A study of teeth and dental plaque from about 200 people buried in Wrocław has provided evidence of what residents of the Polish city ate between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries.
The individuals were interred in the same cemetery, which was uncovered ahead of construction work. A research team led by Paweł Dąbrowski of Wrocław Medical University examined their teeth and dental plaque to identify traces of foods consumed during their lives.
The findings suggest that the population relied on wheat, rye, barley, peas and beans, alongside pork, game, poultry and herring imported from the Baltic region. Researchers also detected evidence of corn, described in the report as a food grown in North America.
According to Dąbrowski, the presence of corn indicates that ordinary Wrocław residents had access to products reaching the city through the expansion of overseas trade. The dental plaque also contained traces of plants from the pepper and nightshade families. These remains were likely associated with spices and potatoes, although the report presents those identifications as interpretations rather than direct observations of the foods themselves.
The research also examined childhood dietary patterns. Layers within the teeth’s enamel indicated that most of the children represented in the cemetery were breastfed until approximately 24 to 30 months of age.
Taken together, the evidence offers a view of food consumption in Wrocław during a period when locally available staples were combined with products arriving through regional and overseas trade. The results are based on the analyzed dental remains and plaque samples from the cemetery population.
