Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands
Despite being surrounded by aquatic resources, the Prehistoric populations of the North Atlantic Islands have a complex history of aquatic resource that until now has been little understood. Specifically the changing importance and uses of aquatic resources through time, and the role of aquatic reso...
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ftunivcantabria:oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/17930 2023-05-15T17:31:38+02:00 Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands Jones, Jennifer Rose Mulville, Jacqui Universidad de Cantabria 2016 http://hdl.handle.net/10902/17930 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019 eng eng https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019 2352-409X 2352-4103 http://hdl.handle.net/10902/17930 doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019 Attribution 4.0 International © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ openAccess CC-BY Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 6 (2016), 665-677 Orkney Western isles Isotopes Zooarchaeology Animal management Shorefront grazing Islands Prehistory Aquatic resources info:eu-repo/semantics/article publishedVersion 2016 ftunivcantabria https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019 2023-02-20T10:29:27Z Despite being surrounded by aquatic resources, the Prehistoric populations of the North Atlantic Islands have a complex history of aquatic resource that until now has been little understood. Specifically the changing importance and uses of aquatic resources through time, and the role of aquatic resources in the management of animals in prehistory requires further attention. This paper presents results of faunal isotopic analysis in combination with existing human isotopic evidence and zooarchaeological datasets from Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age sites in the Western Isles (also known as the Outer Hebrides) and Orkney to explore the importance of aquatic resources in the lives of these prehistory populations. In Orkney coastal grazing was an important aspect in the management of sheep throughout prehistory, whereas in the Western Isles this was only evident in the Bronze Age. Aquatic protein was also used in the management of pigs in the Western Isles during the Middle Iron Age. There is little evidence of humans consuming aquatic resources in the Neolithic, and only minor evidence of consumption in the Bronze Age. During the Iron Age aquatic resources become more important in the diet of humans. The Prehistoric Atlantic Islanders of Scotland had a complex and dynamic relationship with aquatic resources, especially in the role of animal management that changed throughout the course of prehistory. The authorswould like to express thanks to NERC for funding this research (Grant number NE/F021054/1, PI Richard Evershed), and the NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility in East Kilbride (EK158- 03/10) for their financial assistance with the analytical research Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Universidad de Cantabria: UCrea Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 6 665 677 |
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Open Polar |
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Universidad de Cantabria: UCrea |
op_collection_id |
ftunivcantabria |
language |
English |
topic |
Orkney Western isles Isotopes Zooarchaeology Animal management Shorefront grazing Islands Prehistory Aquatic resources |
spellingShingle |
Orkney Western isles Isotopes Zooarchaeology Animal management Shorefront grazing Islands Prehistory Aquatic resources Jones, Jennifer Rose Mulville, Jacqui Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands |
topic_facet |
Orkney Western isles Isotopes Zooarchaeology Animal management Shorefront grazing Islands Prehistory Aquatic resources |
description |
Despite being surrounded by aquatic resources, the Prehistoric populations of the North Atlantic Islands have a complex history of aquatic resource that until now has been little understood. Specifically the changing importance and uses of aquatic resources through time, and the role of aquatic resources in the management of animals in prehistory requires further attention. This paper presents results of faunal isotopic analysis in combination with existing human isotopic evidence and zooarchaeological datasets from Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age sites in the Western Isles (also known as the Outer Hebrides) and Orkney to explore the importance of aquatic resources in the lives of these prehistory populations. In Orkney coastal grazing was an important aspect in the management of sheep throughout prehistory, whereas in the Western Isles this was only evident in the Bronze Age. Aquatic protein was also used in the management of pigs in the Western Isles during the Middle Iron Age. There is little evidence of humans consuming aquatic resources in the Neolithic, and only minor evidence of consumption in the Bronze Age. During the Iron Age aquatic resources become more important in the diet of humans. The Prehistoric Atlantic Islanders of Scotland had a complex and dynamic relationship with aquatic resources, especially in the role of animal management that changed throughout the course of prehistory. The authorswould like to express thanks to NERC for funding this research (Grant number NE/F021054/1, PI Richard Evershed), and the NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility in East Kilbride (EK158- 03/10) for their financial assistance with the analytical research |
author2 |
Universidad de Cantabria |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jones, Jennifer Rose Mulville, Jacqui |
author_facet |
Jones, Jennifer Rose Mulville, Jacqui |
author_sort |
Jones, Jennifer Rose |
title |
Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands |
title_short |
Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands |
title_full |
Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands |
title_fullStr |
Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands |
title_full_unstemmed |
Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic Islands |
title_sort |
isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric scottish north atlantic islands |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10902/17930 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 6 (2016), 665-677 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019 2352-409X 2352-4103 http://hdl.handle.net/10902/17930 doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ openAccess |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019 |
container_title |
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |
container_volume |
6 |
container_start_page |
665 |
op_container_end_page |
677 |
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1766129318797246464 |