Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T05:19:05.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Seaweed-eating sheep and the adaptation of husbandry in Neolithic Orkney: new insights from Skara Brae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2019

Marie Balasse Open the ORCID record for Marie Balasse [Opens in a new window] ,
Anne Tresset ,
Gaël Obein ,
Denis Fiorillo  and
Henri Gandois
Marie Balasse*
Affiliation:
UMR 7209 ‘Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques, Environnements’, CNRS/MNHN, 55 Rue Buffon, Paris 75005, France
Anne Tresset
Affiliation:
UMR 7209 ‘Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques, Environnements’, CNRS/MNHN, 55 Rue Buffon, Paris 75005, France
Gaël Obein
Affiliation:
EA 2367 Laboratoire commun de Métrologie LNE-CNAM, CNAM, 61 Rue du Landy, La Plaine Saint-Denis 93210, France
Denis Fiorillo
Affiliation:
UMR 7209 ‘Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques, Environnements’, CNRS/MNHN, 55 Rue Buffon, Paris 75005, France
Henri Gandois
Affiliation:
UMR 8215 ‘Trajectoires—De la sédentarisation à l'Etat’, Maison de l'Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie, 21 Allée de l'Université, Nanterre 92023, France
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Neolithisation of Europe involved socio-economic and biological adaptations to new environments. The use of seaweed as livestock fodder, for example, was key to the introduction of animal husbandry to the Orkney archipelago, c. 3500 cal BC. Using stable isotope analysis of faunal remains from Skara Brae, this study provides new evidence for, and clarifies the chronology of, the adoption of seaweed consumption by sheep. The results show that sheep consumed moderate amounts of seaweed from the moment of their introduction to Orkney—a practice that facilitated the successful spread of the farming lifeways to the most remote areas of Europe.

Keywords

OrkneyNeolithicseaweedstable isotopessheephusbandry
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 370 , August 2019 , pp. 919 - 932
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amorosi, T., Buckland, P.C., Edwards, K.J., Mainland, I., McGovern, T.H., Sadler, J.P. & Skidmore, P.. 1998. They did not live by grass alone: the politics and palaeoecology of animal fodder in the North Atlantic region. Environmental Archaeology 1: 41–54. https://doi.org/10.1179/env.1996.1.1.41Google Scholar
Arens, D., Sigrist, I., Alini, M., Schawalder, P., Schneider, E. & Egermann, M.. 2007. Seasonal changes in bone metabolism in sheep. Veterinary Journal 174: 585–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tvjl.2006.10.001Google Scholar
Arzel, P. 1987. Les Goémoniers. Douarnenez: Chasse-Marée/Editions de l'Estran.Google Scholar
Balasse, M. & Tresset, A.. 2009. A key to the adaptation of Neolithic husbandry in the Orkneys: contribution of seaweed to the sheep diet at the Holm of Papa Westray, revealed through stable isotope analysis (δ13C and δ18O) of teeth, in Ritchie, A. (ed.) On the fringe of Neolithic Europe. Excavation of a chambered cairn on the Holm of Papa Westray, Orkney: 74–82. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Balasse, M., Tresset, A., Dobney, K. & Ambrose, S.H.. 2005. The use of isotope ratios to test for seaweed eating in sheep. Journal of Zoology 266: 283–91. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952836905006916Google Scholar
Balasse, M., Tresset, A. & Ambrose, S.H.. 2006. Stable isotope evidence (δ13C, δ18O) for winter feeding on seaweed by Neolithic sheep of Scotland. Journal of Zoology 270: 170–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00104.xGoogle Scholar
Balasse, M., Mainland, I. & Richards, M.P.. 2009. Stable isotope evidence for seasonal consumption of seaweed by modern and archaeological sheep in the Orkney archipelago (Scotland). Environmental Archaeology 14: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1179/174963109X400637Google Scholar
Bayliss, A., Marshall, P., Richards, C. & Whittle, A.. 2017. Islands of history: the Late Neolithic timescape of Orkney. Antiquity 91: 1171–88. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.140Google Scholar
Bunting, M.J., Farrell, M., Bayliss, A., Marshall, P. & Whittle, A.. 2018. Maps from mud—using the multiple scenario approach to reconstruct land cover dynamics from pollen records: a case study of two Neolithic landscapes. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 6: 36. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2018.00036Google Scholar
Clarke, D.V. 1976. The Neolithic village at Skara Brae, Orkney, 1972–73 excavations: an interim report. Edinburgh: HMSO.Google Scholar
Farrell, M., Bunting, M.J., Lee, D.H.J. & Thomas, A.. 2014. Neolithic settlement at the woodland's edge: palynological data and timber architecture in Orkney, Scotland. Journal of Archaeological Science 51: 225–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2012.05.042Google Scholar
Feldmann, J., John, K. & Pengsprecha, P.. 2000. Arsenic metabolism in seaweed-eating sheep from northern Scotland. Fresenius Journal of Analytical Chemistry 368: 116–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s002160000482Google Scholar
Francey, R.J., Allison, C.E., Etheridge, D.M., Trudinger, C.M., Enting, I.G., Leuenberger, M., Langenfelds, R.L., Michel, E. & Steele, L.P.. 1999. A 1000-year high precision record of δ13C in atmospheric CO2. Tellus 51: 170–93. https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v51i2.16269Google Scholar
Gandois, H. (ed.). 2017. Rapport préliminaire d'opération de fouille sur le Domaine Public Maritime: site 22bis, île de Kemenez (Le Conquet, Finistère), opération n°OA-2941. Paris: Ministère de la Culture.Google Scholar
Hallson, S.V. 1964. The uses of seaweed in Iceland, in De Virville, D. & Feldman, J. (ed.) Proceedings of the Fourth International Seaweeds Symposium, Biarritz 1961: 398–405. Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Hansen, H.R., Hector, B.L. & Feldmann, J.. 2003. A qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the seaweed diet of North Ronaldsay sheep. Animal Feed Science and Technology 105: 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-8401(03)00053-1Google Scholar
Ivanova, M., De Cupere, B., Ethier, J. & Marinova, E.. 2018. Pioneer farming in south-east Europe during the early sixth millennium BC: climate-related adaptations in the exploitation of plants and animals. PLoS ONE 13: e0197225. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197225Google Scholar
Jones, J.R. & Mulville, J.. 2016. Isotopic and zooarchaeological approaches towards understanding aquatic resource use in human economies and animal management in the prehistoric Scottish North Atlantic islands. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 6: 665–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.019Google Scholar
Krueger, H.W. & Sullivan, C.H.. 1984. Models for carbon isotope fractionation between diet and bone, in Turnlund, J.R. & Johnson, P.E. (ed.) Stable isotopes in nutrition (American Chemical Society Symposium Series 258): 205–20. Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society. https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-1984-0258.ch014Google Scholar
MacLachlan, G. 1988. Sheep saga—the North Ronaldsays. Caithness: Caithness Field Club Bulletin.Google Scholar
MacLachlan, G. & Johnston, W.S.. 1982. Copper poisoning in sheep from North Ronaldsay maintained on a diet of terrestrial herbage. Veterinary Record 111: 299–301. https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.111.13.299Google Scholar
Mainland, I., Towers, J., Ewens, V., Davis, G., Montgomery, J., Batey, C., Card, N. & Downes, J.. 2016. Toiling with teeth: an integrated dental analysis of sheep and cattle dentition in Iron Age and Viking–Late Norse villages. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 6: 837–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.12.002Google Scholar
Marinova, E. & Valamoti, S.. 2014. Crop diversity and choice in prehistoric South-eastern Europe: cultural and environmental factors shaping the archaeobotanical record of northern Greece and Bulgaria, in Chevalier, A., Marinova, E. & Peña-Chocarro, L. (ed.) Plants and people: choices and diversity through time: 64–74. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Orpin, C.G., Greenwood, Y., Hall, F.J. & Paterson, I.W.. 1985. The rumen microbiology of seaweed digestion in Orkney sheep. Journal of Applied Bacteriology 59: 585–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2672.1985.tb01715.xGoogle Scholar
Orton, D., Gaastra, J. & Vander Linden, M.. 2016. Between the Danube and the deep blue sea: zooarchaeological meta-analysis reveals variability in the spread and development of Neolithic farming across the Western Balkans. Open Quaternary 2: 1–26. https://doi.org/10.5334/oq.28Google Scholar
Raven, J.A. et al. 2002. Mechanistic interpretation of carbon isotope discrimination by marine macroalgae and seagrasses. Functional Plant Biology 29: 355–78. https://doi.org/10.1071/PP01201Google Scholar
Schulting, R.J. & Richards, M.P.. 2009. Radiocarbon dates and stable isotope values on human remains, in Ritchie, A. (ed.) On the fringe of Neolithic Europe. Excavation of a chambered cairn on the Holm of Papa Westray, Orkney: 66–74. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Schulting, R.J., Vaiglova, P., Crozier, R. & Reimer, P.J.. 2017. Further isotopic evidence for seaweed-eating sheep from Neolithic Orkney. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 11: 463–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.12.017Google Scholar
Smedley, M., Dawson, T., Comstock, J., Donovan, L., Sherill, D., Cook, C.M. & Ehleringer, J.. 1991. Seasonal carbon isotope discrimination in a grassland community. Oecologia 85: 314–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320605Google Scholar
Tresset, A. & Vigne, J.-D.. 2011. Last hunter-gatherers and first farmers of Europe. Comptes Rendus Biologie 334: 182–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crvi.2010.12.010Google Scholar
Whittle, A., Healy, F. & Bayliss, A.. 2011. Gathering time: dating the Early Neolithic enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Balasse et al. supplementary material

Balasse et al. supplementary material 1

Download Balasse et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.8 MB