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The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition and the Chronology of the “elm decline”: A Case Study from Yorkshire and Humberside, United Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2017

Seren Griffiths  and
Benjamin R Gearey
Seren Griffiths*
Affiliation:
University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, United Kingdom
Benjamin R Gearey
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Connolly Building, Dyke Parade, University College Cork, Cork City, Ireland
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

The Neolithic in Britain saw the first appearance of domestic plant and animal resources, pottery, polished stone axes, monuments, and new house structures. With the introduction of domesticates and associated subsistence strategies, the Neolithic represents a significant change in human–environment interaction. Other changes have been observed in the palynological record of Britain in the early fourth millennium cal BC, including the elm decline, and archaeologists and paleobotanists have long discussed the degree of human involvement in this. This paper presents the first Bayesian statistical analysis of the elm decline using the case study of the east of Yorkshire and Humberside and key sites in west Yorkshire, and evidence for the last hunter-gatherer Mesolithic material culture and the first Neolithic material culture record. This region is critical because it is the only area of Britain and Ireland where we have robust and accurate published estimates for the timing of the latest Mesolithic activity and timing for the earliest Neolithic activity. Unpacking this perceived chronological correlation between the elm decline and the start of the Neolithic is critical to understanding the scale of human–environment modification at this time, and the nature of the first Neolithic societies in Britain.

Keywords

Bayesianelm declinehuman–environment interactionMesolithicNeolithic
Type
Applications
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 5: 8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 1 of 2 , October 2017 , pp. 1321 - 1345
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 8th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, 27 June–1 July 2016

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