From the 11th century until the end of the 13th, England was home to an important Jewish community, which included some rabbis cited in the anthological talmudic commentary known as Tosafot. The first Jews in the British Isles were thought to have come over from France with William the Conqueror; the Jews were expelled en masse in 1295. Cnaan Lipshiz reports on some recently discovered pottery fragments found on the property of Jews living in Oxford:
The fragments came from two former homes in Oxford’s center that belonged to Jews: Jacob f. mag. Moses and Elekin f. Bassina, according to a report in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences last week on the findings by the researchers from the University of Bristol.
“A remarkable animal bone assemblage was unearthed in this latrine, dominated by domestic fowl (mainly goose), and with a complete absence of pig bones, hinting at a kosher diet,” the researchers wrote. Fish bones comprised only species such as herring, which are kosher, they added.
Read more at Jewish Telegraphic Agency
More about: Anglo-Jewry, Archaeology, Jewish history, Kashrut