Celtic and Romano British Foods from the Isles- a General Approach

Agriculture in the Iron Age There is evidence that suggest a very dramatic settlement expansion in the uplands of Scotland around 250BC. This was the same pattern of expansion seen else where in North England and Solway Firth (Inlet of the Irish Sea). Large areas of light forest and long established grazing sites were rapidly deforested through out the Isles and some areas, such as marshy, clay soil valleys were being drained and utilized. The British Celts marked this change by the use of the iron share and coulter along with the practice of crop rotation and the application of manure. Upon the arrival of the Romans in Britain, much of the land had already been hedged, fenced, or walled in for fields and crops while other areas had be defined by ditches or smaller woodlands. A total contradiction to Caesar’s comments, Britain was already quit civilized. Caesar thought of the British Celts more in propaganda terms stating, “many of the inland Britons do not grow corn. They live on milk and flesh and are clothed in skins.” (Ellis 101) Historically, however, the Celtic tribes as a whole had surpassed their neighbors and Roman invaders, especially in agricultural terms. While other Iron Age peoples were still employing wood shares to plough their fields the Celts had replaced theirs with iron. Archaeological evidence for the use of the plough in prehistoric Europe is represented in the archaeological data base by “plow marks preserved in ancient ground surfaces below later earthworks; field banks (lynchets) caused by the movement of soil consequent upon plowing; contemporary illustrations, usually rock carvings, showing the plow teams in action; and the remains of the plows themselves”. (The Celtic World 120) Some noted finds include a concentration of rock carvings in the region of Bohuslan in western Sweden, Ards recovered from peat bogs in Donneruplund, Denmark. (Reynolds 3) The Celtic plough, ingeniously fitted with a mobile coulter, was greatly superior to the Roman swing plough of the same period. The coulter, a sharp knife attached to the plough beam, made a vertical cut through the soil at the same time the share produced the horizontal slice allowing the soil to be turned. This method ended the need for ‘double ploughing’ which was a common practice in early European societies. Such a plow is depicted on a Celtic rock carving from Val Camonica, North of Milan, Italy which dates to the seventh century BC. (The Celtic World 120) The Celts were also the first to introduce harvesting machine, the messor, later called vallus by the Romans, was a “big box, the edges armed with teeth and supported by two wheels, which moved through the cornfield 1 pushed by an ox rather; the ears of corn were uprooted by the teeth and fell into the box” states Pliny, a Roman author from the first century AD. (Ellis 102) Other agricultural tools were also effected and improved such as scythes, spades, sickles, axes, forks and billhooks. Such technical advancements empowered the massive expansion, and were undoubtedly sparked by the widespread availability of iron that coined the term ‘Iron Age’. By this time in Europe, food sources and practices made a dramatic change from the previous Bronze Age. This was a hugely rooted in these new technological advancements in the field of agriculture. By the first millennium BC few communities lived solely on wild resources alone as it was becoming more difficult to find and obtain wild game. “Hunting may already have become an exclusive pursuit for the wealthy”. (Armit 73) Wild animal bones are rare in midden heaps supporting the declination of game that was available around areas of large population. “The inhabitants of small villages hunted more, particularly in remote, heavily forested regions.”, according to Sandor Bokonyi in his article Agriculture: Animal Husbandry in “The Celts” edited by Venceslas Kruta. (The Celts 444) Evidence for wild animal bones, depending on settlement types, ranges from .2 to 5% of the total meat consumption at this time. (The Celts 444) While the Celts consumption of wild game seems fairly meager, their total consumption of meat appears quit substantial. Athenaeus states, “’Their food consists of a few loaves of bread, but large quantities of meant’” while Diodorus Siculus states of the Celtic Iberians of the Pyrenees “’…for their food they eat meat in abundance and a drink of wine mixed with honey’” (Wood 87 and 156) Armit further supports this fact stating, “Despite the evidence for arable agriculture many communities probably remained dependent to a greater or lesser extent on stock –rearing”. (Armit 73) For instance, the majority of bones found in the midden of Manching Oppidum, located in modern Germany, according to Werner Dramer in his article The Oppidum of Manching, was 99% domestic. Pig bones (not boar) make the largest assembly at 1,350 animals. The combination of sheep and goat bones make the second largest group at 800 animals, cattle at 700, dog at 139 and horses at 77. (Celts from Antiquity 70) This is just a general idea of the meat consumption of a large Continental Oppida (a settlement that supports a range of specialist functions such as crafts, industry, religion, and political control). Certainly different areas and groups would have eaten different types and amounts of meat; the consumption was undoubtedly localized and supported by the local flora and fauna. 2  Animal Husbandry and Meat Celtic livestock sizes compared to their modern counterparts in black. (Green 7) The consumption of meat types, both domestic and wild, differed upon region and people alike and the determining factors might include the availability and religious beliefs associated with such animals. Agricultural changes had a definite impact on local fauna. Domestic animals could now enjoy larger open tracts of land while native species decline with the loss of habitat. Do to this, Celtic peoples relied more on domestic meats as hunting become possibly more of a pleasurable past time. The Celts and Romans both enjoyed a wide variety of dishes derived from almost every part of the animals they consumed. Internal organs, bone marrow and even blood were undoubtedly put to use. It is even further possible that early hunters may have eaten the half-digested stomachs of their game. While such dishes were probably wise usage of the complete animal by the Celts, the Romans devised and concocted seemingly more ‘delicacies’ from such parts. Celtic livestock differed greatly from their present counterparts. Celtic animals tended to be much smaller by present terms and utilized in a manor of uses not limited to fare. Live stock and goods produced from the husbandry of these animals are noted in Greek and Roman historical commentaries as trade goods. The Roman historian Strabo noted in his work Geography 3 Book IV 4:122, “their flocks of sheep and herds of swine are so very large that they supply an abundance of the "sagi" and the salt-meat, not only to Rome, but to most parts of Italy as well.” Many different ways of cooking and serving meat were employed. Cooking stones have been used since at least Mesolithic times. Straw wrapped meat was placed in a boiling pot and heated rocks were occasionally dropped into the container to maintain the temperate until the meat was done. A similar method was employed until the 18th century in the Scottish islands. Instead of a pot, a hollowed out log or a hide was filled with water and meat, and then red hot stones were dropped into the craft until the meat was cooked thoroughly. Cooking stones may have been also used to roast meat in a stone lined pit and covered with more stones that had to be occasionally changed. From the Bronze Age and later there are whole number of sites known as ‘mounds of burnt stones’ which have been discovered in New Forest in Hampshire to the Orkneys as well as in Wales and southern Ireland. (Prehistoric Cookery 77) Jacqui Woods suggested that another method of cooking, wrapping meat and fish in straw and clay and then placing it an open fire, may have also been employed. This type of cooking, a tried and successful method for Woods is successful and produces a very tender and moist finished dish. The typical way to cooking meat was by roasting or grilling over the embers of a fire usually using a spit. Large containers for stewing became popular in the Bronze Age and many large cauldrons and their related hooks, tripods and chains of suspension have been found. The meat may have been removed from the cauldron using, sometimes elaborate, flesh hooks. Pork- According to both archaeological research and historical references pigs and boars tended to be the favored choice of meat especially at feasts and were animals that were only useful for meat. Strabo notes that the Gauls had “large meals with milk and meat of all kinds, but most of all they loved pork, both fresh and salted. Their pigs run wild outdoors and are exceptional for their size, speed, and strength.” (Freeman 27) Though Strabo may make note of the size of the Celtic pig, archaeological records show that the Celtic pig was smallest during this time than any other time during the prehistoric period. Rather primitive, its withers reached only about 70 centimeters and were comparable with the “turbary” pigs during the Neolithic period. (The Celts 446) Like their wild counter part, these pigs probably had dense hair, especially alone the spine, and tusks. La Tene, located at the northern edge of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland “was probably the only Celtic settlement where a crossbreeding between domestic and wild pigs could be observed 4 producing larger individuals, probably with a rough nature.” (The Celts 446) Most pigs were killed as juveniles while others were killed as sub adults. Only a small breading stock, mainly females, was kept into adult hood. We can not over look the importance of the pig or boar as used for sacrificial and feasting purposes. For example, 49 graves in the Celtic cemetery at Matraszollos in Hungary contained part if not whole pigs. Salted pork was one of the many trade goods exported out of the Celtic Oppidas as noted by Strabo. (The Celts 444) In some cases pigs were probably allowed to free range and forage through the forests until needed at other times they may have been kept in pens which may have helped break up fallow land and manure it. If confined long enough, they would eventually rid that area of perennial weeds. (Prehistoric Cookery 56) Beef- Celtic cattle were slender and skinny with small horns and narrow skulls according to bone finds and rendered examples. They stood only 110 centimeters tall at the withers, though their Roman counter part stood 16 to 17 centimeters larger. Roman draught oxen did reach Celtic territories, however there is little evidence that they had any effect on the local stock. (The Celts 445) The use of cattle during the Iron Age differs according to location. Armit states, in the Scottish Lowlands there is little evidence that cattle were kept for dairy, though bone rarely survives there. However, cattle predominate over sheep and pigs in the Lowlands. For many other Celtic communities’ cows, though producing 5 times as much meat as the domestic pig, were mainly used as dairy and draught animals. In these areas, about one third of cows died as juveniles or sub adults thus within the first 3 years at the time of prime beef. (The Celts 457) This would allow the cows to be used solely for milk production. Cattle bones through out the Isles show signs of marrow subtraction and its quit probable that cattle blood was mixed with flour and herbs to make black puddings. The evidence found for cattle in the Western Isles of Scotland in such sites as the Cnip wheelhouse were ‘stunted and miserable’ due to the poor grazing land. Goats and sheep would have favored better in such conditions, but it is suggested that the community might have followed a local practice of cattle ownership as a reflection of status similarly found in Irish literary sources. (Armit 73) Early “Irish units of exchange were based on a sed, which was the value of one milch cow. Three sed made a cumal, being the value of there milch cows. A cumal was also a unit of land measurement.” (Ellis 107) The Greek historian Strabo also remarks in his book 1 1:157 that the inhabitants of the Cassiderides, thought to be the Scilly Isles and Cornwall, that “they live off their herds . ........ As they have mines of tin and lead, they 5 give these metals and the hides from their cattle to the sea traders”. At one Bronze Age Celtic site 184 cattle skulls were uncovered from the top of a burial mound that may reflect the total of cows consumed during the burial feast. She stated that this might have been a reflection of the person’s prestige and wealth. (Wood 75) The royal tarbhfeis, or bull ritual, in connection with the right to rule is described in the Serglige Con Culainn and Togail Bruidne Da Derga and the importance of bulls can be seen in insular Celtic mythology, particularly the Irish saga of the Tain Bo Cuailgne. (Ellis 107) Dairy- Dairy was an important part of the ancient Celtic diet. There are several forms of evidence that help support its consumption and use. Recent testing techniques have been developed by Bristol University, which recognizes dairy-based fats preserved on Neolithic pottery vessels. At many Celtic sites large amounts of calves bones and older heifer bones have been discovered in trash midden heaps which can not only be attributed to the consumption of veal, but also the proof of a dairy producing herd. (Wood 75) The Celtic cow was unable to produce large quantities of milk, though if they compared to their Asian and Balkan cousins than they may very well have produced between 2 to 4 liters. (The Celts 457) Milk would have been richer, sweeter and more plentiful in the spring and would decrease during the winter months. The Celts found ways to store the excess milk produced during the summer by processing it into butter and cheese. Butter may have been made in much the same way as it has been in the Orkneys more recently. Milk is left for several days until it has thickened naturally. At times when the butter was slow in coming, hot ‘Kirnin’ stones were placed in the milk to help the process. Once the butter had gathered at the top, it was placed in a dish where it was washed to remove any bacteria that would quickly foul the butter. Then a knife might be passed through the finished product to remove any animal hairs which would adhere to the blade. (Prehistoric Cookery 57) Butter was often kept in bogs and there have been discoveries of “bog butter” of just a few pounds to as much as a hundredweight. (Wood 77) Strabo comments that the Celtiberians had the access to olive oil, but preferred the use of butter with their bread. (Wood 77) Pliny mentions that the Celts considered butter one of their favorite complements to food,… the one that distinguishes the wealthy man from the lower orders’. (Wood 79) The bogs were not a good place to store hard cheese. Cheese, needing a dark cool place, could have been kept in caves. The caves would create a unique flavor depending on the localized molds as is the case in Roquefort 6 from France and Cheddar from Cheddar Gorge in Britain. Caves were not often available in Britain; instead ‘fogous’ were often employed for cool storage. A ‘fogou’ or ‘souterrain’ is a man made underground structure. They have been found throughout Britain and as may as 200 examples have been discovered in Scotland dating from the first century BC to the third Century AD. (Wood 79) It is possible that not all Celtic groups made cheese and this might explain the lack of ‘souterrains’ in some areas. Strabo states, “Some of them, while well supplied with milk, make no cheese”. (Wood 79) Roman historian Tacitus, describing the Germans in Germania: 16, mentions underground stores such as fogou's and souterrains. 'They have also the habit of hollowing out caves underground and heaping masses of refuse on the top. In these they can escape the winter's cold and store their produce.'” Cheese was made by heating cream and adding rennet, an enzyme found in a calves stomach, to the pot. Occasionally rennet could have been substituted with the leaves of butterwort, lady’s bedstraw, and nettle juice. The last two are used in the manufacture of Double Gloucester cheese. (Prehistoric Cookery 59) Simple cottage cheese can be obtained by letting milk stand till it separates into curds and whey and then straining it overnight. Herbs and salt can be added for flavor. Cream was also used by the Celts, but it was probably clotted like it is done today in the west country. (Wood 79) Clotted cream is simply cream that has been slightly heated until a skin or crust forms on the top. This skin helps to preserve it until it can be removed and the cream used at a latter time. Fowl- There is some evidence that the Celts did keep domestic hens though evidence shows that they tended to be small and primitive reaching between 1 to 1.5 kilos. They were probable introduced by the Scythians, but it was the Celts that are given credit for their latter spread into Western Europe. The Romans had larger hens improved by cross breading between Greek and Mediterranean varieties such as Columella that were also kept at Roman providences in Europe, however larger hens and cocks do show up and at pre-Roman sites in Europe. (The Celts 448) The records for Hadrian’s Wall forts in Scotland included chicken and eggs, and evidence further supports the Roman’s consumption of chickens in Scotland. The remains of a “hen sized” egg were found in a well at Bar Hill while chicken remains have been identified at Mumrills. Both Roman forts are located along Antonine’s Wall in Scotland. (Dickson 122) The Romans are credited for the introduction of pheasants, peacocks, and guinea fowl into Britain and all were used for food. (Renfrew 5) Wild 7 fowl were also an important source of food for the Romans and Silchester swan, goose, wild duck, teal, widgeon, woodcock, plover, crane and stork may all have been eaten. The larger fowl were hung for several days to tenderize. Cranes heads were left outside the water when cooked so that the sinews could be removed from the body with one quick pull of the head. (Renfrew 16) The domestication of geese and ducks cannot be excluded from the Celtic diet either, though the physical evidence is scanty. The domestic geese, if they were kept at all, were probably smaller than their wild counterpart. The domestic goose has a long history that dates back to ancient Egypt around the second half of the third millennium B.C. and in the Asia Minor to the forth or fifth millennium B.C. The Romans kept geese quit early, as did the Celts who probably had several good breeds as suggested by Pliny who mentions their importance in Gallia Belgica. “Roast barnacle goose, cherneros, was described by Pliny as the ‘most sumptuous dish known to the Britons.’”(Renfrew 16) Duck also may have been kept domestically, though their physical evidence is even scantier than geese. “The only indication of the presence of domestic duck is its role in the religious-cult imagery.” (The Celts 448) At Hebridean Wheel houses through out Scotland a variety of birds were eaten. At the wheelhouses of Cnip, and Sollas in North Uist, shag, puffin, great auk (now extinct), guillemot, gannet, diver, and migratory goose remains have been found. (Armit 73) Guillemots were also present in the Mesolithic site at Morton, Fife and at Skara Brae in Orkney. Skara Brae and the Rousay sites also produced evidence for gannets, eider ducks and their eggs, pink-footed geese, and swans. (Prehistoric Cookery 48) The bones of wood pigeons have been found in prehistoric middens at Glastonbury Iron Age lake village settlement in west England. (Wood 89) Other remains also uncovered at Glastonbury include pelican, cormorant, heron, bittern, puffin, whooper swan, goose, wild duck, golden eye, teal, widgeon, pintail, shoveler, tufted duck, scaup, common pochard, red-breasted merganser and common crane. At Meare, just a short distance from Glastonbury, the bones of black and red grouse and partridge were also found. (Prehistoric Cookery 52)The Celts used eggs and would have undoubtedly had a variety to choose from which would have included domestic hens and domestic and wild geese and ducks. Wood notes that duck eggs were probably relished by people who went to the marshes to gather thatch for roofs and basketry. She adds that seagull’s eggs in the springtime are also a traditional favorite in Scotland where they are still gathered today from the high sea cliffs. (Wood 168) 8 Deer (Red and Roe)- By the Iron Age in Europe, like most game animals, they were seldom hunted in part due to the scarcity of game around civilized areas. Deer probably would have been hunted with other game animals by nobles or by those people living in more remote or primitive areas. At the Cnip wheelhouse there is some evidence for the management of the local Red deer that would have been used for meat, hides and antlers. Evidence also has surfaced at Dun Mor Vaul on Tiree in Scotland for similar management of the deer population despite the unstable conditions on the small island for their co-existence with humans. Interesting enough, deer seem to be the only zoomorphic depictions found on Scottish Iron Age pottery and are also the only animal painted on Continental pottery of this same time period. It is rather “tempting to suggest the deer were exploited for their status associations rather than for any rational economic reasons”. (Armit 73) Romans were probably one of the first peoples to keep vast tracts of land as game parks. Here, along with other larger game animals, they could have hunted native deer and fallow deer which they introduced to Britain. (Renfrew 15) Deer meat is just one of the meats eaten by Roman soldiers at Hadrian’s Wall. (Renfrew 5) Sheep and Goats- The Celtic goat was comparable to modern goats in height. They were more often found in poorer contexts and we can assume they played the part of the “poor man’s cow”. (The Celts 457) About half of the goat population was killed in youth suggesting a larger expectance of goats as meat bearing animals than that to sheep. Goats also were used as dairy animals and they were used for hides. (The Celts 458) The keeping of sheep for meat is undeniable, however only about one third of sheep died before adulthood suggesting that sheep had another more important use, that of wool. They were also used as dairy animals to produce milk and cheese, but this use was only second to wool as suggest by a ram-ewe ratio of 2:1 at Celtic sites. “It shows an unnecessary high male ratio for milk production and a good ratio for wool production because the quality of wool from large rams and withers is certainly greater than that from the comparatively smaller ewes.” (The Celts 458) The caprovine sheep were far more common at Celtic sites than goats. Sheep tended to be smaller than goats with ewes only growing between 50 to 70 centimeters at the withers while the rams were slightly larger. Armit mentions the use of sheep in Celtic Scotland, but he points out that the keeping of sheep was shadowed by the husbandry of cattle. Manufactured woolen goods from the Isles were well known during 9 Caesar’s time and became part of a thriving export business from Britain to Rome. (Ellis 105) Hare, Rabbit, Hedgehog and other rodents- Little is know of the consumption of rabbit in the Celtic diet. Hares and rabbits are often found as zoomorphic renderings in Celtic art and there is undoubtedly some symbolic importance for its use. The rabbit or hare would not only be a source of meat, but also produces a wonderful fur that would have found many uses. The Romans ate rabbits and were known to keep hares in leporia or hare gardens attached to the villas where they would be available when wanted for a meal. (Renfrew 15) Apicius in his book, Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, lists several different ways to prepare hare including spiced, boiled, stuffed, smoked, braised, and sprinkled. (Apicius 200-205) Sea and fresh water- Fish and Shell fish- There is plenty of historical and archaeological evidence for the consumption of fresh and salt water fish and shell fish in Isles. Jacqui Wood’s book “Prehistoric Cooking”, on the historical cooking methods and foods of the ancient British Celts and their predecessors, lists the consumption of both fresh and salt-water seafoods. These include bass, trout, carp, cod, herring, and salmon.(Wood 122) At the wheelhouses at Cnip and Sollas in Scotland, there is evidence for the consumption of hake, saithe, cod, ballan wrasse, and some other species that required deep-sea fishing. Jane Renfrew adds, in her book “Prehistoric Cookery” that the Mesolithic inhabitants of Oronsay, Scotland caught conger eel, sea bream, haddock, thronback ray, skate and shark which were probably acquired through deep sea fishing. At Morton, Fife on the east cost of Scotland, the Mesolithic people were also enjoying the additions of cod, salmon and sturgeon in their diet. In the Northern Isles, fish roes and livers were also consumed (Prehistoric Cookery 44) According to Athenaeus, “Those Celts who live by the sea or along rivers also eat baked fish flavored with salt, vinegar, and the spice cumin.” (Freeman 24-25) Marine mammals such as seals were hunted and the occasional beached whale would have been a welcomed gift. Whales provided meat, bones for tools and fuel, and oil. (Armit 73) Jane Renfrew notes that it was not uncommon for up to four whales to be stranded on British shores per year. She notes, “Olaus Magnus, writing in 1555, described how a single whale might fill between 250 and 300 wagons and yield meat for salting, 10 blubber for lighting and heating, small bones for fuel and large ones for house building, and hide sufficient to clothe 40 men.” (Prehistoric Cookery 43) Possibly one of the earliest examples of human utilization of beached whales was documented at Meiklewood, near Stirling in Scotland where a Mesolithic deer antler mattock was found next to the skull of a Rorqual whale. (Prehistoric Cookery 43) Shell fish made up a large part of prehistoric diets for some Celtic groups who resided around the sea. These included oysters, limpets, mussels, scallops, clams and winkles. (Wood 122) Mollusks and oyster shells, while from medieval midden, have been found at Dunadd in Western Scotland whose occupation spans back to prehistoric times. (Lane 229) Sea urchins were also used as a food source in the late Neolithic-early Bronze Age site of Northton, Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and crabs and lobsters were collected along the shorelines probably in weighted baskets and archaeological evidence of their use has been documented in Mesolithic Oronsay and Oban, Scotland. (Prehistoric Cookery 46) In Romano-British communities, sea fish were very popular. Cod, ling, haddock, gray mullet, herring and sea bream were caught and shellfish were highly popular. Oysters, which were especially prized, may have been transported inland from the coast. Large quantities of oyster shells often found at Roman sites. Other shellfish were also eaten such as periwinkles, mussels, whelks, cockles and scallops. Reflecting the Celtic practice, stranded whales may have also been utilized as another food source. Crabs, oysters and mussels were identified at the York in England during the Roman occupation. (Dickson 124) There is little evidence for fresh water fish at Romano- British sites though Sichester eel, dace, perch, pike and carp are reported along with the remains of frogs that may have also been eaten. (Renfrew 16) The Roman importation of fish sauce or garum was also very popular not just at Roman sites, but also with the native British populations who grew accustom to this luxury. Garum as undoubtedly similar to anchovy sauce and the principles of manufacture were similar. Like anchovy sauce, the whole fish was spiced, pounded, fermented, salted, strained and bottled for future use or trade. The finest Roman garum was made of only fish livers which were exposed to the sun, fermented and preserved. (Apicious 22) Pliny in his book Geoponica XX, chapter 46 1-6 gives the best account for the manufacturing of liquament of garum, or a culinary liquid of fish: “This so-called liquamen is made as follows: the entrails of fish are thrown into a vessel and salted. Take small fish either atherinae of red mullet of sprats or anchovy and salt together, and leave out in 11  the sun, shaking it frequently. When it has become dry from heat extract the garum from it as follows: take a fine-meshed basket and place it in the middle of the vessel with the above mentioned fish, and in this way the so-called liquamen put through the basket can be taken up, If you wish to use the garum at once i.e. not expose it to the sun but boil it- make it in the following manner. Take brine and test its strength by throwing an egg into it to try if it floats: if it sinks the brine does not contain enough salt. Put the fish into the brine in a new earthenware pot, add origan, put in on a good fire till it boils…let it cool and strain it over two or three times until clear, seal and store away. The best garum is made by taking the entrails of tunny fish and its gills, juice and blood, and add sufficient salt. Leave it in a vessel for two months at most, then pierce the side of the vessel and the garum, called Haimation, will flow out.” Woods supports this enterprise stating, “There is still the remains of a Roman garum producing centre at Alminjeka in southern Spain, it is still possible to visit this site at Almenjeka and see the large sunken clay pots used to ferment the salt fish sauce”. Strabo in Geography III 2.6 refers to this fish salting industry near Gibraltar as “not unimportant, either, is the fish-salting industry that is carried on, not only from this country, but also from the rest of the seaboard outside the Pillars; and the product is not inferior to that of the Pontus" . Plants and Agriculture The historical evidence for the use of herbs and plants during the pre and post-Roman invasions of Britain are meager due to the nature and preservation of organic material, however there are several ways to scientifically document plant remains from historical sites. Carbonized and waterlogged seeds, seed impressions on pottery and pollen analysis help to define the Celtic and Romano-British diets. The Archaeobotanical Computer Database, or ABCD- an electronic compilation of information about remains of plants from archaeological deposits throughout the British Isles, while other sources such as Roman commentaries and correspondences, for instance, the surviving letters from Roman soldiers stationed at Hadrian’s Wall, help to better define native and Roman diets in Britain. Further more, some native plants in Britain have had a long history 12 of use and can be regarded as possibly developing their ancestry of exploitation during these time periods. Robert Johnston in “Social Archaeology of Garden Plots in the Bronze Age of Northern and Western Britain” argues that much of past archaeological research aimed at the study of agriculture during the Bronze and Iron Ages focus on large scale farming production, more specifically cereal crops, and overlook the importance of possible small familial garden plots. Such evidence for the more specific deliberate small quantity growth of specialty crops are often mis-defined in research as “arable weeds, or are explained as unintentional introductions to domestic spaces on clothing or footwear” and these are difficult to determine in archaeological context or may be located outside archaeological work such as along fence and hedge rows or in the corners of fields where they may be over looked or misidentified. (Johnston 216) In “Midden Cultivation in Prehistoric Britain: Arable Crops in Gardens” by E. B. A. Guttmann further supports the importance of small scale localized gardens during the Iron Age which often might have been rotated on top of midden heaps, animal pens, or even previous settlements where they could take the most advantage of arable soil but because of such locations positive cultivation evidence may not exists or be overlooked. In some instances cleared field stone, terracing or plow marks might indicate such smaller scale farming. Because of this lack of more sound evidence, in addition to the possibility of ‘wild’ foraging, we must broaden the possibility of food sources and agricultural production in order to define a more complete picture of foods during this period. Seaweed and sea bearing plants- Laver is a form of seaweed that is still eaten today in parts of Wales and Ireland. It is easily recognized by its translucent purple fronds that grow at all levels of the shore and was historically used to make sauce for mutton or as a basis for bread (laverbread). Carragheen, or more commonly know as Irish Moss, is found in rock pools on the west coast of Britain, France and Ireland. Because of this seaweed’s ability to gel liquids the Celts could have used this in to thicken their savory fish stews by adding a few pieces before serving. Sea lettuce is another quite common plant found along British shores. It can be located in rock pools attached to stones and is bright green resembling it’s namesake. It to would have been utilized by the native people as a food stable. (Wood 121-3) Sea kale grows on the shingle and sand along the edge of beaches during spring until early summer. Sea kale has to be blanched by boiling it in salt water for 30 minutes or it is very tough and bitter. (Wood 148) The sea beet grows by the sea also and is identified by its 13 thick, shiny, dark green leaves It is the ancestor of all modern beets such as beetroot, mangold, chard and spinach. The leaves and root can both be eaten. Marsh samphire grows on the sandy mud of salt marshes and has juicy tender stems of subtle flavor when boiled. Nuts and Legumes- The first archaeological finds of beans are from 9000 B.C. in a house near Galilee called Yiftahel. A silo in the house held horsebeans that are very similar to Celtic beans. (Wood 127) Celtic beans are akin to modern broad bean. These beans in Britain are called ‘British field beans’ or ‘tic beans’ and are now mainly used for animal feed. This bean has to be soaked over night and then boiled in unsalted water for at least three hours to destroy its thick outer skin. Then the beans can be ground like a grain. (Wood 128-9) Other legumes such as fava beans, lentils, and peas were also cultivated according to Hansjorg Kuster in his article “The History of Vegetation” in The Celts published by Rizzoli. (The Celts 442) The remains of the seed coats of Field beans and lentils were recovered from the east annex ditch at Bearsden Fort located along Antonine’s Wall in Scotland. (Dickson 118) Evidence for peas in northern Europe is rather sparse though evidence has been found including several Bronze Age sites in Britain. The pea can be dried and stored, ground and can be added to bread for protein or used to thicken stews or simply eaten fresh. (Wood 127) Peter Reynolds also adds the vetch to the list of legumes. Acorns and hazelnuts are indigenous to Britain and were used by the British Celts. Hazel nut remains have been found at Dunadd as well as the early Iron Age roundhouse at Milton Loch in Kirkcudbrightshire in Scotland. These nuts would have been collected during the autumn and possibly stored for use during the winter. (Dickson 90) Hazel wood was widely used for waddle in construction and its remains have been found through out Britain. Jane Renfrew mentions that walnut and the sweet chestnut were two nuts introduced into cultivation in Britain by the Romans who also imported almonds and pine nuts. (Renfrew 6) Both hazelnuts and walnuts were eaten by Romans as suggested by the discovery of hazelnut shells at Roman Scottish sites and the remains of small walnuts in the Antonine fort at Bar Hill in Scotland (Dickson 90) and ABCD lists fifty-nine possible finds of hazel nut remains at native sites and forty-two more at Roman sites in Britain. (Tomlinson) Fruits and Vegetables- It is probable that the Celts would have taken advantage of the wealth of edible weeds, berries, nuts, fruits and fungi that 14 would have been available. Many are often quit pleasant. Jacqui Wood lists the use of nettle leaves, rock samphire, sow-thistles, Fat Hen seed and greens (wild spinach), wild celery, chickweed, ramsons, marsh thistle, bistort, burdock, early purple orchis, white water lily. She also lists the following salad vegetables: sheep’s sorrel, shepherd’s purse, dandelion, jack-by-the- hedge, bedstraw, yarrow, hawthorn leaves, beech leaves. To these salad greens, Wood recommends adding the following flowers to a wild salad: clover, chives, gorse, primrose, violet, heather, and elder. (Wood 141-154) Jane Renfrew adds the following local varieties as salad ingredients and include hairy bittercress, yellow rocket, ivy-leaved toadflax, lamb’s lettuce, sorrel, wood sorrel, wild basin, salad burnet (which has a strong flavor) and wild marjoram. (Prehistoric Cookery 68) Fat Hen is sometimes called melde and tasted a bit like spinach when it is eaten young. It is thought to be one of the main green vegetables in Britain up until the introduction of cabbage. According to Peter Firstbrook in his book, Surviving the Iron Age, volunteers who took part in a six week on site living history project produced by the BBC were given a unlimited supply of kale “which was a fair substitute” for Fat Hen. (Firstbrook 83) Wild mustard and charnock are similar in taste to cabbage and may have been eaten as a substitute. The ABCD list in addition, wild and domestic carrots, wild turnips and peas from prehistoric contexts as well as beats, asparagus and cucumbers from Roman sites in Britain. Onions and garlic were introduced into inland Europe from the Mediterranean basin as early as the third millennium B.C. (Kruta 35) and the later (allium ursinum) is included in the Buster Ancient Farms Project Trust. The project also lists asparagus, wild parsnip, and wild lettuce as native plants. The Roman and Romano-British settlements used cabbage, lettuce, endive, turnips, mallow, orache, corn salads, and Fat Hen (Renfrew 5). Edible roots could have been stored for winter and would have included dandelion, wild parsnip, wild carrot, yellow goatsbeard, sow thistle and silverweed. The tuberous roots of the pignut and the truffle have been regarded as delicacies while the roots of the couch grass were used as famine food. (Prehistoric Cookery 67) There are many wild fruits that would have been available for use by the British Celts such as blackberries, raspberries, cherries, hawthorn, brambles, sloes, crab apples, elderberries, dewberries, cloudberries, and wild strawberries in pre-Roman contexts in Britain documented on the Archaeobotanical Computer Database (ABCD). (Tomlison) Beechmast, haws, rowan berries, and cranberries and small-leaved lime have all been found on Prehistoric sites through out Europe. In England, on the submerged coast line of Walton-on-the Naze, Essex, was found to have a 15 number of seeds located in the stomach area of a beaker burial discovered there. They were of mainly blackberry, rosehip and the seeds of Atriplex. (Prehistoric Cookery 71-73) According to Jane Renfrew, sloes were popular in the diet of the villagers at Glastonbury lake village where one mound can produce nearly a ‘borrow-load’ of sloe pits. Dickson also adds Sloe, Bird- cherry, and cloudberry remains have all been identified the at Oakbank in Loch Tay, Scotland and dates from the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age or between 650-400 BC. Wild strawberries and raspberries would have ripened in July and August while Dog Rose, wild cherry, and brambles would have been harvested between August and September. These fruits probably were dried to use during the winter as suggested by the mixed remains of these obviously stored in one place. (Dickson 90) The crab apple has grown in Britain as early as Mesolithic times and excavations of lake villages in Switzerland and the surrounding countries has yielded evidence that Neolithic peoples halved and quartered crab apples which they then dried and stored for later use. Only recently have crab apple seeds been discovered in Scottish prehistoric sites, though the use of crab apples was evidently wide spread as remains have been from mainland Scotland, the Hebrides and Orkney. According to Jane Renfrew, crab apples may have been used to make cider and verjuice. Verjuice is very similar to vinegar and would have made a fair substitute for the Celts until the introduction of the vinegar by the Romans. It was made by placing the apples in a heap to sweat, discarding the stalks and any showing decay, and then mashed to extract the juice. The juice is then strained and stored for a month before it is ready to use. Crab apples can also be employed as a form of pectin to produce storable jellies from other fruits. The mixture needs to be first boiled and then simmered until mushy. Strain the fruit through a loose woven cloth like muslin to remove seeds and fibers and then add equal parts honey to the strained liquid. Boil rapidly and stir well until the setting point is reached (104 C or 220 F). The jelly can then be poured into containers preferable sterilized jars then covered with wax paper to cool at which time they can be tightly lidded and stored in a cool dry place. (Prehistoric Cookery 73) Grafting, a technique where a limb is cut and grafted on to another tree in order to bare that fruit, has been know at least as long as the Roman times if not earlier. (Dickson 247-248) A possible plum or bullace pit was found at Edinburgh Castle during its Romano-British occupation of 100-300 AD (Dickson 112) and ABCD lists wild and domestic plum remains from Roman contexts in Britain. (Tomlison) Adding to the consumption of the local wild fruits, the Romans are known to have imported figs into Britain. 16  The remains of figs pips have been found in the east annex ditch at Bearsden Fort along Antonine’s Wall in Scotland as well as a Roman officer’s latrine at Elginhaugh, just south of Antonine’s Wall in eastern Scotland. Figs seeds have also been identified at York in England (Dickson 118 and 123) and were imported into the large opidda of Hengistbury Head along the coast of Southern England. (The Celts 586) ABCD also includes fig remains from London, Silchester, Colchester, Lancaster, Carlisle, Nantwich in Cheshire, along with the following villas: Winterton in Humberside, Gorhambury in St Albans, Herts and Stonea in Cambridgeshire. ABCD lists at least sixteen recovered remains of figs from Roman contexts and one from a native site in Britain. ABCD lists one documented find of grape remains in a prehistoric context and 16 documented remains of grapes in Roman contexts in Britain along with one documented date recovered from a Romano-British site. (Tomlison) The ABCD listed Black Mulberry, wild plum, domestic plum, sour cherries, pears and one example of dates during the Roman period in Britain. Herbs, Spices, and Salt- Salt is often mentioned in conjunction with the preservation of meats and fish. Strabo lists salted pork as a dietary stable for the Celts in southern Britain and also comments on the large quantities of salted meats that were exported to Rome and other areas in Italy in his book Geographika IV. (The Celts 444) While there are no salt mines in southern Britain, the main oppidas along the coast probably acquired salt from the sea. There is well-documented evidence for this practice at a site on the Lizard peninsular in Cornwall. To manufacture salt, large ceramic trays were filled with salt water and suspended over a fire. As the water was boiled down more brine was added till the tray was filled with a remaining salt block. Once cool, these trays would be broken off the salt blocks. (Wood 119-20) Other locations for similar salt rendering activities have been found at Goldhanger and Cooling, Kent; Canewdon, Essex; Dymchurch, Sussex; and in the Fens and on the Lincolnshire coast while salt springs may have been used at Droitwich and Middlewich in Sheshire. (Renfrew 17) Salt was also gathered at the banks of salt marshes in Europe as the water evaporated and left crystallized salt for exportation, however the Celts in the milder and cooler climates of Britain would have found this practice difficult if not impossible. (Wood 119-20) The mainland also enjoyed salt mined from such areas as Hallstatt in Australia. The only real documentation we have to go by to better understand the use of herbs in the Celtic diet before the first millennium BC can be gathered from archaeological evidence such as carbonized and waterlogged seeds, 17 seed impressions on pottery and pollen analysis. We can assume to a further extent that while some indigenous plants do not show up in the archaeological database at the present moment, they were undoubtedly employed for consumption also. The Celts would have also enjoyed a wide variety of domesticated and wild herbs which they would have used to season foods. Jacqui Wood lists blackcurrant leaves, caraway, chervil, chives, the roots of herb bennet (are very similar to cloves), horehound (white), horseradish, juniper, meadowsweet, mint, mustard, bog myrtle, parsley piert (wild plant that is unrelated to garden parsley), poppy, sand leek, summer and winter savoury, sweet cicely, tansy, thyme, and wall pepper (pepper substitute) as available spices for the British Celts. (Wood 133-9) In addition to these herbs natives would have also enjoyed coriander, Jack-by-the-hedge (which produces and onion flavor from the new leaves and shoots), and lady’s smock, sorrel leaves (which have a vinegary taste), salad burnet (which taste rather like cucumber), and sweet Cecily (which have an aniseed flavor). Corn mint is similar to mint and water mint is rather like peppermint and all parts of tansy favor ginger, a spice the Romans would introduce later. (Prehistoric Cookery 69-70) Athenaeus also mentions the Gauls use cumin as a flavoring in drinks and to season fish. (Freeman 24-25) Buster Ancient Farms Project Trust lists the following herbs and spices as culinary, aromatic, or for tea and wine additives: Cotton lavender, lemon balm, borage, angelica, lovage, bay, Jerusalem sage, tarragon, bocket, pot marjoram, spearmint, Florence fennel, and caraway. Roman and Romano-British settlements, similar to their neighboring native tribes, are attributing to using alexanders, borage, chervil, coriander, dill, fennel, mint, thyme, garlic, leeks, onions, shallot, hyssop, rosemary, rue, sage, savory, sweet marjoram, and radishes as herbs. (Renfrew 5) Buster Ancient Farms Project Trust includes Roman imports and introductions of anise, cumin, dill, coriander, apple-scented mint, winter savory, garlic (allium sativum), garden thyme, common sage, French sorrel, curry plant, flower fennel, hyssop, summer savory, rue, purslane, and Roman wormwood. In Colchester, the remains of a Roman herb shop were found preserved, burned during the Boudicca rebellion in 60 A.D. The preserve herbs included dill, coriander, aniseed, celery seed and poppy seed. (Renfrew 23) Coriander and dill are not native to Britain but were probably imported from the Mediterranean countries where they grow well. They have been found in the east annex ditch of the Roman fort of Bearsden along with wild celery. ( Dickson 118) Opium poppy seeds have been found in small quantities in Scotland and other than their more obvious medicinal purpose, they may also have been sprinkled on top of bread as was the 18 Roman custom. (Dickson 118) ABCD shows that there are at least three Opium poppy finds from pre-Roman native sites along with possibly fourteen other finds located at Romano-British sites. (Tomlinson) There are few remains of mushrooms or fungi in the prehistoric record, but would have been eaten and dried and stored to be used at a later date. One know example, a number of mature puffballs, has been uncovered in the midden of the Neolithic village of Skara Brae on the west coast of mainland Orkney, Scotland and may have been discard because they were over ripe. (Prehistoric Cookery 70) There are around three thousand know species of fungi growing in the British Isles. Out of these only twenty are poisonous and only four are fatal. Some of the indigenous types include morels, chanterelles, shaggy ink caps, saffron milk caps, shaggy parasols, ceps, blewits, field mushrooms, puffballs, beefsteak and oyster fungus. Grains and Breads- The cultivation of cereal can be documented back to the Bronze Age in Britain about 3,500 years ago. As the Iron Age gave way to new methods and durable tools for crop production large areas of land begun to used for agricultural purposes. Carbonized grains has been found in archaeological excavitons through out northern Europe and include barley (Hordeum sp, vulgare), emmer wheat (T. dicoccum), einkorn wheat (T. monococcum), spelt wheat (T. spelta), Old Bread Wheat (Triticum Aesncum), Club Wheat (Triticum aestivocompacium), oats (Avens sp), rye (Secale cereale) and millet (Panicum milliaceum). These types of barley, spelt and emmer wheat have tight husks that often required heating the grains to remove them. On Neolithic British pottery grain impressions have been found at Abingdon causeway enclosure in Oxfordshire (Avery 1982 : 48) Modern bread wheat is smaller than its prehistoric counterpart, but the taste is very much the same. (Wood 67) The crop known almost everywhere was barley. Barley bran may have been used for making porridge. (The Celts 442) Grains were often kept, still in husks, in a storage pit. These pits were bell shaped with the smallest portion being at top. The grain that filled these pits was then possibly plugged up with a portion of clay, followed by a layer of turf to stop the clay from drying. Grain that was in contact with the edges of the pit would begin to germinate and as it did would use up the remaining oxygen and released carbon dioxide in the process. Thus it created a vacuum that could keep the grain for years without deteriorating. The Greek Historian Diodorus Siculus, speaking of the ancient Britons, supports this technique in his quote from book 5:22, “They dwell in mean cottages, 19 covered for the most part with reeds or sticks. In the reaping of their corn, they cut off the ears from the stalks, and so house them in repositories underground”. Dr. Reynolds at Buster Ancient Farm discovered that grain stored in this manner favored better than grain stored in modern granaries. (Wood 65) 'Storage pits can be distinguished from innumerable pits found all over protohistoric settlements by their characteristic shape. They are usually circular in plan and generally small, being only rarely more than 3m in diameter. The depth is usually equal to or greater than the maximum diameter. The opening was originally smaller in diameter than the maximum diameter of the pit. These characteristics stem from the need to have large a storage capacity as possible with the smallest possible opening, which usually seems to have been worked out so as to allow a man to get inside. A. Villes has observed that in Champagne in the La Tene period the average diameter of the aperture was 60-70 cm' (Audouze and Buchsenchutz 1991 : 129). The grain sprouts can be eaten early in germination or baked and turned to malt and this could have been added to water to produce a malt beverage. Once allowed to ferment, this beverage could easily become an alcoholic drink. Crisp dry sprouts were stored in a ceramic bowl sealed with a wooden stopper dipped into beeswax. (Wood 69) Grains would have been ground on a saddle quern, but a rotary quern often was the choice during the Iron Age. The spread of the more advanced rotary quern coincided with the development of the Scottish brochs. It appeared in the fourth or third century B.C. which was surprisingly early compared to its use in the Mediterranean which was much latter according to Barry Cunliffe. (Iron Age Britain 114) The saddle quern was constructed of an oblong stone with a flat upper surface which became concave with use as grain was ground between it and a second flat stone. The rotary quern consisted of two round stones, much like miniature mill wheels, but the upper stone was turned by hand. (Dickson 94-95) The upper stone on the rotary quern could be raised slightly to adjust the grind height to allow a 2- 3mm clearance. This would have been used to remove the husks from the grain. (Dickson 120) The Orcadians use to use a similar method producing something of a ‘pearl barley’ used in porridge or for thickening soup. The only difference in this method than the one noted by Dickson is that the warm water was poured into the mortar or ‘knocking stane’ to float off the husks of the grains. In the 19th century boiled cabbage and ‘knocked corn’ formed a substantial part of these islanders diets. (Prehistoric Cookery 85) Several other methods may have also been employed. Handfuls of grain could have been held over a fire long enough to burn the husks but leave the corn un-charred. It was then winnowed, ground and baked within the hour. 20 This method is similar to the preparation of ‘graddan’ in the Hebrides up to the 18th century and is similar to the manner that Oats were ‘burned in the sheaf’ in Ireland in the past. (Prehistoric Cookery 85) Another similar method of removing the husk of prehistoric grains may have been ‘burstin’ as it is called in the Orkney islands. This involves roasting the corn in a pot next to the fire and stirred until the husks were burnt completely off. The grain was then sorted removing any burnt kernels were then discarded to the burstin from having a bitter taste. The corn was then sieved and ground. Bread was one of the staples of Celtic life and is mentioned by many classical writers. “Phylarchus states in his sixth book that among the Celts it is customary to place on the tables many broken loaves along with meat straight from the cauldron.” (Freeman 24) Some very hard rock buns were found at Glastonbury Lake Village in Somerset, England dating from the first century B.C. This unleavened bread contained hulled barley, wheat, wild oat, chess and orache. Another rare example of bread was discovered at Lake Bienne in Switzerland and was dated to the Neolithic period. Unlike the other examples found at Glastonbury Lake Village, this bread was yeasted and made of finely-ground barley and wheat flours. Before this, it was widely assumed that prehistoric people did not have yeasted bread. (Wood 63) Similarly, the well preserved Iron age bog burial of Lindow man’ from Cheshire, England produced the remains of an unleavened ‘bannock’, or pan fried bread, made of wheat and barley when his stomach contents were examined. (Prehistoric Cookery 62-63) In ancient Egypt, half-baked bread was added to date juice and water before adding more flour to make more bread. This practice is still employed in Europe to produce sourdough bread where a little bread from each batch is taken and added to the next batch to keep certain yeasts alive. Fermenting beer and wine could be added to flour to produce leavened bread and Pliny commented on this very practice in Celtic France and Spain, “When the corn of Gaul and Spain of the kinds we have stated is steeped to make beer the foam that forms on the surface in the process is for leaven, in consequence of which those races have a lighter kind of bread than others.”(Wood 63) In the Feast of Bricriu, one of the items listed was “100 wheaten loaves baken in honey” suggesting that bread may have been submersed in honey while it cooked. Jacqui Wood provides a similar recipe for her cooking demonstrations at Cornwall Village with great results and states it makes wonderful dessert bread. (Wood 72) There is little evidence that suggests that the Iron Age Celts used ovens for baking. The knowledge for oven baking was known but does not seem to be popular during this period. Small ovens next to central hearths have been found at Neolithic sites in Orkney at Rinyo and the Links 21 of Notland. The Iron Age villages of Glastonbury and Meare only produced three ovens from the village as a whole, though every house did contain a central hearth. For this reason, these ovens may have been utilized for a different function. (Prehistoric Cookery 81) Baking may have been done on a flat stone or bakestone laid on or beside a fire or central hearth. Another Dutch oven like method may have been used by placing a inverted pot over the bread and placing hot embers over it. Emmer and einkorn wheat flour does not stretch well and so it tends to work better in flat bread. (Prehistoric Cookery 82) Other types of seeds and grains also would have been used or found there way into the Celtic diet. Linseeds and flax seeds may have been eaten along with many of the weeds that grew in the cornfields which were probably purposefully or incidentally harvested along with the crops and would have added additional flavor. In Denmark, the stomach contents of the Iron Age bog burial of Tullund man, dating from the time of Christ, were examined and yielded an interesting menagerie of plant materials which included a number of seeds and corns. This gruel was prepared from barley, linseed, ‘gold-of pleasure’, and large amounts of knotweed. Other possibly incidental traces included blue and green bristle-grass, dock, black bindweed, and chamomile.(Glob 33) Just two years after the discovery of Tullund man, another bog burial, dating between 210 and 410 AD, was unearthed. Grauballe man’s stomach contents were also examined and yielded a no less startling discovery. More than sixty-three different varieties of seeds and grains were represented in Grauballe man’s last meal of gruel and included clover, spelt rye, Yorkshire fog, rye-grass, goosefoot, buttercup, lady’s mantle, black nightshade, yarrow, wild chamomile, and smooth hawksbeard. (Glob 56-57) A similar Iron Age gruel was reproduced in 1954 and served during an English television program to two well known archaeologists from the time, Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Dr Glyn Daniel. In response to the taste Sir Mortimer replied that it was punishment enough for the Tollund man to have been compelled to eat the gruel for the remainder of his life, however terrible his crime may have been as he washed down the taste with a glass of good Danish brandy drunk from a cow horn. (Glob34) Wine, Mead, Beer and other Drinks- The cycle of yeast was not unlike the other cycles that so ritualistically defined the Celtic day. “If a new wine were set to ferment after each festival, it would be ready in time for the next, three months later.” (Wood 155) The start of the Celtic New Year also marks the ripening 22 of the elderberry, which is one of the richest natural sources of wild yeast in northern Europe. (Wood 155) This yeast, from the fermented berries, can be used as a wine, beer, or yeasted bread starter. Common ingredients in Celtic beer could have included spruce, nettle, dandelion, and barley. A drink made of bog myrtle, emmer wheat, cranberries and honey was found in a birch bark container in a Bronze Age barrow at Egtved in Denmark. Also, from a 50 A.D. Danish burial on the Island of Lolland, a bronze pail was found which contained the residue of cranberries, barley and myrtle. (Wood 137) Another example, radiocarbon dated from a transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (dated the mid-16th century B.C.), was found in a beaker at North Mains, Strathallan. It accompanied a 25 year old woman in a cist burial. Pollen analysis exposed the organic deposit at the bottom of the beaker to be a cereal-based drink flavored with meadowsweet. (Dineley) Athenaeus states, “The poorer people drink a type of beer called corma, which is sometimes flavored with honey. They pass around a common cup taking small but frequent drinks. The cup is passed to the right, not the left, and by turning to the right in this way they honor their gods.” (Freeman 25) Corma is probably a beer brewed from barley and the word ‘beer’ actually takes its name from baere, the Old English for just that. Beer was often avoided by the more ‘civilized’ people of the Greek and Roman cultures who preferred to drink wine, often watered. Beer was associated with the ‘Great Unwashed’ in the non-Mediterranean countries and their prejudices for such individuals who indulged in beer could be summed up in the Latin epithet sabirarius, or beerswiller. (Arnold) Indeed, the Mediterranean peoples may have had good reason to dislike beer as prehistoric versions often could have been pre-paired as sweet, un-hopped gruels that had to be consumed through a straw to extract the brew from the barley pulp. Strabo, a Roman historian from the first century AD records in volume 2:75 of Geographica, “They also drink beer: but they are scarce of wine, and what wine they have made they speedily drink up in merry feasting with their kinsfolk”. Wine is a well-noted favorite of the Celts. “‘Being inordinately found of wine they gulp down what the merchants bring them quite undiluted,’ wrote Diodorus, ‘Many Italian merchants, prompted by their usual cupidity, consequently regard the Gauls’ taste for wine as a godsend. They take the wine to them by ship up the navigable rivers or overland by cart and it fetches incredible prices: for one amphora of wine they receive one slave, thus exchanging the drink for the cup bearer.’” (The Celts 585) Athenaeus adds to this stating, “The wealthy drink wine imported from Italy or the Greek colony of Massalia. This wine is usually, but not always, un- 23 watered.” (Freeman 25) Wine was traded from mainland Gaul to oppidas in Southern England where it would have had a short distance to travel by sea. Archaeological evidence for this trade is plentiful with amphorae laden wrecks found through out the French coast and the distribution of amphorae vessel finds are concentrated along the principal French rivers. (The Celts 584) Wine trade along the Atlantic coast seems to have declined after Caesar’s invasion of Gaul in the 50s of the first century B.C. Amphorae, now even more valuable, seem to be monopolized along the Southern oppidas whose elite kept it to them selves. Interesting enough, the earliest written plant name in Scottish history consists of ‘PACI[OV]’ written on a buff amphora found at the Roman fortress of Carpow on the south side of the Firth of Tay. This spells out the Greek word for White Horehound which was used as a wine flavoring as specified in a recipe by Dioscorides. (Dickson 125) The Celts would have made wines out of, but not limited to, Elderberries, birch sap, rosehips, heather, blackberries and raspberries, and barley. (Wood 156-163) Diodorus Siculus, a Greek writing during the first- century B.C., states, “The cold climate of Gaul prevents the growing of grapes for wine or olives for oil. Since the Gauls are deprived of these fruits, they make a drink brewed from barley called zythos. They also make a drink from the washings of honeycombs.” Honey was the only true form of sweetener used in prehistoric times. We can trace back bee domestication to at least the Bronze Age during the rise of metal casting using the lost wax method. Wax was also important to seal up containers of jelly, verjuice, ale and mead. It was also a popular seasoning when mixed with salt and used on roast meat and fish in Ireland. (Prehistoric Cookery 74) Undoubtedly one of its most important uses was in the production of mead or metheglin, as it is known when mixed with another fruit or juice. Any honey, if left for a period of time, will eventually ferment and honey when mixed with water and left to ferment will produce mead. The natural yeast in many fruits would have furthered this process. Pots with perforated bases have been discovered at several Iron Age sites and could have been possibly used as honey strainers to remove the wax. Such examples have come from Glastonbury Lake village and all Cannings Cross, in England. (Prehistoric Cooking 76) One of the earliest examples of mead comes from a Bronze Age burial at Ashgrove in Fife, Scotland which dates from 1000 B.C. It was produced from two types of honey and pollen analysis revealed large amounts of immature lime pollen and meadowsweet. It is suggested that the mead was produced in part, from lime honey and meadowsweet for taste. (Arnold and Dineley) Interesting enough, limes do 24 not appear to have grown any closer than the English Lake District and so it would seem that either the honey or the mead must have been transported quit a distance. Bryan Action and Peter Duncan mention in there book Making Mead: Metheglin, Hippocras, Melomel, Pyement, Cyser that the Celts were known to have not only brewed mead, but also a form of metheglin by adding the juice of the hazel tree. (Action 7) The Hochdorf burial, from 550 BC south-west Germany, also contained 600 pints of mead which had become a dark black cake in the bottom of the large krater in which it was stored. While hops were known in Europe from prehistoric times, they were not introduced into England till the 16th century; however any tea can be fermented into wine. Teas can be made from anything pleasant to taste and edible. Celtic teas could have included mint, elderflower, heather flowers, wild strawberry leaves, bilberry leaves, or any fruit steeped in boiling water. (Wood 164-5) Other drinks or tisnes can be made from the dried flowers of lime, elder, chamomile or woodruff, and the fresh flowers of gorse and mint leaves. (Prehistoric Cookery 70) Sorrel flowers can be brewed into a drink or tea. Indigenous to Britain, it is also listed under Buster Ancient Farm’s Project Trust list of Celtic plants. It is still used today. Burdock and dandelions are still made into a well-known children’s drink in Britain. The dandelion roots by itself are commonly made into a coffee substitute when roasted. (Wood 150) Chicory also is listed as one of the plants grown in the Buster Ancient Farm Project Trust paper and is kept in the ‘culinary, aromatics, tea and wine’ bed. Chicory produces a coffee like drink and is often served today as a coffee substitute or in a coffee blend. Imported Foods- Food and goods imported from the main land into Britain were valued commodities at both the Roman forts and British-Romano towns. Letters from Roman soldiers stationed at Hadrian’s Wall list their foods as “’Spice, goats’ milk, salt, young pig, ham, corn, venison, flour, Celtic beer, ordinary wine, fish sauce, and pork fat’”. (Renfrew 5) Strabo was impressed by the degree of Romanization found in Britain and remarked that friendly chieftains sent embassies to Augustus who paid him court: “’ not only have they dedicated offerings in the Capitolium, they have also managed to make the whole island virtually Roman.’” (The Celts 587-8) While Strabo is speaking only upon his knowledge of a small region of the island, we do know from archaeological evidence that there was a strong acquired native taste for imported wine, oil and fish sauce. The Romans are credited for the introduction of the cultivation of vines (grapes), figs, walnuts, medlar, mulberry and sweet chestnut, though some of these have 25 little physical evidence to support this claim. The evidence that figs have been cultivated in Britain can only be accredited to as early as the 1400’s A.D., though they have been imported at a much earlier date. Figs were a regular part of the military diet through out the Roman Empire where they would have been imported dried from the Mediterranean countries. Their high sugar content would have kept them preserved as long as they were not wetted. The first fig seeds found in Scotland are those from the Bersden fort located along Antonine’s Wall and also from the Agricolan fort at Elginhaugh. (Dickson 250-252) Cunliffe also notes that figs were being imported into Hengistbury Head in Dorset, England before the Roman occupation. (The Celts. 586) The Romans also imported dates, almonds, olives, wine, oil, pinecones and kernels, fermented fish sauce, pepper, ginger, and cinnamon. (Renfrew 6) Olives arise in the ABCD five times from Roman Contexts while stone pine finds number six from this same period. *Special thanks to the unlimited research of Jacqui Wood of Cornwall Village and the late Dr. Peter Renyolds of Buster Farm (in addition to David Freeman who supplied me with Dr. Renyolds work). 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