Ancient Europeans Regularly Ate Seaweed

In a recent scientific report, experts have presented concrete proof that people in Ancient Europe really enjoyed munching on seaweed and freshwater plants. This curious culinary habit spanned from the Mesolithic era to the early Middle Ages.

This discovery raises an intriguing question: Why did Europeans stop enjoying seaweed as a tasty treat, while in many East Asian nations, it remains a popular and ongoing part of their diet to this day?

Study to understand the inclusion of seaweed in diet

In a quest to understand whether Ancient Europeans included seaweed in their diets, an international team of researchers closely examined the dental remains of seventy-four people from twenty-eight different archaeological sites. These sites spanned from the northern regions of Scotland to the southern parts of Spain and dated back to around 6400 BC to the 12th century AD.

Through the use of a technique called mass spectrometry, scientists scrutinized the dental samples. What they discovered were specific biomarkers linked to plants that thrive in aquatic environments.

Astonishingly, in over seventy percent of the cases in which biomolecular evidence could be detected, there were signs of people consuming red, green, or brown seaweeds, as well as freshwater aquatic plants. One sample from Orkney even showed evidence of Brassica, most likely sea kale, in their diet.

Findings of the study

The research findings strongly indicate that people across Europe in ancient times not only chewed on seaweeds but also probably ate them. However, the mystery remains as to how exactly they included seaweed in their diets.

Karen Hardy, a professor of prehistoric archaeology at the University of Glasgow and one of the authors of the study, pointed out, “We cannot provide information on the niche that seaweed filled.”

Hardy and her team propose that ancient people might have gathered aquatic plants as a regular source of nutrition, similar to how we collect mushrooms. However, concrete proof supporting this idea is still missing.

Hardy stated, “We would need a complete understanding [and] knowledge of the diet to be able to answer that.”

Furthermore, researchers remain uncertain as to why the European enthusiasm for aquatic plants faded over time. Interestingly, by the eighth century, seaweed was viewed as a last-resort food during famines.

Seaweed addresses health and environmental issues

In their paper, the researchers emphasize that as a sustainable food source, seaweed could play a crucial role in addressing the health and environmental issues linked to our heavy reliance on a limited range of mass-produced agricultural products. This is a common aspect of many Western diets today.

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There are about ten thousand different types of seaweeds worldwide, but currently, only 145 of them are commonly eaten, mainly in Asian countries.

Dr. Stephen Buckley, a research fellow at the Department of Archaeology at the University of York and a co-author of the study, pointed out, “The biomolecular evidence in this study is over three thousand years earlier than historical evidence in the Far East.”

He added, “Not only does this new evidence show that seaweed was being consumed in Europe during the Mesolithic Period around 8,000 years ago when marine resources were known to have been exploited, but…it continued into the Neolithic when it is usually assumed that the introduction of farming led to the abandonment of marine dietary resources.”

Buckley concludes, “This strongly suggests that the nutritional benefits of seaweed were sufficiently well understood by these ancient populations [so much so] that they maintained their dietary link with the sea.”