From: David.Calafrancesco@drakkar.org (David Calafrancesco)
Date: 16 Jun 99 12:08:36 -0500
Subject: EK: from the Middle list, was: [Mid] Tudor Life
Message-Id: <fe1_9906161219@drakkar.org>
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-Poster: David.Calafrancesco@drakkar.org (David Calafrancesco)

I just found this on the Middle List, and am cross posting it here for your
enjoyment. No guarantee how accurate this report is, I have not gone to the
London Times site to verify the stories myself. 

Haraldr Bassi, Frosted Hills, East
haraldr@drakkar.org

* Forwarded (from: MIDDLE-LIST) by David Calafrancesco using timEd/2 1.01.
* Originally from warrwykk@geocities.com (1:2624/801) to All.
* Original dated: Jun 16 '99, 10:08

From: Warrwykk <warrwykk@geocities.com>
Subject: [Mid] Tudor Life
Reply-To: sca-middle@midrealm.org

Thought this might be of interest to some of you.  A tudor trash heap
that was used from about 1485 to 1600 has been discovered giving all
sorts of glimpses into daily London Tudor life.  These 3 articles were

all in the London Times today.

Your Servant
Robert Meryell of Warrwykk
___________________________________

June 16 1999
                                                BRITAIN


          Historians go a little bananas

                   BY DALYA ALBERGE
                  ARTS CORRESPONDENT
  A BANANA discovered by archaeologists on a Tudor rubbish
  tip near the Tower of London may have been nibbled by
  Henry VIII. But it is the banana alone that is causing
  excitement because it was in entirely the wrong time-zone,
  about 300 years before such exotic fruits were regularly
  imported to Britain.

  The peeled and blackened banana - which, to anyone but an
  expert, looks just like an over-ripe example today - was
  found on a building site being excavated by Museum of
  London archaeologists. Asked how they could be sure that
  someone had not dropped it last week, Taryn Nixon, the
  head of archaeological services, said that was impossible
  because it had been buried "in a sealed context" next to
  dateable objects. Bananas were cited by travellers in the
  West Indies "quite early on", she added. "This could be one
  of those. Whether it was just a curiosity or whether it was
  passed from one ship to another is impossible to say. This
  is puzzling."

  John Georgie, a specialist in plant remains, said that this
  was the first archaeological find of a banana: "They were not
  imported on a commercial basis until the 19th century as
  they would just go off. It wasn't a commercial viability until
  the steamships."

  David Cooke, a specialist at Kew Gardens, said this banana
  might have originated in Asia. Because they take several
  weeks to ripen, one might have been taken "straight to the
  King" when a ship arrived.


__________________________________________

June 16 1999
                                                BRITAIN


    London fish tank reveals everyday
                  life of Tudors

          BY DALYA ALBERGE, ARTS CORRESPONDENT
                        Links

  THE discovery of a huge Tudor rubbish dump is giving
  historians their best insights yet into the lives of the
  Londoners of the day.

  Archaeologists from the Museum of London have unearthed
  thousands of objects dating from the 1480s to the early
  1600s at a two-acre site around Tooley Street, on the south
  side of Tower Bridge.

  Shoes and spoons, toys and tools offer rare glimpses into
  the lifestyles of all strata of society. Objects considered too
  insignificant to have been recorded in documents or
  paintings now reveal what Tudor Londoners ate, what they
  threw away, how they dressed and how they played. Until
  the site was found, relatively little archaeological evidence
  had been discovered. "What we've found has proved we
  didn't know half as much as we thought," said Simon
  Thurley, the museum's director.

  Among more than 400 leather shoes are some that are
  perfectly preserved and as modern in design as anything for
  sale today in Knightsbridge. A pair of stylish black suede
  shoes with leather laces and an elegant buckle might have
  been made yesterday.

  To judge from some of the styles, Tudor Londoners were
  prepared to suffer for fashion: one pair of shoes stuffed with
  moss to stiffen the curled point would have been less than
  comfortable.

  Dr Thurley said that never before had so many Tudor objects
  been found together in such closely dateable deposits and in
  such a fine state of preservation.

  The dump was discovered during excavations for a new hotel
  complex two months ago. Its contents were preserved in the
  waterlogged remains of a Tudor fish farm in an area that
  was, from medieval times, home to the wealthy and
  influential. The objects were thrown into the disused fish
  tanks about 1560, when the property, known then as the
  Pike Garden, was sold. Others were thrown into a nearby
  sewer that was closed in 1610.

  Dave Saxby, an archaeologist with the museum who is
  supervising the search for artefacts, said: "If you excavate
  any site in London, you're lucky to get one shoe or one
  knife. The majority have broken bits of pottery and animal
  bone. Here they are in mint condition, like the day they were
  thrown in."

  The finds portray all levels of society on London's South
  Bank, from the wealthy with their padded armour to the poor
  with their worn pewter spoons.

  Pottery tankards and a bottle in a wicker basket point to the
  taverns for which Southwark was famous. Many of the pots
  were imported and a piece of Chinese porcelain is the
  earliest example found in London.

  Also extracted from the detritus was a delicate comb, which
  has a circular indentation that may have held a mirror.

  Vessels such as a huge copper cauldron in which people
  would have cooked are almost intact. Other discoveries
  include rare armour; perfectly preserved tools, including a
  sickle, spade and shovel; and a musical instrument thought
  to be a bagpipe.

  There is also a dagger; part of a saddle; an intricate leather
  fringe that may be from a belt; children's toys, including a
  whistle; a wooden bowls ball; part of a window shutter; and,
  of course, the banana.

  Taryn Nixon, the head of the museum's archaeolgical
  services department, said that the objects conjure up
  "thriving industries of Tudor Southwark . . . people going in
  and out of the ale-houses, the leather workers taking orders
  from the finely turned out gentleman with his metal outer
  corset, and perhaps even someone turning up their nose at
  the thought that this curious soft, yellow food - well, no,
  probably quite black and rotten - was to be eaten."

  Dr Thurley said that the museum was keen to put the finds
  on show as soon as possible.

_______________________________________________

June 16 1999
                                                BRITAIN


   Fruit and vegetables made for good
                        diet
  THE diet of the privileged person in Tudor times was a
  healthy one, with plenty of fruit and vegetables (Dalya
  Alberge writes).

  While the banana is the most recent find, archaeologists
  have in the past unearthed seeds and stones from grapes,
  figs, apples, plums, peaches, walnuts and hazelnuts.

  John Georgie, a specialist in organic remains at the
  Museum of London, said: "They were suspicious of fresh
  fruit. They used to cook it, as they thought it caused
  common illness such as diarrhoea and dysentery."

  He pointed to a comment from a 15th-century schoolboy
  who complained: "I ate damsons yesterday, which made my
  stomach so raw that I could eat no manner of flesh." One
  contemporary document observed: "Raw pears a poison,
  baked a medicine be."

  Apples were pulped in a mortar and placed in tarts, while
  strawberries and cherries went in pottages. Mr Georgie
  noted that it was only in the 18th century that attitudes
  changed and people started eating fresh fruit.

  As for meat, Alan Pipe, a zoologist with the Museum of
  London, said that the Tudors ate many animals we eat now -
  chicken, duck, goose or rabbit.


--
Logician:  There you go arguing again!  You are so inconsistent!
Sage:  How so?
Logician: Because you admit that the good man does not argue, and you
go
on arguing with complete disregard of that fact.
Sage:  I am not being inconsistent,  It just so happens that at the
moment
I feel more like arguing than being good.
    -Raymond Smullyan


From:  Warrwykk <warrwykk@geocities.com>
--
|Fidonet:  David Calafrancesco 1:2624/306
|Internet: David.Calafrancesco@drakkar.org
|
| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.

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