Food and Networks in Early Medieval Societies: Wales and the West

This PhD project will explore human/animal relationships in early medieval Wales (approx. AD 700-1100) and their role and influence in husbandry practices, diet, trade and the economy during an important period in the creation of Welsh identity. It focuses on the analysis of an unstudied animal bone assemblage from the early medieval site of Llanbedrgoch on Anglesey, an enclosed settlement and market centre.

By comparing human/animal interactions in the Early Medieval kingdom of Gwynedd to other Welsh kingdoms, and to the rest of Britain, Ireland and continental Europe, it aims to further define early farming practices in the north Wales Irish Sea region, and to what degree they reflected practices elsewhere. A key objective of the research is also to assess how animal husbandry practices and diet may have influenced the development, identity, health and social structure within early Welsh kingdoms.

This research will provide a hugely valuable addition to knowledge of early medieval Welsh food systems, which have thus far relied on highly limited narratives and datasets; the Llanbedrgoch assemblage being the largest unstudied archaeological assemblage of faunal remains within dated sequences from early medieval Wales. Furthermore, the project will also include a community engagement programme with Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, in which the research will be used to involve young people and local communities with archaeology, particularly thinking about how food in the past and present can inform us about issues such as identity and social structure, and what this could mean for the future.