Diet of 17th century Danes

Angela

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What scientists go through to get information! :)

See:
https://www.archaeology.org/news/6736-180620-denmark-copenhagen-latrines

"reports that two latrines made from partially buried wine barrels were found under a road that cut through the center of Copenhagen in the late seventeenth century. The latrines were originally placed in a garden. Mette Marie Hald of Denmark’s National Museum analyzed the excrement in the barrels, and found the residents enjoyed a diet of barley, oats, wild cherries, coriander, turnips, lettuce, hops, and mustard, in addition to herring, eels, and pork. Most of the recovered bone fragments were too degraded to identify, however. Some of the foods eaten by the Danes had been imported, such as figs, grapes, bitter orange, and lemons from the Mediterranean, buckwheat husks from the Netherlands, and cloves from Indonesia. Hald and her colleagues also detected the presence of roundworms, whipworms, and a tapeworm. The scientists concluded that Denmark’s Renaissance-era residents ate well, but poor hygienic conditions led to parasitic infestations."

Unfortunately, that was probably the case all over Europe.

Surprising they didn't eat a lot of beef?
 
Not bad, I would like most of their food. Herring, eel, pork, wild cherries and buckwheat. :)
 
What scientists go through to get information! :)

See:
https://www.archaeology.org/news/6736-180620-denmark-copenhagen-latrines

"reports that two latrines made from partially buried wine barrels were found under a road that cut through the center of Copenhagen in the late seventeenth century. The latrines were originally placed in a garden. Mette Marie Hald of Denmark’s National Museum analyzed the excrement in the barrels, and found the residents enjoyed a diet of barley, oats, wild cherries, coriander, turnips, lettuce, hops, and mustard, in addition to herring, eels, and pork. Most of the recovered bone fragments were too degraded to identify, however. Some of the foods eaten by the Danes had been imported, such as figs, grapes, bitter orange, and lemons from the Mediterranean, buckwheat husks from the Netherlands, and cloves from Indonesia. Hald and her colleagues also detected the presence of roundworms, whipworms, and a tapeworm. The scientists concluded that Denmark’s Renaissance-era residents ate well, but poor hygienic conditions led to parasitic infestations."

Unfortunately, that was probably the case all over Europe.

Surprising they didn't eat a lot of beef?

I think this must be an elite part of Copenhagen and obvious close connected to the Dutch trade network ...I see if I can find info about the meals of the rich merchants in Amsterdam at that time....


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Very interesting video. The sea trade in that time was a very important basis for the economical development in the 19th century. A reason why the Austrian Empire was so much behind Germany and other Western nations like France and the UK. The ports in the Adria did not really matter, and the Danube river flew into the wrong direction for effective trade (to export into rich Western nations).
 

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