Rebecca Reynolds

Contact

• workArchaeology and Classics Building
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• work0115 951 4820
• fax0115 951 4812
• acxrvr1@nottingham.ac.uk

Research Summary

I am interested in exploring and understanding the relationships humans have had historically with the animals in their surrounding environments, and how this affected their attitudes towards the… read more

Current Research

I am interested in exploring and understanding the relationships humans have had historically with the animals in their surrounding environments, and how this affected their attitudes towards the consumption of these creatures. My particular interest concerns aquatic animals, especially fish, but also molluscs and marine mammals. The study of seascapes has shown that coastlines and the sea were, and are, perceived very differently from the environments on land. The sea realm has been often believed to play host to a myriad of monsters, is prone to sudden weather changes and dangers unimaginable, this has meant that the acquisition of food from the sea has not been straightforward, but often fraught with difficulty and treated with trepidation at the very least. History and, ever increasingly, archaeology have shown that the taste for fish and seafood has varied in the past and is likely to have been culturally dependent. Herring and cod were important foodstuffs during the Middle Ages, however the beginning of this industry and its social implications are little understood. This fact raises a number of salient questions; how were fish perceived beforehand? What may have caused the change? Were elites involved in initiating this taste and potentially supplying and controlling resources? My thesis, begun in October 2009, attempts to answer these questions as well as charting the changes and the reasons for fish consumption in societies bordering the North Sea from c. 600 to 1300.