Bone analyses tell about kitchen utensils in the Middle Ages

[FfFfFfFF 58,083]

 At first thought, you would not expect hundreds of years old bones from a medieval cemetery to be able to tell you very much -- let alone anything about what kinds of kitchen utensils were used to prepare food.

The research team has analyzed bones from 553 skeletons that are between 1200 and 200 years old. They all come from nine, now abandoned cemeteries in Jutland, Denmark and Northern Germany. The skeletons are today kept at Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig, Germany and at the University of Southern Denmark.

High concentrations of copper have been now revealed to have been ingested by our predecessors in the Viking Age and the Medieval Times. Much of this copper must have come from the kitchen utensils with which the daily meals were prepared, the researchers believe.

However, they can with certainty say that some people never ingested copper enough for it to be traceable in the bones. Instead, they ate food prepared in pots made of other materials.

These people lived in the countryside. The bones reveal that inhabitants in the small villages of Tirup and Nybøl did not prepare their food in copper pots.

But how do these findings go with historical accounts and pictures of copper cookware used in in country kitchens? 

"A copper pot in a country kitchen may have been so unusual that the owner would tell everybody about it and maybe even write it down. However, such an account should not lead to the conclusion that copper cookware was commonly used in the countryside. Our analyses show the opposite," says Kaare Lund Rasmussen.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200319125212.htm

[PunkTheFunk 125,703]

It's really amazing how scientists figure out this stuff. 

[Woolfsmck 2,763]

So copper pots mean you eat extra copper in you food that you cook?

 

Good to know...

 

I wonder what teflon pots do?

 

Cure constipation?

[Economy 52,842]

3 hours ago, PunkTheFunk said:

It's really amazing how scientists figure out this stuff. 

Scientists are exeltremely intelligent and clever but i also take certain details with a grain of salt

 

A lot of stuff required hypothesis and coming up with explanations and filling in the gaps with stuff that makes sense but sometimes it's wrong and we have to re-evaluate when more evidence comes out

 

I'm obsessed with space (have been since I was like 7, I guess that explains my sci-fi obsession) and over the years a lot of theories change

 

[Economy 52,842]

2 hours ago, Woolfsmck said:

So copper pots mean you eat extra copper in you food that you cook?

 

Good to know...

 

I wonder what teflon pots do?

 

Cure constipation?

Fortunately our bodies are not negatively affected by copper in fact I assume in tiny traces we use it because a bone mineral supplement I take includes copper in Extremely small dosages