Kings from the Anglo-Saxon era of England (between about the year 400 and 1066) were mostly vegetarian, new research shows. Dr Sam Leggett is a bioarchaeologist (a scientist who studies the remains of things that once lived to find out about the past). She studied bones from more than 2,000 skeletons belonging to people from different backgrounds who were buried some time between the 5th and 11th centuries. Looking for traces of chemical elements that were influenced by diet, she found that diets were pretty much the same, whether people were rich or poor.
The findings surprised historian Tom Lambert, because many records from the time, including lists of food served at meals, suggested that Anglo-Saxon kings ate a lot of meat. Lambert and Leggett think the explanation is that…
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The Week Junior (Digital) - 1 Issue, 334