Content warning: This episode contains references to animal slaughter and blood. Listener discretion is advised.

In medieval England, all roads led to pigs. They lived side-by-side with humans, and were a common sight in daily life.

In this episode, Ollie and Joe speak to historian Dolly Jørgensen (Professor of History at University of Stavanger, Norway) about what it was like to live with pigs in medieval England: from pigs' place in homes and food systems, to the challenges required to maintain pig populations.

We'll be following up with Dolly in two weeks' time for another episode, exploring the symbolism of pigs, and what they have represented historically and today.

Delve deeper into Dolly's work in her most recent book, The Medieval Pig: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781837651689/the-medieval-pig/

See visuals from our discussion in Dolly's Bluesky thread: https://bsky.app/profile/dollyjorgensen.bsky.social/post/3lsjukzwkzk2s

This podcast contains audio from Epidemic Sound, plus freesound_community via Pixabay.

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Absolute Units is the official podcast of The Museum of English Rural Life. This series is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and Museums Partnership Reading, a partnership of The MERL with Reading Museum. Themetune by Tai Dawson.

Co-hosts: Ollie Douglas and Joe Vaughan
Producer: Joe Vaughan

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