Where's The Meat

       What would be on your menu for 6,000 military folks coming for dinner from Deva? Oh yes, there would be an additional 6,000 empty stomachs just down the road from Wroxeter asking "Where's the meat?" Caesar's salad was a go some years back [post May 10 last month], but you would need some real meat to feed all these guys. This was one of the questions that I ask along the long trail of ancestor searching. How did my Celtic ancestors adjust to all these empty stomachs, and still survive to live another day?

      The last post gives a reference to a book that discusses many of the factors that came into play. Not just a few factors, but everything asked by me during my many, many years of Jones surname research. The following table is found on page 231, Map 6:48, in the comprehensive Atalas by Barri Jones (no known relationship), and David Mattingly. Just take a look from 50 AD through 350 AD to help answer the question, "Where's the meat?"

      Leg of lamb would be first on the menu starting around 50 AD. Probably from the fact that my Celtic ancestors keep a lot of sheep going from the highlands to the lowlands. The young of the domesticated cows kept around the farms were added to the menu by 100 AD. This was when the military assault into northwest Wales was completed, bring two Legions to the dinner table. [12 - 15 thousand men!] The Ox and pig also began showing their contributions.  Now horses were probably not to be eaten because of their value to all those men of the calvary. I guess they were kept in large numbers around those military bases when needed for rapid movement. The menu seems to be much the same after all the roads and military bases were formalized.