Investigating foodways at the ecclesiastical site of Glendalough Ireland, AD 600-1500

MLitt Candidate: Keelin Murphy
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Meriel McClatchie

Abstract

From the first Roman missionaries to the arrival of St Patrick and beyond, the early medieval and medieval periods in Ireland (AD 400–1150 and AD 1150–1550, respectively) have long been associated with the spread and influence of Christianity and the development of the institution of the Church as an epicentre of worship, economy and settlement.

Many large monastic, or episcopal-monastic, centres and settlements, such as that of Glendalough, began to emerge, bringing with them a wealth of clerics, scholars, penitents, monastics and tenants. 

As food consumption, alongside production, culinary practices and eating habits, can provide a lens
through which to understand social identities, newly formed religious communities would have not only actively produced and consumed food, but also may have done so in a specialised or specific way, in a way that shifted and changed over time, or even in a way that varied from both similar religious sites and secular settlements from the same period.

Despite its acclaim as one of Ireland’s most iconic religious landscapes, there is very little understanding of the way people interacted with food at Glendalough and comparatively little archaeological research on scientific evidence such as plant-macro remains and on broader foodways. Through a new analysis of
archaeobotanical remains and related evidence, alongside a review of historical and textual sources, this study aims to explore this past community’s engagement with food over time – what plant foods were produced and gathered, how were foods prepared and consumed, why were certain foods chosen and others avoided, and what are the broader implications for understanding early medieval and medieval
societies in Ireland.

Some of the key research questions include:
- What can we gather from archaeobotanical analysis about what people were
eating at this ecclesiastical settlement?
- How did this change through time? How does this compare to other
ecclesiastical sites?
- How does this compare to other secular (or non-church) settlements?
- To what extent did the people at Glendalough follow a specialised diet?
- Were there distinct foods associated with the different activities that were
taking place at Glendalough at this time, for example metalworking, milling,
mining etc?
- How were they processing their food, and where was this taking place, i.e.
onsite vs. offsite?
- What new insights into broader societal practices can be inferred from this
study overall?