Archaeology at Bloom 2019

The TII Archaeology and Heritage section is very excited to be associated with one of the show gardens at this year's Bloom—Ireland's premier gardening festival. History of the Irish Diet in Plants is an educational garden illustrating changes in the Irish diet from Ireland's early settlers to today. Devised by the School of Agriculture and Food Science, the School of Archaeology, and the School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Science at University College Dublin (UCD), the plants in this garden reflect a selection of key food plants in Ireland's past, based upon evidence from archaeological science.

The garden illustrates changes in the Irish diet that resulted from key societal and historical changes over the past 8,000 years, moving from diverse but local to diverse and global. To demonstrate this transition, the garden is divided into five sections. The first represents the hunter-gatherer diet of early settlers, who also relied on lakes as a food source. Section two depicts the introduction of farming; section three shows the entry of imported crops and foods into our diet; section four refers to the impact of industrialisation; and section five illustrates the expansive diet of today. Along with fruits, vegetables and cereals, the garden includes pastureland to represent grass-fed animals (cattle, sheep and pigs) and ponds to represent early dependence on lakes for fish and plants.