The conference will explore food production and consumption, both old and new. The conference is being organised by food historians Dr Chad Ludington (Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow, UCC School of History) and Regina Sexton (UCC Adult Continuing Education, UCC School of History), and will feature food historians, food geographers, food scientists, business leaders, food producers, restaurateurs, and food writers. It promises to be an exciting weekend, bringing together researchers and practitioners from varied backgrounds to talk and think about the many roles of food in our lives.
The title of my presentation will be "Early innovators: Ireland's first farmers", and I will present results from my investigations into foodways in Neolithic Ireland. The Neolithic period in Ireland (4000–2500 BC) witnessed enormous changes in the types of foods being produced and the work involved in their production. Several new crops were introduced into Ireland soon after 4000BC. Archaeobotanical studies indicate that emmer wheat became the dominant crop, with evidence also for barley (hulled and naked) and flax. Analysis of arable weeds suggests that farming was intensive, rather than extensive. Gathered resources (which provided staple foods for hunter-gatherers before the Neolithic) were not abandoned when farming arrived into Ireland. On the contrary, there is substantial archaeobotanical evidence for a variety of nuts, fruits and greens. Establishing the types of foods being made from these plants has proved rather challenging, but new research is being undertaken to address this issue. This paper will provide an overview of the latest research in archaeological science and highlight new pathways to further develop our understanding of the foods produced and eaten by Ireland’s first farmers.
The conference is open to the general public and registration is free. Hope to see you there!