Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T02:46:53.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Did Neolithic farming fail? The case for a Bronze Age agricultural revolution in the British Isles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Chris J. Stevens  and
Dorian Q Fuller
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper rewrites the early history of Britain, showing that while the cultivation of cereals arrived there in about 4000 cal BC, it did not last. Between 3300 and 1500 BC Britons became largely pastoral, reverting only with a major upsurge of agricultural activity in the Middle Bronze Age. This loss of interest in arable farming was accompanied by a decline in population, seen by the authors as having a climatic impetus. But they also point to this period as the time of construction of the great megalithic monuments, including Stonehenge. We are left wondering whether pastoralism was all that bad, and whether it was one intrusion after another that set the agenda on the island.

Keywords

BritainNeolithicBronze Agecerealshazelnutsarable farmingpastoralismmonumentality
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 333 , September 2012 , pp. 707 - 722
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2012 

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

Allard, F. & Erdenebaartar, D.. 2005. Khirigsuurs, ritual and mobility in the Bronze Age of Mongolia. Antiquity 79: 547–63.Google Scholar
Asouti, E. & Fuller, D.Q.. 2008. Trees and woodlands of south India. Archaeological perspectives. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.C. 1994. Fragments from antiquity. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bettinger, R., Barton, L. & Morgan, C.. 2010. The origins of food production in north China: a different kind of agricultural revolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 19: 9–21.Google Scholar
Bogaard, A. & Jones, G.. 2007. Neolithic farming in Britain and Central Europe: contrast or continuity? Proceedings of the British Academy 144: 357–75.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1978. The prehistoric settlement of Britain. London: Book Club Associates.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 2007. The prehistory of Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2005. OxCal program v3.10. Available at: http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk (accessed 11 April 2012).Google Scholar
Brown, A. 2007. Dating the onset of cereal cultivation in Britain and Ireland: the evidence from charred cereal grains. Antiquity 81: 1042–52.Google Scholar
Case, H. 1969. Neolithic explanations. Antiquity 43: 176–86.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1952. Prehistoric communities of the British Isles. London: W.R. Chambers.Google Scholar
Cleal, R.M.J. 2004. The dating and diversity of the earliest ceramics ofWessex and south-west England, in Cleal, R.M.J. & Pollard, J. (ed.) Monuments and material culture: papers in honour of an Avebury archaeologist: Isobel Smith: 166–92. East Knoyle: Hobnob Press.Google Scholar
Collard, M., Edinborough, K., Shennan, S. & Thomas, M.G.. 2010. Radiocarbon evidence indicates that migrants introduced farming to Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(4): 866–70.Google Scholar
Curwen, E.E. 1937. Querns. Antiquity 11: 133–51.Google Scholar
Dhavalikar, M. 1988. The first farmers of the Deccan. Pune: Ravish.Google Scholar
Di Lernia, S. 2006. Building monuments, creating identity: cattle cult as a social response to rapid environmental changes in the Holocene Sahara. Quaternary International 151: 50–62.Google Scholar
Entwhistle, R. & Grant, A.. 1989. The evidence for cereal cultivation and animal husbandry in the southern British Neolithic and Bronze Age, in Milles, A., Williams, D. & Gardner, N. (ed.) The beginnings of agriculture (British Archaeological Reports international series 496): 203–15. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Fritz, G. 2007. Keepers of Lousiana's levees: early mound builders and forest managers, in Denham, T., Iriarte, J. & Vrydaghs, L. (ed.) Rethinking agriculture: archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives: 189–209. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Gkiasta, M., Russell, T., Shennan, S. & Steele, J.. 2003. Neolithic transition in Europe: the radiocarbon record revisited. Antiquity 77: 45–62.Google Scholar
Gyulai, F. 2007. Seed and fruit remains associated with Neolithic origins in the Carpathian Basin, in Colledge, S. & Conolly, J. (ed.) The origins and spread of domestic plants in Southwest Asia and Europe: 125–40. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Habu, J. 2008. Growth and decline in complex hunter-gatherers societies: a case study from the Jomon period Sannai Maruyama site, Japan. Antiquity 82: 571–84.Google Scholar
Halstead, P. & O'shea, J.. 1982. A friend in need is a friend indeed: social storage and the origins of social ranking, in Renfrew, C. & Shennan, S. (ed.) Ranking, resource and exchange: 92–99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hey, G. & Barclay, A.. 2007. The Thames Valley in the late fifth and early fourth millennium cal BC: the appearance of domestication and the evidence for change. Proceedings of the British Academy 144: 399–422.Google Scholar
Hey, G. & Robinson, M.A.. 2011. Neolithic communities in the Thames Valley: living in the natural landscape, in Hey, G., Garwood, P., Robinson, M., Barclay, A. & Bradley, P. (ed.) The Thames through time: volume 1, part 2; Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age: 221–60. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Jacomet, S. 2007. Neolithic plant economies in the northern Alpine Foreland from 5500-3500 cal BC, in Colledge, S. & Conolly, J. (ed.) The origins and spread of domestic plants in Southwest Asia and Europe: 221–58. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Jones, G. & Legge, A.J.. 2008. Evaluating the role of cereal cultivation in the Neolithic: charred plant remains from Hambledon Hill, in Mercer, R., & Healy, F. (ed.) Hambledon Hill, Dorset, England: excavation and survey of a Neolithic monument complex and its surrounding landscape, volume 2: 469–76. Swindon: English Heritage Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Jones, G. & Rowley-Conwy, P.. 2007. On the importance of cereal cultivation in the British Neolithic, in Colledge, S. & Conolly, J. (ed.) The origins and spread of domestic plants in Southwest Asia and Europe: 391–420. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Jones, M. 1980. Carbonized cereals from grooved ware contexts. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 46: 61–63.Google Scholar
Kirlies, W., Kloob, S., Kroll, H. & Müller, J.. 2011. Crop growing and gathering in the northern German Neolithic: a review supplemented by new results. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 21: 221–42.Google Scholar
Kroll, H. 2007. The plant remains from the Neolithic Funnel Beaker sites of Wangels in Holsatia, northern Germany, in Colledge, S. & Conolly, J. (ed.) The origins and spread of domestic plants in Southwest Asia and Europe: 349–58. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Legge, A.J. 1986. Seeds of discontent: accelerator dates on some charred plant remains from the Kebaran and Natufian culture, in Gowlett, J.A.J. & Hedges, R.E.M. (ed.) Archaeological results from accelerator dating: 13–22. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology.Google Scholar
Legge, A.J. 1989. Milking the evidence: a reply to Entwhistle and Grant, in Milles, A., Williams, D. & Gardner, N. (ed.) Beginnings of agriculture (British Archaeological Reports international series 496): 217–42. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Malville, J.M., Wendorf, F., Mazar, A.A. & Schild, R.. 1998. Megaliths and Neolithic astronomy in southern Egypt. Nature 392: 488–91.Google Scholar
Mckinley, J. 2008. The human remains, in Mercer, R. & Healy, F. (ed.) Hambledon Hill, Dorset, England: excavation and survey of a Neolithic monument complex and its surrounding landscape, volume 2: 477–521. Swindon: English Heritage Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Moffett, L., Robinson, M. & Straker, V.. 1989. Cereals, fruit and nuts: charred plant remains from Neolithic sites in England and Wales and the Neolithic economy, in Milles, A., Williams, D. & Gardner, N. (ed.) Beginnings of agriculture (British Archaeological Reports international series 496): 243–61. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., Cleal, R., Marshall, P., Needham, S., Pollard, J., Richards, C., Ruggles, C., Sheridan, A., Thomas, J., Tilley, C., Welham, K., Chamberlain, A., Chenery, C., Evans, J., Knüsel, C., Linford, N., Martin, L., Montgomery, J., Payne, A. & Richards, M.. 2007. The age of Stonehenge. Antiquity 81: 617–39.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1954. The Neolithic cultures of the British Isles. London: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Hajdas, I., Heaton, T.J., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Mccormac, F.G., Manning, S.W., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Southon, J.R., Talamo, S., Turney, C.S.M., Van Der Plicht, J. & Weyhenmeyer, C.E.. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0-50 000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4): 1111–50.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. 2000. Human consumption of plant foods in the British Neolithic: direct evidence from bone stable isotopes, in Fairbairn, A.S. (ed.) Plants in Neolithic Britain and beyond (Neolithic studies seminar paper 5): 123–35. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Richmond, A. 1999. Preferred economies: the nature of the subsistence base throughout mainland Britain during prehistory (British Archaeological Reports British series 290). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Robinson, M.A. 2000. Further considerations of Neolithic charred cereals, fruits, and nuts, in Fairbairn, A.S. (ed.) Plants in Neolithic Britain and beyond (Neolithic studies seminar paper 5): 85–90. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Rottoli, M. & Castiglioni, E.. 2009. Prehistory of plant growing and collecting in northern Italy, based on seed remains from the early Neolithic to the Chalcolithic (c. 5600-2100 cal BC). Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 18: 91–103.Google Scholar
Rowley-Conwy, P. 2004. How the West was lost: a reconsideration of agricultural origins in Britain, Ireland and southern Scandinavia. Current Anthropology 45(S4): S83–S113.Google Scholar
Rowley-Conwy, P. 2011. Westward ho! The spread of agriculture from Central Europe to the Atlantic. Current Anthropology 52(S4): S431–S451.Google Scholar
Schibler, J. & Jacomet, S.. 2010. Short climatic fluctuations and their impact on human economies and societies: the potential of the Neolithic lake shore settlements in the Alpine Foreland. Environmental Archaeology 15(2): 173–82.Google Scholar
Shennan, S. & Edinborough, K.. 2007. Prehistoric population history: from the late Glacial to the Late Neolithic in Central and Northern Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 1339–45.Google Scholar
Sheridan, A. 2011. The Neolithization of Britain and Ireland: the ‘big picture’, in Finlayson, B. & Warren, G. (ed.) Landscapes in transition: 89–105. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Stevens, C.J. 2007. Reconsidering the evidence: towards an understanding of the social contexts of subsistence production in Neolithic Britain, in Colledge, S. & Conolly, J. (ed.) The origins and spread of domestic plants in Southwest Asia and Europe: 375–90. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 1999. Understanding the Neolithic. A revised second edition of rethinking the Neolithic. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wendorf, F., Schild, R., Close, A.E., Donahue, D.J., Jull, A.J.T., Zabel, T.H., Hanna Wieckowska, H., Kobusiewicz, M., Issawi, B. & El Hadidi, N.. 1984. New radiocarbon dates on the cereals from Wadi Kubbaniya. Science 225: 645–46.Google Scholar
Winterhalder, B. & Kennett, D.J.. 2006. Behavioral ecology and the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, in Kennett, D.J. & Winterhalder, B. (ed.) Behavioral ecology and the transition to agriculture: 1–21. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar