Foods Consumed by the Metropolitan Aristocracy During the 9th to 14th Centuries

Abstract

Information about the food and nutrition of the Bulgarian population is of a different nature – local and foreign written sources, travelogues, endowment documents, passionaries, images in miniature and monumental paintings, archaeological finds and others. Given the raw material for its preparation, it falls into several groups – plant, animal (from domestic animals and hunting), fish, etc. The written records and the data from the archaeological excavations reveal a clear distinction in quality and variety of the foods consumed by the mass population in the capital districts of Tsarevets and Trapezitsa, the district at the western foot of Momina fortress, etc., and those consumed by the elite in the Royal Palace and the Patriarchate, in the elite closed complexes of Trapezitsa, and some of the most significant metropolitan monasteries. Our data on the food practices of the metropolitan elite is based on findings and artefacts such as extensive dining rooms, luxurious plates of sgraffito dishes, bone remains of pike, large specimens of wild carp, lambs, young large domestic animals, hunting trophies, etc.