ABSTRACT
Evidence for food production and consumption in Wales between 1220 and 1455 exists in a number of forms; each comes with its own limitations and biases. Pastoralism, principally based on cattle, the use of the hendre-hafod system, summer hill grazing, and pannage were important elements in the Welsh agricultural economy. The consumption of meat, represented by finds of animal bones, is the most obvious aspect of the medieval diet to have survived in the archaeological record. Cattle were an important element of the Welsh economy, as a source of meat, dairy produce and an exchangeable form of wealth. The Welsh laws indicate that there were defined seasons for hunting specific game animals and in the value of skins from the fur-bearing animals. Shellfish, such as oysters, were extensively eaten in the medieval period, as indicated by the numerous shells recovered from many urban and aristocratic medieval sites, including Okehampton Castle and Barnard Castle.
