[Sca-cooks] trenchers and the "mini Ice Age"

[Nick Sasso]

> -----Original Message-----
> I'm thinking more along the lines of, climactic changes may
> have made
> some people need more calories, and more concentrated carb sources,
> than before, combined with a scarcity of grain which might make it
> less advisable to create food-based items that aren't going to be
> eaten. This phenomenon, if it _is_ a phenomenon, isn't something I
> made up; you see evidence of climactic change (as well as reading
> specifically about it in things like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles) in
> records of plague years (the plague doesn't go away, it just reaches
> epidemic proportions when you have an entire population hammered by
> cold and poor diet for years at a time), in clothing styles, and in
> architecture (look at castle window sizes of the period in question,
> for example, and fireplace sizes).
>
> I'm not prepared to defend this as a thesis, at this point, but I
> think it's an interesting idea. YMMV.
> Adamantius


Is this the posited hemispheric change that could have been caused by a
catastrophic volcanic eruption on a Pacific island in the very rough
neighborhood of 1200 AD?  I've seen TV shows and books mentioning the
effects of something like that going on and the evidence found in ice core
samples as far away as the north pole.  Some theories suggest it led to the
Mongol trek west across Europe, as well as other things.

So, it isn't so far fetched to think there could be some support for your
curiosity about change in food processes and practices.


pacem et bonum,
niccolo difrancesco