British archaeologists have made some exciting new discoveries that prove without a doubt that Jews living in medieval times did, in fact, observe the dietary laws of kashrut, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The archeologists were digging "on the site of demolished shops overlapping Oxford’s old Jewish quarter were stunned to find clear evidence that medieval Jews did observe the dietary laws of kashrut," the Jewish Chronicle's Rebecca Abrams reported.
“Normally you would expect a mixture of cow, sheep, goat and pig. Instead, we found a massive – I mean massive – amount of chicken and goose bones,” said Dr. Julie Dunne, the bio-molecular archaeologist at Bristol University who worked on the project since 2016, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
The remnants noticeably lacked pig bones, shellfish and any other type of non-kosher food. In the research of fat remnants on the ceramic fragments, as well, there was a noticeable lack of non-kosher remains.
These findings provide long-awaited evidence to support the assumption that "Jews in medieval England ate kosher," according to the report, after little evidence has previously shown medieval English Jews following such a diet.
Historical evidence has suggested that medieval English Jews were similar to their Christian neighbors, sharing the same fashions and frequenting the same streets and markets, according to the report.