In Tudor times, theatregoers liked to snack on seafood during performances

London, Jan 29 (ANI): Snacking while watching the latest play has been in practice among Britons since hundreds of years ago, say archaeologists.

The preferred snacks for Tudor theatre-goers appear to have been oysters, crabs, cockles, mussels, periwinkles and whelks, as well as walnuts, hazelnuts, raisins, plums, cherries, dried figs and peaches.

Some clues even suggest that 16th-century fans of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe also used to dig into vast quantities of elderberry and blackberry pie - and some may even have snacked on sturgeon steaks.

Evidence from the most detailed study ever carried out on a Tudor or early Stuart playhouse has also proved the habit.

Archaeologists have been analysing the thousands of seeds, pips, stones, nutshell fragments, shellfish remains and fish and animal bones found on the site of the Rose Playhouse on London's South Bank.

The research also suggests that there was a class divide in the consumption of fast food, reports The Independent.

The findings show that wealthier members of the audience (seated in the galleries, rather than standing in the yard) could afford imported foods such as raisins, dried figs and peaches.

The research also revealed that some theatregoers might have indulged in pipe-smoking.

The archaeologists also identified seeds from marrows or pumpkins, which came from the Americas.

Thousands of hazelnut shells were used as absorbent floor aggregate on which poorer spectators could stand.

Museum of London Archaeology has just published the findings in 'The Rose and The Globe: Playhouses of Shakespeare's Bankside', written by archaeologists Julian Bowsher and Pat Miller. (ANI)