Food Consumption in Roman Britain: Diversity and Change

该项目旨在分析罗马时期（公元前200年）生活在英国的人们的饮食。公元43- 410年）。这一时期代表了英国的重大变化：罗马征服导致了军事定居点，城镇，复杂的道路系统，专业工艺生产，市场，长途贸易和新的社会阶层的出现。在食品方面，它带来了新的消费者（不参与农业生产的人）和新的食品，如葡萄，无花果，橄榄，桃子，杏仁，香菜，黄瓜和黑胡椒，从地中海地区和更远的地方引进。这些新的发展带来了什么影响？这是一个饮食多样化和变化的时期吗？新进口的食品是否取代了传统食品，还是传统食品只为某些人口群体所消费？新的消费者在饮食方面是否与农村社区有所区别？由于许多新食品最初都很昂贵，难以获得，因此只有精英阶层才能获得，它们在整个时期都是独家食品，还是它们的地位随着时间的推移而改变？有没有任何一种变得普遍，甚至在当地种植？该项目涉及分析从英国罗马时期发掘的植物性食物遗骸，包括c。发布了550份报告。目标是写三篇研究论文，为非专业观众综合和解释现有的证据。一个将代表在英国饮食的变化在这一时期的整体综合，评估影响食物的选择和评估的程度，食物有助于创建或增强文化身份的文化和环境因素。第二篇论文将着重于外来食物的传播历史，并评估获得这些食物的差异程度。第三部分将评估目前可用于本研究的数据的质量，并强调未来的研究和方法学需求。食物对所有人类社会来说既是生物需求也是社会需求，我们当前饮食的根源就位于历史中。这项研究将推进我们对新石器时代以来英国饮食第一个重大变化时期的理解。此外，由于食物既是社会身份的体现，也是创造、维持和加强社会身份和关系的工具，这项研究也将增加我们对罗马-英国社会的了解。

This project aims to analyse the diet of people living in Britain during the Roman period (c. AD 43- 410). This period represents a time of major change in Britain: the Roman conquest resulted in the creation of military settlements, towns, a complex road system, specialised craft production, markets, long-distance trade, and the emergence of new social classes. In terms of food, it brought new consumers (people not involved in agricultural production), and new foods, such as grapes, figs, olives, peach, almond, coriander, cucumber, and black pepper, introduced from the Mediterranean region and beyond. What effect did these new developments have? Was this a period of major diversification and change in diet? Do the newly imported foods replace the traditional ones, or do the latter become consumed exclusively by certain groups of the population? Do the new consumers distinguish themselves from the rural community in terms of diet? Since many of the new foods were initially expensive, difficult to obtain and consequently only available to the elite, did they remain exclusive foods throughout the period or did their status change over time? Did any become commonly available and even locally cultivated?The project concerns the analysis of the botanical food remains recovered from Roman period excavations in Britain, consisting of c. 550 published reports. The objective is to write three research papers, synthesizing and interpreting the available evidence for a non-specialist audience. One will represent an overall synthesis of the changes in the British diet over this period, evaluating both cultural and environmental factors influencing the choice of food and assessing the degree to which food helped create or enhance cultural identities. The second paper will focus on the dispersal histories of the exotic foods brought in and assess the degree of differential access to these foods. The third will evaluate the quality of the data currently available for this study, and highlight future research and methodological needs.Food is both a biological and social need for all human societies, and the roots of our current diet are located in history. This research will advance our understanding of the first major period of change in the British diet since the Neolithic. Moreover, as food is both a manifestation of social identity and a tool with which social identities and relations are created, maintained and enhanced, this study will also add to our knowledge of Romano-British society.