[Sca-cooks] Tracing food consumption through istopic analysis of bones

[Terry Decker]

The general adoption of the moldboard plow and the three field rotation 
system improved the general food supply in the 8th and 9th Centuries.  This 
generally led to an improvement in the quality of life which was slowly 
eroded by a growing population.  Plague reduced the population and the 
inheritance laws concentrated wealth across a broad spectrum of the 
population.  Combined with an industrial revolution in wind and water 
powered technologies, the effect was a higher standard of living for most 
Europeans.  This standard of living lasted for roughly 300 years, when it 
declined from a number of factors.

Ferdinand Braudel's 3 volume series on Civilization and Capitalism, 
particularly the first volume, The Structures of Everyday Life, provides a 
lot of information and references on general existence between the 15th and 
the 18th Centuries.

Bear


>
> I have read that the population drop due to the Black Death led to higher 
> living standards, including more meat, for the surviving ordinary folks.
>
>
> Thorvald