The impact of food culture in Medieval towns (FOODIMPACT)

• Vedeler, Marianne & Simonsen, Margrete Figenschou (2024). CISTERCIAN FOOD CULTURE ON HOVEDØYA, AN ISLAND IN THE OSLO FJORD. In Vedeler, Marianne & Bugge, Annechen Bahr (Ed.), Culinary Heritage. Tracing, shaping and reshaping food culture from the Middle Ages to the present. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202867980. p. 35–64. doi: 10.23865/cdf.238. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In this article, we present the results from an archaeological survey on a Cistercian monastery on Hovedøya outside Oslo, seen in the light of the Cistercians’ rules and guidelines for diet and self-sufficiency. Food remains, in addition to preserved letters of land transactions and toll rolls, can shed new light on the monastery`s strategies to meet both the demands of self-sufficiency and the order’s strict regulations regarding nutrition, discipline, and self-control. According to their rules and international instructions, the Cistercian diet should primarily consist of vegetables, fish, and bread, with an increasing focus on fish from the late thirteenth century onwards. How did they manage in one of the order’s northernmost outposts? In the ongoing discussion about sustainability and food safety, knowledge of how the medieval Cistercians took advantage of the local opportunities that were given them may add a new perspective.

• Vedeler, Marianne & Bugge, Annechen Bahr (2024). Introduction. In Vedeler, Marianne & Bugge, Annechen Bahr (Ed.), Culinary Heritage. Tracing, shaping and reshaping food culture from the Middle Ages to the present. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202867980. p. 6–13. doi: 10.23865/cdf.238. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  lthough interest in food history has increased in recent years, it is still an under-researched, under-used and under-communicated field. This book’s ambition is to contribute new and valuable knowledge to the field of food history, as well as to inspire more research in it. The conference “Tracing, shaping, reshaping Culinary Heritage” was held in the University of Oslo’s Botanical Garden at Tøyen in Oslo in September 2022. The overall theme was to investigate and illuminate how food history can help us understand our past, present and future society. At the conference scholars from the disciplines of sociology, archaeology, anthropology and history, in addition to representatives of the value chain in food production, provided new knowledge about local food cultures of the past. At the same time, the food value chain is focusing on the creative use of past food culture and on taking food heritage into the future. In this way, we connected the history of food to the past, the present and the future. This perspective is also reflected in the contributions presented in this book

• Vedeler, Marianne & Naumann, Elise (2024). Mat og helse i middelalderbyen. In Bauer, Egil Lindhart; Eriksen, Stefka G.; Hegdal, Håvard; Stige, Morten & Berge, Sara Langvik (Ed.), Det gamle Oslo 1000–1624. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202738464. p. 240–255. doi: 10.23865/cdf.239. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I 1624 brant Oslo. Den nye byen Christiania ble etablert på andre siden av Bjørvika, nedenfor Akershus festning, og de nedbrente restene av Oslo ble jevnet med jorden. Området ble tatt i bruk til landbruk, og slik forsvant det gamle Oslo gradvis fra syn og sinn. Først med de store gravearbeidene for jernbanen fra slutten av 1800-tallet dukket restene av hus, kirker og borger igjen opp fra glemselen. De siste årene, med byggingen av Follobanen og utviklingen av Bjørvika-området, har arkeologiske utgravninger avdekket omfattende spor av middelalderens by og havn. Gjennom bidrag fra arkeologer, historikere, kunsthistorikere, bygnings-, religions-, tekst- og stedsnavnforskere, latinister og runologer, samler denne boka ny forskning og nye resultater fra disse utgravningene. Selv om mange sider av byens historie for alltid vil være tapt for oss, er kunnskapen om det gamle Oslo større enn noen gang.

• Norseng, Per G & Fuglevik, Lars Morten (2024). Handel i en oppebørselsøkonomi. In Bauer, Egil Lindhart; Eriksen, Stefka G.; Hegdal, Håvard; Stige, Morten & Berge, Sara Langvik (Ed.), Det gamle Oslo 1000–1624. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202738464. p. 108–121. doi: 10.23865/cdf.239. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  I 1624 brant Oslo. Den nye byen Christiania ble etablert på andre siden av Bjørvika, nedenfor Akershus festning, og de nedbrente restene av Oslo ble jevnet med jorden. Området ble tatt i bruk til landbruk, og slik forsvant det gamle Oslo gradvis fra syn og sinn. Først med de store gravearbeidene for jernbanen fra slutten av 1800-tallet dukket restene av hus, kirker og borger igjen opp fra glemselen. De siste årene, med byggingen av Follobanen og utviklingen av Bjørvika-området, har arkeologiske utgravninger avdekket omfattende spor av middelalderens by og havn. Gjennom bidrag fra arkeologer, historikere, kunsthistorikere, bygnings-, religions-, tekst- og stedsnavnforskere, latinister og runologer, samler denne boka ny forskning og nye resultater fra disse utgravningene. Selv om mange sider av byens historie for alltid vil være tapt for oss, er kunnskapen om det gamle Oslo større enn noen gang.

• Aniceti, Veronica; Vedeler, Marianne & Hufthammer, Anne Karin (2024). Time for a change? Investigating shifts in agricultural economies and food in southern‑central Norway (11th ‑16th c. AD). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. ISSN 1866-9557. 16(9). doi: 10.1007/s12520-024-02039-9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Abstract Cattle and, to a lesser extent, sheep/goat and pigs, were crucial components of Norway’s socio-cultural and economic dynam- ics in the Middle Ages. Zooarchaeological analyses of faunal samples from different urban sites reveal that changes in cattle husbandry practices occurred in Norway over the medieval period, and especially in its early phases. This is clearly demon- strated in the case of medieval Oslo, where an in-depth zooarchaeological study provides the first comprehensive review of cattle husbandry strategies. In the first centuries of the medieval period (11th -mid 12th c. AD), cattle were mainly raised for milk and meat production, while fewer young and more numerous older individuals, most of which probably oxen, were present from mid 12th -13th c. AD onwards. This hypothesis is supported by biometrical analyses of cattle postcranial bones, indicating changes in the sexual composition of cattle herds over time. Therefore, from ca. mid 12th -13th c. AD onward, cattle seem to have been more used for ploughing and, only once old, to have been culled for their meat. In turn, this evidence suggests that more arable lands had to be ploughed, especially in eastern and central Norway. Here, demographic growth and settlement expansion would have led to an increase in food demand; at the same time, more favourable climatic condi- tions might have contributed to an increase in the availability of arable fields. This article suggests that medieval Norwegian farming was not static as historically thought, but rather connected to wider-scale agricultural innovations characterising other parts of medieval Europe.

• Garcia, Lourdes Martinez; Cuevas, Angelica; Ferrari, Giada; Hufthammer, Anne Karin; Vedeler, Marianne & Hirons, Alex [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2024). Tracing 600 years of long-distance Atlantic cod trade in medieval and post-medieval Oslo using stable isotopes and ancient DNA. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. ISSN 0962-8452. 291(2035). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.2019. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Marine resources have been important for the survival and economic development of coastal human communities across northern Europe for millennia. Knowledge of the origin of such historic resources can provide key insights into fishing practices and the spatial extent of trade networks. Here, we combine ancient DNA and stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N, non-exchangeable δ2H and δ34S) to investigate the geographical origin of archaeological cod remains in Oslo from the eleventh to seventeenth centuries CE. Our findings provide genetic evidence that Atlantic cod was obtained from different geographical populations, including a variety of distant-water populations like northern Norway and possibly Iceland. Evidence for such long-distance cod trade is already observed from the eleventh century, contrasting with archaeological and historical evidence from Britain and other areas of Continental Europe around the North and Baltic Seas, where such trade increased during the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries. The genomic assignments of specimens to different populations coincide with significantly different δ13C values between those same specimens, indicating that multiple Atlantic cod populations living in different environments were exploited. This research provides novel information about the exploitation timeline of specific Atlantic cod stocks and highlights the utility of combining ancient DNA (aDNA) methods and stable isotope analysis to describe the development of medieval and post-medieval marine fisheries.

• Norseng, Per G (2024). The use and production of salt in Eastern Norway to ca. AD 1600. In Vedeler, Marianne & Bugge, Annechen Bahr (Ed.), Culinary Heritage. Tracing, shaping and reshaping food culture from the Middle Ages to the present. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISSN 9788202867980. p. 66–92. doi: 10.23865/cdf.238. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The paper discusses the economic significance of the production of marine salt and the use of salt for the preservation of foods in Norway from the Viking Age to ca. 1600, with a focus on sources from the Oslo fjord area. It contests a commonly held belief that because of limited access to salt and the poor quality of domestically produced salt in medieval Norway, apart from being fed to livestock, it was mainly used to add flavour to foods, and only to a very limited extent as a preservative. By piecing together evidence from saga literature, legal texts, cadasters and other documentary sources, as well as archaeological finds from excavations in Oslo, the paper argues that in all probability the scope of the salt extraction and the economic impact of salt, especially for preservation of fish, has been greatly underestimated, at least for the High and Late Middle Ages. Access to salt was evidently of great importance for the manorial economies of king, lay aristocracy and clergy, and probably also for the urban population at large. It is also suggested that the use of salt in seasonal fisheries may go back to the Viking Age.

• Vedeler, Marianne & Garnier, Nicolas (2024). Fish, Wine and Fruit Juice in Medieval Soapstone Cooking. Food & History. ISSN 1780-3187. 22(1), p. 33–66. doi: 10.1484/J.FOOD.5.137473. Full text in Research Archive
• Garnier, Nicolas & Vedeler, Marianne (2021). Revealing Medieval culinary practices in Norway: A first metabolomic-based approach. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. ISSN 2352-409X. 40. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103206. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The last technological developments in chemical analysis with high resolution-mass spectrometry allow a more precise, secure, sensitive, and accurate detection of markers preserved in archaeological vessels, even as trace or ultratrace level. We develop a new metabolomic-based approach and applied on a series of 19 soapstone vessels from Medieval Norway. The very nature of the ancient materials contained in the vessels could be identified from the fatty acids, sterols, phenolics composition. Aquatic resources, identified from their fatty acid composition and specially isoprenoid acids, isomeric 22:1 acids, and their heat-degraded markers ω -(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids, have largely been exploited during Medieval times. The metabolomic approach brings also in light the consummation of fruit derivatives, especially grape, apple, and plum derivatives identified from their aldaric, phenolic or suggested from their enterolignans. This pioneer method clearly open new research facilities for the comprehension of everyday life of ancient populations from their domestic vessels.

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• Vedeler, Marianne & Bugge, Annechen Bahr (2024). Culinary Heritage. Tracing, shaping and reshaping food culture from the Middle Ages to the present. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. ISBN 9788202867980. 266 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2023). Middelalderens kjøkken. Oppskrifter og historiene bak dem. Spartacus. ISBN 9788243014886. 223 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Simonsen, Margrete Figenschou (2024). Medieval Fish and Fish Farming – An example from the Cistercians in Norway. Full text in Research Archive
• Simonsen, Margrete Figenschou & Vedeler, Marianne (2024). Undersøkelse av Holmetjønnslægeret, en hustuft fra vikingtid og middelalder i Nore og Uvdal kommune. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2023). Piknik med middelaldermat. [Radio]. NRK p2 EKKO. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  https://radio.nrk.no/serie/ekko/MDFP02013223

• Vedeler, Marianne (2023). Oppdrettsfisk og langpepper på middelalderens kjøkken. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2023). Mat for Gud og djevelen. Mat drikke og lov i middelalderen. Full text in Research Archive
• Simonsen, Margrete Figenschou (2022). Pre-industral Aquaculture and the taste of Fish. Full text in Research Archive
• Fuglevik, Lars Morten (2022). Trade, Power and the Development of Urban Food Culture in High Medieval Oslo: A Study of Medieval Pottery and Food Culture 1100-1350. Full text in Research Archive
• Fuglevik, Lars Morten (2022). There is no past, and it is always with us. The conceptualized past as a fantasy product and source of contemporary “character generation”. Full text in Research Archive
• Kool, Anneleen; Teixidor-Toneu, Irene & Kjesrud, Karoline (2022). Angelica archangelica: from Viking vegetable to Nordic delicacy - On safeguarding traditional knowledge in botanic gardens. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2022). Middelaldermat i bygd og by. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2022). Munkene måtte være stille mens de spiste. Da fant de opp et tegnspråk. [Journal]. Forskning.no. Full text in Research Archive
• Kool, Anneleen (2022). Planter i middelalderens Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2021). Kreative munker. [Radio]. NRK EKKO. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2021). Leter etter matrester fra middelalderen. [TV]. NRK Distriktsnyheter Oslo og Viken. Full text in Research Archive
• Kool, Anneleen; Vedeler, Marianne & Kjesrud, Karoline (2021). Webinar Medieval Food Plants. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A number of food plants in form of seeds as well as pollen are detected through archaeological excavations in medieval towns in Norway. These are in part species other than those mentioned in the recipe books that are preserved from the same period. How should we interpret these discrepancies? Food plants in iconographic sources is another valuable resource. How can we develop new research and public outreach based on all these sources? Welcome to an informal webinar where these questions will be discussed. All participants are welcome to contribute to the discussion during the meeting. We will meet online on Friday the 9th of April from 9 – 10:30. Bring your own coffee, or other botanically inspired beverage. Program: - Introduction to published foodplants and ingrediences in medieval cook books (Marianne Vedeler) - Cultivation and use of a selection of plants from the sources (Anneleen Kool) - Food plants in iconographic sources (Karoline Kjesrud)

• Vedeler, Marianne (2021). Politikk i spisesalen. Klassekampen. ISSN 0805-3839. Full text in Research Archive
• Blakeney, Rebecca Angelica & Vedeler, Marianne (2021). Distriktsnyheter Oslo og Viken (18. okt. 2021 kl. 19:45). Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2020). Urban dyrking i middelalderen. Klassekampen. ISSN 0805-3839. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2020). Vin i middelalderen. Klassekampen. ISSN 0805-3839. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2020). Matkultur i middelalderbyene. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2020). Brød til folket! Klassekampen. ISSN 0805-3839. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2020). Kongenes høyfjellshotell. Klassekampen. ISSN 0805-3839. Full text in Research Archive
• Vedeler, Marianne (2019). Hva spiste folk i middelalderen? Norgeshistorie.no. Full text in Research Archive
• Fuglevik, Lars Morten (2024). An Archaeology of Consuming Passions: Household Pottery and Urban Commensal Strategies in Early and High Medieval Oslo. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive

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