Archaeology offers us various ways to explore eating habits in the past. These include the identification of food remains, such as animal bones (archeozoology) and fruit and vegetable seeds and pits (paleocarpology), as well as the study of the recipients and utensils used for the storage, preparation and consumption of foodstuffs. For historical periods, the use of written and iconographic sources can allow us to recreate more accurately a table setting or establish a recipe, for example.

In Saint-Denis, these research themes have not all been the object of extensive scientific study, which would allow archaeologists to both synthesize their findings and communicate them to the general public. Based on a section of pieces that are complete enough to be meaningful, we offer five sets of table utensils, ranging in time from the Carolingian period to the sixteenth century.