Access to luxury foods in Central Europe during the Roman period: the archaeobotanical evidence

Abstract

Archaeobotanical investigations show that during the Roman occupation a large number of foods was introduced into Central Europe, though these did not replace any of the traditional foods. Many of these new additions were incorporated into the local food-producing system and became part of the local menu, offering a wider variety of foods and tastes than before. While they represented luxuries at the very start of the Roman occupation, they lost this status later on. Other foods, however, could not be grown locally, or only with considerable effort, and these remained true luxuries. They comprise rice, chickpea, gourd, black pepper, pistachio, almond, pine kernel, date, pomegranate, olive, melon and, to some extent, peach. Remarkably, figs were quite common.