Summary: Types of Food eaten by Hunter Gatherers
Key dates:
As these people were hunter gatherers, not farmers, there is no evidence of any grain crops.
It is most likely that they had only water to drink and drank it from simple wooden scoops.
There is plenty of evidence of the food which was eaten by these people. Where they were near rivers or the coast, fish and seafood in general played an important part in their diet. Sea-bass and flounder remains have been found near estuaries. At Mount Sandel there was evidence of thrush, black goose and wild pig as well as a large concentration of burnt hazelnut shells, some carbonised water-lily and possibly some apple seeds.
The pits near the houses indicate that food was often stored there but it seems most likely that their diet varied with the seasons.
Spring: blackbird, mountain hare, carragheen seaweed, winkles, water-lily, dandelion, primrose.
Summer : mussels, trout, salmon, duck, mushrooms, vetches, crab apple.
Autumn: winkles, oysters, crab, eel, blackberry, hazelnut, sloe and rowan berries.
Winter: winkles, oysters, wood-pigeon, mallard duck, wild boar.
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