🇮🇸 Iceland - Museum | Europeans ate with hands until 17th century?

I was at the National Museum of Iceland yesterday. I think I heard the recording right.

P.s. love Iceland

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Do you count Greeks as Europeans? They invented table forks before Iceland was settled.

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Seems a bit unlikely - I was under the impression that Europeans in general at least had a knife on hand - but I’m not going to argue with history experts.

I vaguely recall learning something in school about medieval meals being served on a slice of bread, so I guess everything was basically an open sandwich and might be easily eaten with hands.

Bloody barbarians! Civilised people were eating with chopsticks at the time.

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Guess meat was eaten with knife in hand, very early on, around campfires.

Americans still eat with their hands. Had an excellent burger with fries for lunch and am looking forward to a nice pizza.

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anything more fascinating than a person eating a burger with knife and fork?

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Cutlery through the ages:

" What cutlery was used in medieval times?

In the Middle Ages, hosts didn’t provide cutlery for their guests, so people carried their knives strapped to their belts. As you can imagine, this made dinner slightly uncomfortable. They would use their sharp knives to spear the food, not cut it, simply eating directly off the blade"

" What is the history of cutlery?

When cutlery did come about, it was knives and spoons that appeared long before forks. Primitive blades used as tools and weapons have been found dating back to the Paleolithic times, so this wasn’t a new idea, but using them to eat with: that was something more revolutionary."

" When did humans start eating with utensils?

500.000-12.000 BC - During the Stone Age of mankind, eating utensils consisted form simple sharp stones intended for cutting meat and fruit. Simple designs of spoons were made from hollowed out pieces of wood or seashells that were connected to wooden sticks. Animal horns also were used as a means to eat liquid foods."

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In the 17th Century? They were part of the Ottoman Empire at that point.

That practice must’ve caused a lot of accidents.

The question was very general and about “Europeans” and “until 17 century”

The fact is the Europe was very divided through the ages in terms of development.
North was late compared to south which was closer to Middle East with Phoenicia and Persian empire.
Also a class divide means that whatever is preserved belonged to rich who could afford expensive metal and ceramic.

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Unless I’m mistaken, the pre-Ottoman racial divide wasn’t Europe/Asia or Europe/Africa but butter eaters (North of Alps) vs. olive eaters (Mediterranean).

That’s one unique way of looking at progress of civilizations via their cuisine.
I would guess political structures, trading and technology (iron metallurgy) would be better suited.

A large portion of modern ethnic Europeans migrated from Anatolia, Armenia or Pontic–Caspian steppe (depending on what hypothesis you subscribe too) so I don’t know how this meshes with olive eating. (probably no olives in steppe)

Roman empire was raided so many times that any notions of European race (racial divide) don’t seem very viable.

For example Vandals: from Sweden to Tunisia.

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Perhaps race wasn’t the right word.

Rome was considered the Northern outpost of the Mediterranean, not a Southern outpost of Europe.

I once had dinner with a Japanese girl in Paris: she skinned, sliced, arranged and then daintily consumed a banana with a knife and fork. I felt like an uncouth barbarian in comparison.

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Do you count Greeks as Europeans? They invented table forks before Iceland was settled.

Rome was considered the Northern outpost of the Mediterranean, not a Southern outpost of Europe.

Ok, so were Mediterranean people “Europeans”? (Greeks and Latins the original Romans) Both were Indo-Europeans.
There was no “Europe” in these ages, just empires and tribes.

Italy in the Iron Age (Iron Age - Wikipedia).

I don’t know. Did the concept exist at the time?

First, great dynasties tied the Europe (Habsburgs etc)
Springtime of Nations brought common social and national identities for lower classes.
Two wars helped convince Europeans to stop killing each other. (mostly)
The term acquired stronger meaning in post colonial times.
Colonial powers would not be that keen to think of themselves as mere Europeans.

I suppose she didn’t want to give you any ideas by eating it in the more usual way.

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