Medieval pigs

In the Middle Ages pigs looked much more like wild boars.

I am a domestic pig from the Middle Ages. Pigs looked much more like wild boars then than today.

We were driven into the forest to forage, especially in autumn when there are acorns and beechnuts. We are omnivores, and we also eat wild fruit, linden and maple seeds, nuts and berries, roots, insects, worms and small mammals. This was our usual food in the Middle Ages. Pig feed made from grain as common today, did not exist at that time.

We pigs have a very good hearing and we used to follow our swineherd’s signal, e. g. the call of his horn. This made it easier for a single swineherd to tend large herds of pigs with more than a hundred animals.