First, my apologies if you’re in the southern hemisphere where, in fact, autumn is coming… but I’ll let you use your imagination.
The cycles of the year must have been significant to our ancient ancestors. Their entire lives revolved around the seasons. In summer, the crops would grow, livestock would be well fed, and food plentiful. As autumn approached, they would gather in the grain harvest, and they might think about preserving food. The wheat or barley would be stacked and covered with thatch, ready for threshing and grinding as they needed it. Berries could be dried for storage, and surpluses of meat either salted or dried into jerky. They would turn the summer glut of milk into cheese to eat through the colder months too.
As winter approached, and stock feed and grazing became more scarce, the final animals would be slaughtered, and the tribes would settle in for the cold months. It wouldn’t be practical to travel far when the weather was cold, so they’d have been confined to their home villages. Houses varied in size, but many were roundhouses little more than 5 metres (16 feet) in diameter.
We find spring’s new growth to be a beautiful time, but our ancestors may not have seen it like that. This was the hungry gap. Preserved food would run low. Perhaps the barley crop had not been enough, or the preserved meat had spoiled. Hunting would be an option, but even wild animals are thin and hungry in early spring. Not until roots and tuber grew, and the earliest young pigs were fit for killing, would they be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
There’s a term that I’ve heard from North America, Rabbit Starvation, that appears to come from trappers in earlier centuries. The body actually loses condition if forced to live on a pure, lean protein diet over winter. We need carbohydrates and fat in our diets, and winter game is short of fat. In one of my stories, the main character breaks open the long bones of a winter kill to get at the fatty marrow within, hoping to stave off this rare form of protein poisoning.
Our lives now have so much less in the way of cycles. Foods are available, close at hand, all year long. I remember, as a child, that eggs were much rarer and more expensive in the winter months. Now the hens have electric light to fool them into laying whenever the farmer wants them to.
Next time you go shopping for food, think about which foods on display are produced in your area and in what season. That way, you’ll get some idea of how limited our Neolithic cousins’ diets might have been.
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Until next time, take care.
D J Eastwood
The Apprentice Tattoo 