Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T13:09:34.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: increasing temporal resolution in the isotope evidence

Part of: Bioarchaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2013

Janet Montgomery ,
Julia Beaumont ,
Mandy Jay ,
Katie Keefe ,
Andrew R. Gledhill ,
Gordon T. Cook ,
Stephen J. Dockrill  and
Nigel D. Melton
Janet Montgomery
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence)
Julia Beaumont
Affiliation:
2Archaeological Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Mandy Jay
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence) 2Archaeological Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK 3Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield S1 4ET, UK
Katie Keefe
Affiliation:
4York Osteoarchaeology, Ivy Cottage, 75 Main Street, Bishop Wilton, York YO42 1SR, UK
Andrew R. Gledhill
Affiliation:
2Archaeological Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Gordon T. Cook
Affiliation:
5Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, UK
Stephen J. Dockrill
Affiliation:
2Archaeological Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Nigel D. Melton
Affiliation:
1Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK (Email: [email protected]; author for correspondence) 2Archaeological Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Stable isotope analysis has provided crucial new insights into dietary change at the Neolithic transition in north-west Europe, indicating an unexpectedly sudden and radical shift from marine to terrestrial resources in coastal and island locations. Investigations of early Neolithic skeletal material from Sumburgh on Shetland, at the far-flung margins of the Neolithic world, suggest that this general pattern may mask significant subtle detail. Analysis of juvenile dentine reveals the consumption of marine foods on an occasional basis. This suggests that marine foods may have been consumed as a crucial supplementary resource in times of famine, when the newly introduced cereal crops failed to cope with the demanding climate of Shetland. This isotopic evidence is consistent with the presence of marine food debris in contemporary middens. The occasional and contingent nature of marine food consumption underlines how, even on Shetland, the shift from marine to terrestrial diet was a key element in the Neolithic transition.

Keywords

ShetlandMesolithic–Neolithic transitionmarine consumptionstable isotopesdentinebone
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 338 , December 2013 , pp. 1060 - 1072
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

References

Alqahtani, S. J., Hector, M.P. & Liversidge, H.M.. 2010. The London atlas of human tooth development and eruption. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 142: 481-90.Google Scholar
Bailey, G. & Milner, N.. 2003. Coastal hunter-gatherers and social evolution: marginal or central? Before Farming 3-4: 1–15.Google Scholar
Beaumont, J., Gledhill, A., Lee-Thorp, J. & Montgomery, J.. 2013. Childhood diet: a closer examination of the evidence from dental tissues using stable isotope analysis of incremental human dentine. Archaeometry 55: 277-95.Google Scholar
Birnie, J., Gordon, J.Bennett, K. & Hall, A. (ed.). 1993. The Quaternary of Shetland. Cambridge: Quaternary Research Association.Google Scholar
Bonsall, C., Cook, G.T.Pickard, C.Mcsweeney, K. & Bartosiewicz, L.. 2009. Dietary trends at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in northwest Europe, in CrombÉ, P., Strydonck, M. Van, Sergant, J., Boudin, M. & Bats, M. (ed.) Chronology and evolution in the Mesolithic of northwest Europe: 539-62. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Dockrill, S.J & Bond, J.M.. 2007. Investigations in Sanday, Orkney. Vol. 2: Tofts Ness, Sanday. An island landscape through three thousand years of prehistory. Kirkwall: The Orcadian & Historic Scotland.Google Scholar
Dockrill, S.J 2009. Sustainability and resilience in prehistoric North Atlantic Britain: the importance of a mixed palaeoeconomic system. Journal of the North Atlantic 2: 33–50.Google Scholar
Eriksson, G., Linderholm, A.Fornander, E.Kanstrup, M.Schoultz, P.Olofsson, H. & LidÉN, K.. 2008. Same island, different diet: cultural evolution of food practice on Ö land, Sweden, from the Mesolithic to the Roman period. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27: 520-43.Google Scholar
Fischer, A., Olsen, J.Richards, M.Heinemeier, J.SveinbjÖRnsdÓTtir, A.E. & Bennike, P.. 2007. Coast-inland mobility and diet in the Danish Mesolithic and Neolithic: evidence from stable isotope values of humans and dogs. Journal of Archaeological Science 34: 2125-50.Google Scholar
Froehle, A.W., Kellner, C. M. & Schoeninger, M.J.. 2010. FOCUS: effect of diet and protein source on carbon stable isotope ratios in collagen: follow up to Warinner and Tuross (2009). Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 2662-70.Google Scholar
Fuller, B.T., Richards, M.P. & Mays, S.A.. 2003. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope variations in tooth dentine serial sections from Wharram Percy. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 1673-84.Google Scholar
Fuller, B.T., Fuller, J. L.Harris, D.A. & Hedges, R.E.M.. 2006. Detection of breastfeeding and weaning in modern human infants with carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 129: 279-93.Google Scholar
Gillmore, G.K. & Melton, N.. 2011. Early Neolithic sands at West Voe, Shetland Islands: implications for human settlement, in Wilson, L. (ed.) Human interactions with the geosphere: the geoarchaeological perspective: 69–83. London: Geological Society of London.Google Scholar
Gustafson, G. 1950. Age determination on teeth. Journal of the American Dental Association 41: 45–54.Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M. 2004. Isotopes and red herrings: comments on Milner et al. and Lidén et al. Antiquity 78: 34–37.Google Scholar
Hedges, J.W. & Parry, G.W.. 1980. A Neolithic multiple burial at Sumburgh Airport, Shetland. Glasgow Archaeological Journal 7: 15–26.Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Clement, J. G.Thomas, C.D.L. & O'Connell, T. C.. 2007. Collagen turnover in the adult femoral mid-shaft: modeled from anthropogenic radiocarbon tracer measurements. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133: 808-16.Google Scholar
Hillson, S. 2005. Teeth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, J.L. 1999. A naturalist's Shetland. London: T. & A. D. Poyser.Google Scholar
Keefe, K. 2007. A stable isotope analysis of the Early Neolithic humans interred in the Sumburgh cist, Shetland. Unpublished MSc dissertation, University of Bradford.Google Scholar
Lee-Thorp, J. A. 2008. On isotopes and old bones. Archaeometry 50: 925-50.Google Scholar
Lee-Thorp, J., Sealy, J.C. & Merwe, N.J. Van Der. 1989. Stable carbon isotope ratio differences between bone collagen and bone apatite, and their relationship to diet. Journal of Archaeological Science 16: 585-99.Google Scholar
Lubell, D., Jackes, M.Schwarcz, H.Knyf, M. & Meiklejohn, C.. 1994. The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Portugal: isotopic and dental evidence of diet. Journal of Archaeological Science 21: 201-16.Google Scholar
Mekota, A.-M., Grupe, G., Ufer, S. & Cuntz, U.. 2006. Serial analysis of stable nitrogen and carbon isotopes in hair: monitoring starvation and recovery phases of patients suffering from anorexia nervosa. Rapid Communication in Mass Spectrometry 20: 1604-10.Google Scholar
Melton, N.D. 2008. West Voe: a Mesolithic-Neolithic transition site in Shetland, in Noble, G., Poller, T., Raven, J. & Verrill, L. (ed.) Scottish odysseys: the archaeology of islands: 23–36. Stroud: Tempus.Google Scholar
Melton, N.D. 2009. Shells, seals and ceramics: an evaluation of a midden at West Voe, Sumburgh, Shetland, 2004-2005, in Mccartan, S., Woodman, P., Schulting, R. & Warren, G. (ed.) Mesolithic horizons: papers presented at the Seventh International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Belfast 2005: 184-89. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Melton, N.D. & Nicholson, R.A.. 2004. The Mesolithic in the Northern Isles: the preliminary evaluation of an oyster midden at West Voe, Sumburgh, Shetland, UK. Antiquity 78. Available at http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/nicholson299/ (accessed 3 May 2013).Google Scholar
Melton, N.D. 2007. A Late Mesolithic-Early Neolithic midden at West Voe, Shetland, in Milner, N., Craig, O. E. & Bailey, G. N. (ed.) Shell middens in Atlantic Europe: 94–100. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Milner, N., Craig, O.E.Bailey, G.N.Pedersen, K. & Andersen, S.H.. 2004. Something fishy in the Neolithic? A re-evaluation of stable isotope analysis of Mesolithic and Neolithic coastal populations. Antiquity 78: 9–22.Google Scholar
Nanci, A. (ed.). 2003. Ten Cate's oral histology: development structure and function. St. Louis (MO): Mosby.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. & Mellars, P.A.. 1998. Stable isotopes and the seasonality of the Oronsay middens. Antiquity 72: 178-84.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. & Schulting, R.J.. 2006. Against the grain? A response to Milner et al. (2004). Antiquity 80: 444-56.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P., Schulting, R. J. & Hedges, R.E.M.. 2003. Sharp shift in diet at onset of Neolithic. Nature 425: 366.Google Scholar
Robson, H., Andersen, S.Craig, O.E.Fischer, A.Glykou, A.Hartz, S.LÜBke, H., SchmÖLcke, U. & Heron, C.. 2012. Carbon and nitrogen isotope signals in eel bone collagen from Mesolithic and Neolithic sites in northern Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 39: 2003-11.Google Scholar
Rowles, S.L. 1967. Chemistry of the mineral phase of dentine, in Miles, A.E. W. (ed.) Structural and chemical organization of teeth: 201-45. London: Academic.Google Scholar
Schulting, R.J. & Richards, M.P.. 2002. The wet, the wild and the domesticated: the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition on the west coast of Scotland. European Journal of Archaeology 5: 147-89.Google Scholar
Schulting, R.J. 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: 67–74. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Schulting, R., Sheridan, A.Crozier, R. & Murphy, E.. 2010. Revisiting Quanterness: new AMS dates and stable isotope data from an Orcadian chamber tomb. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 140: 1–50.Google Scholar
Sheridan, A. 2012. Neolithic Shetland: a view from the ‘mainland’, in Mahler, D. L. (ed.) The border of farming and the cultural markers: 6–36. Copenhagen: National Museum of Denmark.Google Scholar
Smits, E., Millard, A.R.Nowell, G. & Pearson, D.G.. 2010. Isotopic investigation of diet and residential mobility in the Neolithic of the Lower Rhine Basin. European Journal of Archaeology 13: 5–31.Google Scholar
Tauber, H. 1981. 13C evidence for dietary habits of prehistoric man in Denmark. Nature 292: 332-33.Google Scholar
Van Klinken, G.J. 1999. Bone collagen quality indicators for palaeodietary and radiocarbon measurements. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 687-95Google Scholar
Van Rensburg, B.G.J. 1987. Secondary dentine-cause and effect. Journal of Dental Research 66:949.Google Scholar
Veis, A. 1989. Biochemical studies of vertebrate tooth mineralization, in Mann, S., Webb, J. and Williams, R.J.P. (ed.) Biomineralization: chemical and biochemical perspectives: 189–222. New York: VCH.Google Scholar
Walsh, S.L., KnÜSel, C.J. & Melton, N.D.. 2012. A re-appraisal of the Early Neolithic human remains excavated at Sumburgh, Shetland in 1977. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: 141:3–17.Google Scholar