Anglo-Saxon kings were generally vegetarian, bioarchaeology shows

April 28, 2022

Very few people in England ate large amounts of meat before the Vikings settled, and there is no evidence that elites ate more meat than other people, a major new bioarchaeological study suggests.

Its sister study also argues that peasants occasionally hosted lavish meat feasts for their rulers.

The findings overturn major assumptions about early medieval English history.

[..] The researchers studied ten other comparable food lists from southern England and discovered a pattern: a modest amount of bread, a huge amount of meat, a decent but not excessive quantity of ale, and no mention of vegetables (although some probably were served).

“The scale and proportions of food lists strongly suggests that they were provisions for occasional grand feasts, and not general food supplies sustaining royal households on a daily basis. These were not blueprints for everyday elite diets as historians have assumed.”

Dr. Leggett had analyzed chemical signatures of diets preserved in the bones of 2,023 people buried in England from the 5th—to 11th centuries. She then cross-referenced these isotopic findings with evidence for social statuses such as grave goods, body position, and grave orientation. Leggett’s research revealed no correlation between social status and high protein diets.

Leggett says: “I’ve found no evidence of people eating anything like this much animal protein on a regular basis. If they were, we would find isotopic evidence of excess protein and signs of diseases like gout from the bones. But we’re just not finding that.”

“The isotopic evidence suggests that diets in this period were much more similar across social groups than we’ve been led to believe. We should imagine a wide range of people livening up bread with small quantities of meat and cheese, or eating pottages of leeks and whole grains with a little meat thrown in.”

The researchers believe that even royals would have eaten a cereal-based diet and that these occasional feasts would have been a treat for them too.