Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos
The appearance of farming, from its inception in the Near East around 12 000 years ago, finally reached the northwestern extremes of Europe by the fourth millennium BC or shortly thereafter. Various models have been invoked to explain the Neolithization of northern Europe; however, resolving these d...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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2014
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2372 |
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ftnmscotlanddc:oai:hyku:e3d8f09b-1ab6-4a94-b2b1-a47c1ef75a03 2024-09-15T18:25:25+00:00 Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos Mulville, J Smyth, Jessica Whelton, Helen Jones, Jennifer Sheridan, J A Cramp, Lucy J E Sharples, N M Evershed, R P 2014-02-12 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2372 unknown Royal Society Publishing Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2372 stable carbon isotopes lipids Neolithic diet pottery biomarkers archaeology Article 2014 ftnmscotlanddc https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2372 2024-08-27T03:10:28Z The appearance of farming, from its inception in the Near East around 12 000 years ago, finally reached the northwestern extremes of Europe by the fourth millennium BC or shortly thereafter. Various models have been invoked to explain the Neolithization of northern Europe; however, resolving these different scenarios has proved problematic due to poor faunal preservation and the lack of specificity achievable for commonly applied proxies. Here, we present new multi-proxy evidence, which qualitatively and quantitatively maps subsistence change in the northeast Atlantic archipelagos from the Late Mesolithic into the Neolithic and beyond. A model involving significant retention of hunter–gatherer–fisher influences was tested against one of the dominant adoptions of farming using a novel suite of lipid biomarkers, including dihydroxy fatty acids, ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids and stable carbon isotope signatures of individual fatty acids preserved in cooking vessels. These new findings, together with archaeozoological and human skeletal collagen bulk stable carbon isotope proxies, unequivocally confirm rejection of marine resources by early farmers coinciding with the adoption of intensive dairy farming. This pattern of Neolithization contrasts markedly to that occurring contemporaneously in the Baltic, suggesting that geographically distinct ecological and cultural influences dictated the evolution of subsistence practices at this critical phase of European prehistory. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northeast Atlantic National Museums Scotland (NMS) Research Repository Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 281 1780 20132372 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
National Museums Scotland (NMS) Research Repository |
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ftnmscotlanddc |
language |
unknown |
topic |
stable carbon isotopes lipids Neolithic diet pottery biomarkers archaeology |
spellingShingle |
stable carbon isotopes lipids Neolithic diet pottery biomarkers archaeology Mulville, J Smyth, Jessica Whelton, Helen Jones, Jennifer Sheridan, J A Cramp, Lucy J E Sharples, N M Evershed, R P Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos |
topic_facet |
stable carbon isotopes lipids Neolithic diet pottery biomarkers archaeology |
description |
The appearance of farming, from its inception in the Near East around 12 000 years ago, finally reached the northwestern extremes of Europe by the fourth millennium BC or shortly thereafter. Various models have been invoked to explain the Neolithization of northern Europe; however, resolving these different scenarios has proved problematic due to poor faunal preservation and the lack of specificity achievable for commonly applied proxies. Here, we present new multi-proxy evidence, which qualitatively and quantitatively maps subsistence change in the northeast Atlantic archipelagos from the Late Mesolithic into the Neolithic and beyond. A model involving significant retention of hunter–gatherer–fisher influences was tested against one of the dominant adoptions of farming using a novel suite of lipid biomarkers, including dihydroxy fatty acids, ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids and stable carbon isotope signatures of individual fatty acids preserved in cooking vessels. These new findings, together with archaeozoological and human skeletal collagen bulk stable carbon isotope proxies, unequivocally confirm rejection of marine resources by early farmers coinciding with the adoption of intensive dairy farming. This pattern of Neolithization contrasts markedly to that occurring contemporaneously in the Baltic, suggesting that geographically distinct ecological and cultural influences dictated the evolution of subsistence practices at this critical phase of European prehistory. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mulville, J Smyth, Jessica Whelton, Helen Jones, Jennifer Sheridan, J A Cramp, Lucy J E Sharples, N M Evershed, R P |
author_facet |
Mulville, J Smyth, Jessica Whelton, Helen Jones, Jennifer Sheridan, J A Cramp, Lucy J E Sharples, N M Evershed, R P |
author_sort |
Mulville, J |
title |
Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos |
title_short |
Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos |
title_full |
Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos |
title_fullStr |
Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos |
title_full_unstemmed |
Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos |
title_sort |
immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the ne atlantic archipelagos |
publisher |
Royal Society Publishing |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2372 |
genre |
Northeast Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Northeast Atlantic |
op_relation |
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2372 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2372 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
281 |
container_issue |
1780 |
container_start_page |
20132372 |
_version_ |
1810465933024559104 |