The Cold Table: Mesolithic

Friday, October 23, 2015

Mesolithic Snack Food

Hazelnuts (image from Wikimedia Commons)

From the BBC News website comes this article about a recent find of a large quantity of charred hazelnut shells on the Isle of Skye near Staffin Bay. This is interesting because the find is approximately 8,000 years old.

The article is headlined "Hazelnut Shells Found at Skye Mesolithic Site," and the write-up characterizes hazelnuts as the "snack food" of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. The dig was conducted by the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) along with the Staffin Community Trust, and school children and volunteers also worked on the dig. The UHI team found so much material in the dig that they cannot analyze it all on their budget, but are hoping to find additional funds to complete the job.

What I love about archaeology is its ability to show us what foods were eaten thousands of years ago. Hazelnuts are not commonly eaten here in the US, but I need to shop for some now that I know that they were commonly eaten, at least in Britain, during the Stone Age.

Mission Statement

Welcome to "The Cold Table" (formerly called "Table Scraps" and, less recently, "Food Through Time")! This is a blog about the history of food worldwide. It's about the origins of foodstuffs; recreating period foods, cooking techniques, and cooking utensils; historic ideas about food and nutrition; eating customs; and tableware. I will also do reviews of books discussing any of the above topics. I hope you enjoy this blog, and find it worth reading and commenting upon.

Because we are also part of history, modern food and cuisine are part of the story, and fair topics for this blog (though my preferred area of interest is historic food, particularly food before 1600 CE). Non-food issues are off-topic, and I reserve the right to remove off-topic comments without notice.