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Roman Cuisine: A Vegan and Organic Feast? Our Kinderuni Session on Ancient Diets

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Kinderuni

Authors: Dominik Hagmann and Nisa Iduna Kirchengast

Description:

In this blog post, we, Dominik and Nisa, reflect on our Kinderuni session “Römisches Essen: alles bio und vegan? Mit der Archäologie der antiken Ernährung auf der Spur” (Roman Food: All Organic and Vegan? Tracing Ancient Diet with Archaeology). On Monday, July 8th, we had the pleasure of diving into the world of Roman cuisine with a group of curious young researchers aged 7 to 12. This session was part of the wider Kinderuni initiative, which also includes a virtual session on ancient diets available online since 2020: “Parrots, Fish Sauce, and Dogs” (https://kinderuni.online/kurs/papageien-fischsauce-und-hunde/).

What did we do?

We explored what the ancient Romans ate, discussing not only the ingredients but also how we can still discover what was on people’s plates nearly 2000 years ago. We examined archaeological finds, peeked into ancient cookbooks, and even considered how one could cook Roman food today – with a modern twist, of course!

What went well:

  • Lively discussions: The children were enthusiastic and surprised us with their questions and ideas. They wanted to know everything, from the Romans’ favorite dishes to the spices they used.
  • Interactive elements: We cooked “ancient” recipes together (with modern ingredients, of course!) and the children could even try their hand at it. This was not only fun but also showed how exciting archaeology and history can be.
  • “Aha” moments: It was great to see the children’s amazement when they learned that many Roman dishes were actually vegan or vegetarian and that the Romans valued fresh, seasonal ingredients – much like we do today!
  • Hands-On part: The (hopefully) future archaeologists had the opportunity to look at archaeological finds and pick up some bones and pottery for the first time.

What we would do differently next time:

  • More time for questions: The children had so many great questions that we would have loved to have more time to address each one. Two hours is almost not enough time to do justice to the interested young listeners.
  • More visual aids: We would have liked to bring more pictures and objects to make Roman cuisine even more vivid.

Conclusion:

The session was a complete success and we both had a lot of fun. It’s always inspiring to work with children who are so curious and eager to learn. We hope that we were able to bring Roman cuisine a little closer to them and maybe even sparked a passion for cooking! We encourage everyone interested in ancient diets to check out the virtual session “Parrots, Fish Sauce, and Dogs” on kinderuni.online for further exploration.

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