How did our ancestors survive winter

Before inventions like central heating and electricity, winter wasn’t just a time of year when it was wet and got dark early, it was a time that could pose a serious threat to your life. Making it through the winter months took more than just staying warm, as half the battle was trying not to starve to death. Until modern heating inventions, winters were spent very much the same by the various civilizations around the world with only minor changes in culture and laws.

The Ice Age

The last ice age ended around 10,000 BCE but modern humans have been around since the great leap forward in evolution which occurred around 50,000 BCE. This means that for 40,000 years, humans had to live in a frozen wasteland of gigantic glaciers and wooly mammoths, or did they? During the ice age, people would still experience summer and the ability to forage and hunt because large areas of the planet would not be covered in ice. Glaciers during the last ice age were up to 2 miles deep and would make the land in the upper northern hemisphere uninhabitable, but all that water has to come from another location, leaving many areas of the earth ice-free.

Winters would still be very cold though and would require weeks of preparation, but it’s unlikely they would be spent living in caves as so many people during this time are depicted in art. The reason is that rock holds the cold better than any other material and would be like a freezer unless a large fire is constantly burning, and heating a cave up while inside it can be dangerous as the rock can crack and collapse. We don’t know for sure but it’s most likely that people made shelters from animal skins draped over stick frames that allowed a fire to burn inside. Animal skins would also be a very important part of their survival because the skin on a wooly mammoth is 1 inch thick and has hair up to 20 inches long on the outside, I can only imagine a blanket made from that would keep you warm no matter where you are.

As for food, hunting would still be heavily relied on throughout winter because many of the animals around at the time would not go into hibernation, and the larger ones that did would be easy to find and kill. During the ice age, people hadn’t even discovered pottery yet so it’s unlikely that any dishes like pemmican or salted/potted meat would have been made, and even jerky wouldn’t last long enough for the whole winter, leaving the foraging of preservable plants like nuts and wild grain, fishing and hunting as the only ways of finding something to eat.

The Iron Age

The British Iron Age began around 800 BCE and ended when the Romans first invaded in 43 AD. The most important invention of the Iron Age was the plow, something that had already been around for a long time, but now they could make it out of iron and improve the design. The plow allowed people to mass produce grain, and this staple crop could be dried and would safely last for several years. There would be no more hunting or having to go fishing every day on a frozen lake because now all the food that would be needed for the whole winter could be kept in a building inside the village.

The most common home design by far during the Iron Age was the roundhouse. This design is the warmest possible home they could have made because the central fire pit provides more heat than any fireplace could. The smoke would escape out the thatch and heat would be deflected off all the walls at every possible angle, making staying warm a problem of the past, unless you have to go outside or run out of wood that is.

Medieval period

In Britain, this age began with the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066 and ended at the start of the Tudor period in 1485. During this time, people in Britain were still very poor and technology hadn’t moved on a great deal for hundreds of years, leaving the people of the medieval period to survive winter the same way everyone else before them did, with as much food, firewood, and clothing as possible. Homes in the medieval period were different from the Iron Age and usually consisted of timber frame homes with daub or plank walls. Fire pits were still cheaper and more effective than fireplaces, but the biggest problem they had compared to earlier ages was the laws they had to live by and their population.

The Iron Age saw the population of Britain pass 1 million for the first time, which meant huge areas of land would still be wilderness and wild animals and plants would be plentiful. By the time the medieval period arrived, the population had increased many times over, and hunting wild game was something usually reserved for the lord of the land. Grain, winter vegetables like cabbage and leeks, and plenty of fish would be the diet of the average peasant, but one thing they did have going for them over earlier ages was the selection of food. The Romans brought with them many new crops and trading with neighboring nations over the centuries meant more variety in their diet, but that didn’t help much if you couldn’t afford it.

Colonial era

Beginning in the 1500s the nations of Europe began to invade parts of the world and establish themselves there. This presence in a foreign land came to be known as colonialism and was meant to establish dominance and drain wealth from the region. The huge amount of travel that was required to do this led to a number of food inventions that made their way down to the peasant class and helped greatly during the winter months. Advances in farming meant grain was now cheaper and more accessible, and new methods of preserving food were introduced like salting pork and potted meat, a mixture of cooked and shredded meat mixed with fat and sealed in a jar with a layer of fat or butter on top to block out the air.

Homes were also improved from earlier ages with the most notable change being the use of plaster instead of daub. This new material not only held the heat better but was also stronger and more resistant to wet weather, with the materials needed to make it plentiful. Here you’ll find a medieval mortar recipe if you want a look at how to make it, the plaster they used on their homes was made the same way but there was a higher amount of slaked lime to sand which was also put through a sieve to make it as smooth as possible.

Throughout the years, various people around the world have had their own way of building homes and the clothes they wear, but in the end, it all comes down to the same thing. Winter is very cold and crops don’t grow well, so having shelter, enough warm clothing, and food that will last you through the months is the only way to go.