What did non-noble/upper class medieval European people eat?

by PM_me_your_toaster
[deleted]

We don't have any particular evidence for a set pan-European diet, but we do have many indicators of which foodstuffs correlated with wealth.

  • Being able to eat meat correlates strongly with wealth. This is particularly true if there is evidence that animals are being killed at a young age and not simply after they've exhausted their ability to produce wool, milk, etc.

  • Poorer people ate mostly cereals.

  • Heavy fish consumption is also a sign of poverty; fish was the main protein source for coastal regions in the medieval period.

  • The presence of glass tableware is also a sign of wealth.

Sources:

  • Ervynck, Anton, Wim Van Neer, Heide Hüster-Plogmann, and Jörg Schibler. “Beyond Affluence: The Zooarchaeology of Luxury.” World Archaeology 34, no. 3 (2003): 428–41.

  • Loveluck, C. “Wealth, Waste and Conspicuous Consumption. Flixborough and Its Importance for Mid and Late Saxon Settlement Studies.” In Image and Power in the Archaeology of Early Medieval Britain: Essays in Honour of Rosemary Cramp, edited by Rosemary Cramp, Helena Hamerow, and Arthur MacGregor. Oxford: Oxbow, 2001.