick Street, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny’, Eachtra Journal 14 (2008), 89–93; Johnston, Analysis of the plant remains Irishtown/Brennan’s Yard, Kilkenny’, 12–15; Johnston, ‘Analysis of the plant remains Friary Street/Garden Row, Kilkenny’; Nikolah Gilligan, ‘Archaeobotanical analysis: the Robing Room, Bishop’s Palace, Kilkenny (11E157)’, Kilkenny Archaeological Project, 2011, available at: www.kkap.ie/assets/bishops-palace-plant-remains.pdf (16 March 2015); Meriel McClatchie, Analysis of non-wood plant macrofossils, Talbot’s Tower, Kilkenny’, unpublished report, Kilkenny Archaeology Ltd, 2011; Gilligan, ‘Archae-obotanical analysis’.
248 John Rutty, An essay towards a natural history of the county of Dublin (2 vols, Dublin, 1772), vol. 1, 171.
249 Dennell, Seeds from a medieval sewer Plymouth’, 154; Greig, Archaeobotanical and historical records compared’, 223.
250 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 23.
251 Dom Brothwell, The Bog Man and the archaeology of people (London, 1986), 92.
252 Paul Stokes and Peter Rowley-Conway, Iron Age cultigen? Experimental return rates for fat-hen (Chenopodium album L.)’, Environmental Archaeology 7 (2002), 95–9; Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 23.
253 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 29.
254 Mitchell, Archaeology and environment, 23.
255 Greig, ‘Plant resources’, 115.
256 Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 889.
257 Sexton, ‘Cereals and cereal foodstuffs’, 155.
258 Penny Johnston, ‘Analysis of the plant remains Irishtown/Brennan’s Yard. Kilkenny (02E1592)’, unpublished report, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd, 2004; Lyons, ‘The environmental remains’.
259 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 29.
260 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 29.
261 Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 890; Johnston, ‘Macroscopic plant remains from excavations at Temple Bar West’.
262 Gay Wilson, Plant foods and poisons from medieval Chester’, in Thomas Ward, Goldsmith House Site, Goss Street, Chester, 1972’, Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society 58 (1972), 53–66.
263 Quern stones were found in Waterford, cited in Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 891 and Cork, cited in Maurice Hurley, ‘Stone artefacts’, in Maurice Hurley and Orla Scully, Excavations at the North Gate, Cork, 1994 (Cork, 1997), 106–14.
264 Dyer, ‘Seasonal patterns in food consumption’, 208.
265 Reeves-Smyth, Irish gardens and gardening before Cromwell, 110.
266 Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Ireland before the Normans (Dublin, 1972), 71.
267 Kelly, Early Irish farming, 319.
268 Brian Ayers and Peter Murphy, A waterfront excavation at Whitefriars Street carpark, Norwich’, East Anglian Archaeology 17 (1983), 1–60.
269 Gilligan, ‘Archaeobotanical analysis’. An antler tine recovered in the same pit as a grape seed was radiocarbon dated to 1000–1140 cal AD.
270 McClatchie, ‘Non-wood plant macro remains’, 429.
271 Collins, ‘Plant remains’, 1997; Mitchell, Archaeology and environment; McClatchie, The plant remains’; Lyons, Plant remains from 40–48 South Main Street, Cork’; Mitchell and Dickson, Plant remains and other items’; McClatchie, The plant remains’; Bourke, Life in the sunny south-east’, 35; Lyons, The environmental remains’; Gilligan, Archaeobotanical analysis’; McClatchie, Analysis of non-wood plant macrofossils’; Gilligan, ‘Archaeobotanical analysis’.
272 Alf O’Brien, The development of privileges, liberties and immunities of medieval Cork and the growth of an urban economy c. 1189 to 1500’, Journal of Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 90 (1985), 46–64.
273 Bradley, ‘The early development of the medieval town of Kilkenny’, 63–73; C. A. Empey, ‘The Norman period 1185–1500’, in William Nolan and Thomas McGrath (eds), Tipperary: history and society, interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county (Dublin, 1985), 71–91: 83–87.
274 Timothy O’Neill, Merchants and mariners in medieval Ireland (Dublin, 1987), 96.
275 O’Neill, Merchants and mariners, 44–57. The Irish wine trade came from France predominantly but trade with Spain and Portugal increased in the late fourteenth century, cited in O’Neill, Merchants and mariners, 48.
276 Clare McCutcheon, Pottery’, in Cleary and Hurley, Excavations in Cork City 1984–2000, 197–235; Cóilín Ó Drisceoil et al., Kilkenny Archaeological Project (KKAP) Report for the Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research (INSTAR) Programme 2008 (Kilkenny, 2008); Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd, New evidence for the form and early development of the medieval town of Cashel from recent excavations’; Clare McCutcheon, The medieval pottery of Dublin: some dates and new names,’ in Seán Duffy (ed.), Medieval Dublin I (Dublin, 2000), 117–25.
277 Dyer, ‘Seasonal patterns in food consumption’, 208.
278 Dyer, ‘Seasonal patterns in food consumption’, 208.
279 Dyer, ‘Seasonal patterns in food consumption’, 210.
280 Collins, ‘Plant remains’, 1997; Mitchell, Archaeology and environment; Geraghty, Viking Dublin; McClatchie, ‘The plant remains’; Lyons, ‘Plant remains from 40–48 South Main Street, Cork’; Mitchell and Dickson, Plant remains and other items’; Bourke, ‘Life in the sunny south-east’, 35; Lyons, The plant remains from Parliament Street, Kilkenny’.
281 McClatchie, ‘Non-wood plant macro remains’, 429.
282 Greig, ‘Gardrobes, sewers, cesspits and latrines’, 50.
283 The supply and demand for figs during this season drove up prices and made it a profitable shipment for merchants, cited in Bridget Ann Henisch, The medieval calendar year (University Park, PA, 1999), 43.
284 Greig, ‘Archaeobotanical and historical records compared’, 217.
285 Camilla Dickson, ‘Food, medicinal and other plants from the 15th century drain of Paisley Abbey, Scotland’, in John Maldon (ed.), The Monastery & Abbey of Paisley: lectures from the Renfrewshire Local History Forum’s Conference 11/12 September 1999, with additional papers (Paisley, 2000), 213–24.
286 Lyons, ‘The plant macrofossil remains’.
287 Greig, ‘Plant foods in the past’, 205.
288 Geraghty, Viking Dublin, 50.
289 Tierney and Hannon, ‘Plant remains’, 889.
290 Collins, Plant remains’, 1997; Mitchell and Dickson, Plant remains and other items’, 73.
291 Greig, Archaeobotanical and historical records compared’, 220; Camilla Dickson, Macroscopic fossils of garden plants from British Roman and medieval deposits’, Journal of the European Study Group on Physical, Chemical, Biological & Mathematical Techniques Applied to Archaeology 42 (1994), 47–72.
292 Adamson, Food in medieval times, 25.
293 Philippa Tomlinson, Use of vegetative remains in the identification of dyeplants from waterlogged 9th-10th century AD deposits at York’, Journal of Archaeological Science 12 (1985), 269–83; Inga Hägg, Die Textilfunde aus dem Hafen von Haithabu, Berichte über die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu, Bericht 20 (Neumünster, 1984). Heavily botanical approach, focusing on the identification process for each set of plant specimens.
294 N. M. McKenna, ‘Dyeing with black walnut’, Complex Weavers 29 (2001), 9.
295 Griffin, Mother Nature herbal, 133.
296 Greig, ‘Archaeobotanical and historical records compared’, 221.
297 James Greig, ‘The 13th-18th century plant remains’, in Nigel Baker (ed.), Shrewsbury Abbey, Shrewsbury Archaeological and Historical Society Monograph Series 2 (2002), 163–77; Dennell, ‘Seeds from a medieval sewer’.
298 Canon Power, On a find of ancient jars in Cork City’, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 33 (1928), 10–11.
299 In 1171 Henry II came to Ireland with spices, cordial and almonds; in Kilkenny, four pounds of almonds cost 6d c. 1400, cited in O’Neill, Merchants and mariners, 96.
300 Adamson, Food in medieval times, 45.
301 Cennino Cennini, The craftman’s handbook, trans. Daniel Thompson (New York, 1960).
302 Lyons, The plant remains’, in Patricia Long, Assessment report on archaeological excavations on the R581 Doneraile to Newtwopothouse Road Realignment Scheme, Co Cork’, unpublished report, Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd, 2012.