Food and Power in Early Medieval England: a lack of (isotopic) enrichment
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Authors
Leggett, Sam
Lambert, Tom
Journal Title
Anglo-Saxon England
ISSN
0263-6751
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Leggett, S., & Lambert, T. Food and Power in Early Medieval England: a lack of (isotopic) enrichment. Anglo-Saxon England https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.81804
Abstract
This work tackles long held assumptions in both archaeology and history surrounding elite diets in early medieval England i.e., that higher status individuals had a more meat-heavy diet and that this was especially true for males. We utilise the largest isotopic dataset on early medieval diets to date to show that not only were high protein diets extremely rare in England before Scandinavian settlement, but that dietary differences cannot be linked to gender or social status from the funerary record. Comparisons with the calculations made in our companion article and the bioarchaeological evidence demonstrate further that the lists of food demanded by eighth-century kings were not the basis for regular elite diet, and that these texts probably represent the supplies for infrequent feasts.
Sponsorship
Newnham College, Cambrdge; the Cambridge Trust (App No: 10386281); the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Embargo Lift Date
2025-02-23
Identifiers
This record's DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.81804
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/334388
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Licence URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
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