One of the most iconic holiday images in the Western World is that of a grand family table set for a crowd, packed with goodies and right at the center is a stuffed turkey glistening and ready for dinner. What you might not expect from this image is that the turkey’s arrival on the holiday table has a long history in transatlantic exploration and international trade with Native Americans which dates to the late 16th century and makes William Shakespeare one of the first Englishmen to eat turkey at Christmas dinner.

For William Shakespeare, a turkey at Christmas dinner became a widely popular occurrence in England by the 1570s when young William was around 6 years old. The bard mentions turkeys in his plays only 4 times, and references another term for turkeys, guinea hen, only once. Despite the sparse textual references in Shakespeare’s works, turkeys play an interesting role in the life of William Shakespeare and here to share with us some of the bird’s fascinating history is a guest who knows first hand what it’s like to study England’s first turkeys because she was part of the team who discovered them.

Malene Lauritsen is a PhD researcher at the University of Exeter working in zooarchealogy. Back in 1983, The University of Exeter uncovered a bunch of artifacts that included some turkey bones. Those bones were left buried in a box unexplored until Malene, under the direction of Alan Outram, decided to look deeper. Malene is here this week to be our guide to exploring their historic find and to share with us exactly what they uncovered, and what those discoveries cna tell us about the history of William Shakespeare