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| Hazelnuts (image via Orkney Jar) |
Hazelnuts have been an important food resource in Ireland for thousands
of years. Hazelnuts usually ripen during autumn and are therefore seasonal, but
hazelnuts are also easily storable, and so can be kept for eating throughout
the year. The nuts provide a highly nutritious foodstuff, being rich in
monounsaturated fats. They can be eaten whole, or ground into flour or meal. Hazelnuts
are also relatively easy to process using simple tools; the nutshell can be cracked open using a
sharp stone, or by placing the hazelnut on a hard surface or stone, and then
striking the shell with another stone.
While the actual nuts rarely survive in the archaeological record, hazelnut
shell is often recorded. Hazelnut shell is
relatively easily identified by archaeobotanists. The shape of the nutshell is
very distinctive, and although the nutshell is woody, it is smooth in section
when compared with wood charcoal. Hazelnut shell can be preserved through a
variety of mechanisms, but charring is the most commonly encountered process in
Ireland. In order for charring to occur, the plant material must come into
contact with fire. Nutshell represents waste and is perhaps more likely to come
into contact with fire and become preserved, when compared with other plants.
For example, the nutshell can be utilised as fuel or simply disposed of in
fires to reduce its mass. Other food sources, such as cereal grains, are less
likely to enter a fire, as the grains will become unusable if charred (Jones
2000).
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| Charred hazelnut shell |
While we often associate gathered
foods with prehistoric societies (McComb and Simpson 1999), archaeobotanical
evidence clearly demonstrates that foraging was an important activity right
into the historic period. A recent study of plant foods consumed by Ireland’s
earliest hunter-gatherer communities, during the Mesolithic period (8000-4000
BC), revealed that hazelnut remains were commonly found at excavations,
sometimes in very large quantities (Warren et al. 2014). Although farming was
introduced into Ireland during the Neolithic period (4000-2500 BC), gathered
foods remained important; a study of plant remains from Neolithic excavations
in Ireland found that hazelnut shell was present at 87% of sites (McClatchie et
al. 2014). From the Bronze Age, it does appear that cultivated foods became increasingly
important at the expense of gathered foods, but foraging continued to be
undertaken. A recent study of plant remains from early medieval Ireland (AD
400-1100), for example, found that hazelnut shell was recorded at 40% of sites
(McCormick et al. 2014), highlighting that gathered foods continued to play an
important role, even in societies heavily involved in farming. There is a long history of hazelnut gathering and consumption in Ireland, and
it looks set to continue, helped by a revived interest in foraging that has
developed over recent years.
References
Jones G (2000) Evaluating the importance of
cultivation and collecting in Neolithic Britain, pp. 79-84. In Fairbairn AS
(ed.), Plants in Neolithic Britain
and beyond. Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 5. Oxford, Oxbow.
McClatchie
M, McCormick F, Kerr T, O'Sullivan A (2014) Early medieval farming and food
production: a review of the archaeobotanical evidence from archaeological
excavations in Ireland. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. DOI: 10.1007/s00334-014-0478-7.
McCormick
F, Kerr TR, McClatchie M, O'Sullivan A (2014) Early medieval agriculture,livestock
and cereal production in Ireland, AD 400–1100. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 2647. Oxford,
Archaeopress.
Warren
G, Davis S, McClatchie M, Sands R (2014) The potential role of humans in
structuring the wooded landscapes of Mesolithic Ireland: a review of data and
discussion of approaches. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 23(5): 629–646.