A noble diet at the Hof van Leugenhaeghe (Steendorp, Belgium): pig skulls as a fourteenth–fifteenth century delicacy?

Abstract

The animal remains found at the fourteenth–fifteenth century Hof van Leugenhaeghe are crucial to reconstruct the life of the noble inhabitants, as all buildings were destroyed with the construction of a later estate on the property called the Blauwhof. The diet confirms the high social status of this nobility with the suspected consumption of pig skulls, a possible sign of wealth in late-medieval Flanders. Other signs of a noble diet are found as well: juvenile cattle, a diverse spectrum of game, partridge and grey heron. The observed pattern of a wealthy diet is consistent with the zooarchaeological assemblages found at other noble sites in late-medieval Flanders