In addition to the chimney and potato issue from my earlier post...

[conuly]

northern Europe (including the British Isles) did not have eating forks until the 17th century at the earliest. The eating fork wasn't commonplace in Italy until the 14th century, and it took a while to spread out from there.

I don't care how refined and polite your character is, if your setting predates the arrival of forks in her region she washes her hands and eats with her fingers the way God intended. You can show her good manners by demonstrating that she will "let no morsel from her lippës fall, Nor wet her fingers in her saucë deep". Probably she doesn't double dip either.

Comments

[gwydion]

Buckets are a very late invention relatively. We take them for granted, but wooden buckets are 14th Century in the HRE and spread out from there. So 15th century is fine in a lost of places. 16th is for sure, but all those wells people fell into in the middle ages were open holes (No neat little stone circle with roof) with no wooden buckets on a pully.

It's pretty much leather or ceramic for most medieval or earlier western settings.

[conuly]

That is now going to irritate me whenever I see it on TV or in a movie.

[gwydion]

Yes. Once you know, you can never unknow. :)