Online First V/1/2014 INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY homepage: http://www.iansa.eu What Did They Eat, What Did They Drink, and from What? An Interdisciplinary Window into Everyday Life of the Early Modern Burgher’s Household in Český Krumlov (Czech Republic) Michal Preusz a , Jaromír Beneš a , Lenka Kovačiková a , Petr Kočár b , Jan Kaštovský c a Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Palaeoecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic b Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences, Letenská 4, 118 00 Prague, Czech Republic c Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 1, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic 1. Introduction Archaeological research in town historical cores occupies a privileged place in a varied range of topics dealt with by archaeology of the Early Modern Age in the Czech Republic (Krajíc 2007a; Smetánka, Žegklitz 1990; Žegklitz, Smetánka 1989, Žegklitz 2013). Similarly, rescue excavations in Český Krumlov provide important sources and information about the historical epoch which connects the relatively recent past with the present (Figure 1). Archaeologists of the Early Modern Age have investigated not only town spatial structures, intravilans, extravilans, fortiications and the economic background of localities, but they also seek to elucidate various aspects of daily life in this colourful, dynamic and multi-layered social and cultural environment. Research on individual town- houses, representing the most important micro-space in the organism of towns, the space necessary for the lives of the families and households of townspeople, is an important part of comprehensive investigations. Archaeological research conducted in the backyard of town house no. 55 in Latrán in Český Krumlov in 1998 (Figure 2) revealed a deep well illed with early modern waste. This thus far unique discovery of a well in an urban reservation has provided exceptional insight into the early modern household in a liege town, mainly from the archaeological point of view. Český Krumlov was included onto the list of UNESCO cultural heritage due to its importance in the Early Modern Age (a residential town of the Rosenbergs, later a liege town of the Eggenbergs and Schwarzenbergs) and uniquely preserved Renaissance and Baroque sites. Efforts to assess the research results and indings from the Early Modern period have led researchers to use an interdisciplinary approach from the very beginning. The obvious aim was to extend the historical and archaeological topics to the results from archaeozoological Volume V ● Issue 1/2014 ● Online First *Corresponding author. E-mail: preusz.michal@gmail.com ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 14. March 2014 Accepted: 17. September 2014 Key words: early modern consumers historical archaeology archaeology of food archaeozoology archaeobotanical analysis ABSTRACT: The South Bohemian town of Český Krumlov, a UNESCO world heritage site, the former residence of the noble family of the Rosenbergs, is a unique mirror of the Bohemian Renaissance and Baroque. Extremely rich archives, maintained by both the town and the nobility, were for a long time the only sources providing evidence about the everyday life during the period of the town’s highest prosperity. Thanks to developing post-medieval archaeology and rescue ield research conducted in South Bohe- mia over the last three decades, the original collection of archive documents was substantially enriched by a wide range of archaeological resources – artefacts and ecofacts. The archaeological research at a illed up well at house no. 55 in the area known as Latrán was the subject of interdisciplinary interest from the very beginning. The result of the joint research has become a probe into a burgher household, the rich inventory of which demonstrates that the early modern lifestyle was established in a wide range of both dish-ware (artefacts from glass and pottery) and meals (osteological materials and plant macro remains). The answers to the questions as to what and from what the townspeople ate and drank from on the threshold of modern times relects the origins of modern consumer society in southern Bohemia.