Approche archéozoologique du commerce des viandes au Moyen Âge

Animal bone remains can give only very indirect information for trade in meat, as they can only rarely indicate the provenance of the meat, or the volume of the trade. Nonetheless, an analysis of the results of 262 archaeozoological studies of medieval and modem sites from 16 European countries has given information on diet in seigneurial estates, peasant dwellings and towns, and has suggested some of the mechanisms of exchange between the producers and the towns. A comparison of this information with that from documentary sources (from the estate of Neubourg and the nearby by town of Évreux in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries — Eure, Normandy, France) supports certain hypotheses on the nature of rural seigneurial and peasant surplus and the provisioning of towns.