#  Digging Veritas - Divided We Eat 

 



 ![cow bone](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/peabody/files/oe_0-veritas-eat-start-3.jpg)

 

Cow bone from Colonial Harvard Yard, PM 980-3-10/99980.

 ![Oyster shells](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/peabody/files/oe_0-veritas-eat-start-2.jpg)

 

Oyster shells from Colonial Harvard Yard, PM 999-22-10/86452.

 ![Detail: Still Life with Fish](/sites/g/files/omnuum4921/files/peabody/files/oe_0-veritas-eat-start-1.jpg)

 

Still Life with Fish, by Pieter Claesz. Courtesy of Rijksmuseum.

  
What did you eat for lunch today? Answering this question from the perspective of a 17th-century Harvard student can illustrate vast differences between now and then. In the 21st century, Harvard provides the same dining experience for any student through a universally shared meal plan. With increasing economic diversity at Harvard, this meal plan becomes essential for creating an environment of equality. At 17th-century Harvard, however, students had varying dining experiences depending on criteria like age and wealth.

Food becomes a way to understand inequalities at early Harvard. While most 17th-century food disintegrated hundreds of years ago, uncovering archaeological food remains like animal bones and studying written archives allowed us to explore the daily dining differences among 17th-century Harvard students.

Harvard's Daily Schedule

Sort**Time****Activities**6am

Morning prayer

7am 

Morning bever (a small meal of beer and bread)

8 – 11 am

 Three hour-long lectures

11 am

Dinner

11 – 2 pm

Recreation and study

2 – 5 pm

Meetings with tutors and study

5 pm

Afternoon bever

6 – 7:30 pm

Evening prayers

8 – 9 pm

Recreation

9 pm

Retire to rooms, lamps out for underclassmen

11 pm

Lamps out for upperclassmen