Feeding the merchants and artisans of Northwest Europe (seventh–tenth centuries) : Food practices and strategies in the emporia of the Nordic Seas
International audience Eating is a socially and culturally significant act that helps define identities. In the context of the economic development of the Nordic Seas from the seventh century onward, a new kind of port area emerged, known as wics or emporia. Using textual and archaeological...
| Published in: | Médiévales |
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| Main Author: | |
| Other Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | French |
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HAL CCSD
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.4000/medievales.10012 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02318454 |
| Summary: | International audience Eating is a socially and culturally significant act that helps define identities. In the context of the economic development of the Nordic Seas from the seventh century onward, a new kind of port area emerged, known as wics or emporia. Using textual and archaeological sources, this article studies what their inhabitants—who mostly engaged in non-agricultural activities (commercial and artisanal)—ate. Did the food practices in such places, widely open to the outside, have any specific features ? Can we call them “urban” ? Here we try to answer such questions, returning to look at the possible supply networks of these ports and the role food could have played in the construction of their identity. Manger est un acte socialement et culturellement signifiant, qui contribue à définir des identités. Dans le contexte de l’essor économique du bassin des mers nordiques à partir du VIIe siècle, des sites portuaires d’un genre nouveau font leur apparition, les wics ou emporia. Cet article s’intéresse, à partir des sources textuelles et archéologiques, à ce que mangeaient leurs habitants, largement engagés dans des activités non agricoles (commerciales et artisanales) : les pratiques alimentaires dans ces lieux largement ouverts sur l’extérieur présentaient-elles des spécificités ? Peut-on aller jusqu’à les qualifier d’« urbaines » ? Autant de questions auxquelles on tente ici de répondre, en revenant sur les possibles réseaux d’approvisionnement de ces ports et sur la place qu’a pu jouer l’alimentation dans la construction de leur identité. |
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