Jessica Smyth

Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the northeast Atlantic archipelagos

The appearance of farming, from its inception in the Near East around 12 000 years ago, finally reached the northwestern extremes of Europe by the fourth millennium BC or shortly thereafter. Various models have been invoked to explain the Neolithization of northern Europe; however, resolving these different scenarios has proved problematic due to poor faunal preservation and the lack of specificity achievable for commonly applied proxies. Here, we present new multi-proxy evidence, which qualitatively and quantitatively maps subsistence change in the northeast Atlantic archipelagos from the Late Mesolithic into the Neolithic and beyond. A model involving significant retention of hunter–gatherer–fisher influences was tested against one of the dominant adoptions of farming using a novel suite of lipid biomarkers, including dihydroxy fatty acids, ω-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids and stable carbon isotope signatures of individual fatty acids preserved in cooking vessels. These new findings, together with archaeozoological and human skeletal collagen bulk stable carbon isotope proxies, unequivocally confirm rejection of marine resources by early farmers coinciding with the adoption of intensive dairy farming. This pattern of Neolithization contrasts markedly to that occurring contemporaneously in the Baltic, suggesting that geographically distinct ecological and cultural influences dictated the evolution of subsistence practices at this critical phase of European prehistory.

Widespread exploitation of the honeybee by early neolithic farmers

The pressures on honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations, resulting from threats by modern pesticides, parasites, predators and diseases, have raised awareness of the economic importance and critical role this insect plays in agricultural societies across the globe. However, the association of humans with A. mellifera predates post-industrial-revolution agriculture, as evidenced by the widespread presence of ancient Egyptian bee iconography dating to the Old Kingdom (approximately 2400 bc). There are also indications of Stone Age people harvesting bee products; for example, honey hunting is interpreted from rock art in a prehistoric Holocene context and a beeswax find in a pre-agriculturalist site. However, when and where the regular association of A. mellifera with agriculturalists emerged is unknown. One of the major products of A. mellifera is beeswax, which is composed of a complex suite of lipids including n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters. The composition is highly constant as it is determined genetically through the insect’s biochemistry. Thus, the chemical ‘fingerprint’ of beeswax provides a reliable basis for detecting this commodity in organic residues preserved at archaeological sites, which we now use to trace the exploitation by humans of A. mellifera temporally and spatially. Here we present secure identifications of beeswax in lipid residues preserved in pottery vessels of Neolithic Old World farmers. The geographical range of bee product exploitation is traced in Neolithic Europe, the Near East and North Africa, providing the palaeoecological range of honeybees during prehistory. Temporally, we demonstrate that bee products were exploited continuously, and probably extensively in some regions, at least from the seventh millennium cal bc, likely fulfilling a variety of technological and cultural functions. The close association of A. mellifera with Neolithic farming communities dates to the early onset of agriculture and may provide evidence for the beginnings of a domestication process.

From the inside out: Upscaling organic residue analyses of archaeological ceramics

Abstract The investigation of organic residues associated with archaeological pottery using modern analytical chemical methods began in the 1970s. It was recognised early on that the analysis of lipids (i.e. fats, waxes and resins) preserved in surface residues or the fabric of single potsherds, representative of single vessels, was a powerful method for ascertaining pottery use, with a high degree of specificity. Subsequent developments saw a significant change in scale, with studies often involving lipid analyses of tens to hundreds of potsherds per archaeological assemblage, providing information that extended beyond pottery use. The identification of animal and plant foodstuffs processed in pots provides insights into herding and farming, and can also detect trade in exotic organic goods. Information about the environment and climate can be extrapolated from the isotopic composition of compounds detected in potsherds, potentially providing novel avenues of investigation. The direct dating of lipids in potsherds is opening up new opportunities for building archaeological chronologies, while the integration of lipid residue analyses with other environmental and cultural proxies within interdisciplinary projects is already providing unprecedented insights into past lifestyles, from site to regional scales.

Milking the megafauna: Using organic residue analysis to understand early farming practice

In Europe, the shift to agriculture starts around cal 7000 BC, spreading across the continent over several thousand years. The island of Ireland lies geographically and chronologically at the end of this trajectory, in the centuries around cal 4000 BC. Molecular and stable carbon isotope analyses undertaken of ca. 450 pottery vessels from a range of Irish Neolithic sites firmly establishes that dairying is one of the very earliest farming practices in evidence in Ireland, successfully introduced into an island environment that had not supported large mammals for at least the preceding 9000 years – a significant logistical feat.

Tides of Change? The House through the Irish Neolithic

A relatively small island on the very edge of Atlantic Europe, Ireland has traditionally been viewed as one of the last settings for the Neolithic ‘revolution’. Part of this transformation involved the construction of rectangular and substantial timber houses, which have yielded evidence for depositional patterning, and for construction, maintenance and abandonment events. Perhaps most importantly, they are strikingly homogenous in size, shape and materials, suggesting they represented a fixed, even ideal, form of cultural expression. However, after approximately a century they were replaced by a much more ephemeral settlement record. This chapter explores the role of houses in Irish Neolithic society, examining their sudden island-wide appearance (and subsequent disappearance) and the implications for travel, connection and communication in early prehistoric Europe.

Introduction: Dwelling, Materials, Cosmology—Transforming Houses in the Neolithic

In this brief introduction, the editors outline the structure of the volume and explain its rationale, before drawing out some key themes that emerge from the various contributions. In particular, they critically discuss the recent ontological focus on materials and its relation to human agency, the role of architecture in routine practice, the potential cosmological dimensions of the house, and possible avenues for examining transmission and change. They argue for the importance of a stronger comparative focus in re-invigorating the debate on how one kind of building and dwelling could transform into another.

The molecules of meals

Details of daily life such as food and drink can be difficult to capture in prehistory, especially on an island with a temperate climate and covered mainly by acidic soils: plant remains will only survive through charring or waterlogging, whilst animal bone frequently dissolves unless calcined. At the molecular level, however, a host of biochemical and isotopic signatures exist indicating what our prehistoric antecedents ate and drank. The most robust of these biomarkers are lipids, commonly found absorbed into the clay matrix of pottery vessels*the residues of meals sometimes many thousands of years old. The wet, acidic conditions that accelerate the decay of so much prehistoric organic matter fortunately preserve these lipid residues exceedingly well. This paper details the results of a recent programme of molecular and compoundspecific stable isotope analysis on lipids from nearly 500 Irish Neolithic vessels, providing unparalleled insights into the diet, and food procurement and processing activities of our earliest farming communities. Introduction ‘. . .the sober fact seems to be that from prehistoric times to the close of the 17th century corn and milk were the mainstay of the national food’. A. T. Lucas’s in-depth and scholarly review of Irish food products, quoted above, which has been acknowledged elsewhere in this volume, provides an unparalleled source of inspiration and information for those interested in past foodways and is an obvious starting point for any consideration of food and drink in Ireland. Yet, in terms of prehistory, and the Neolithic in particular, the above was an undeniably lofty claim at the time it was written (in 1960); Lucas had only a * Author’s e-mail: jessica.smyth@bristol.ac.uk doi: 10.3318/PRIAC.2015.115.07 1 A. T. Lucas, ‘Irish food before the potato’, Gwerin 3:2 (1960), 8 43. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 115C, 27 46 # 2015 Royal Irish Academy This content downloaded from 157.55.39.35 on Mon, 29 Aug 2016 05:06:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms small pool of published data from which to draw, most notably the important excavations at Lough Gur, Co. Limerick and some early palynological and plant macrofossil work. There could be no way to properly assess whether or not cereals and dairy products were the ‘mainstay’ of the prehistoric diet, and this is reflected in Lucas’s paper*just a few sentences on prehistoric foods in over 30 pages of text. More than a half a century later, we are much better placed to test the veracity of Lucas’s claim or the plant-based component of it at least. Recent research into the nature and timing of agriculture in Ireland has resulted in the collation and analysis of a high resolution data set of Neolithic plant macrofossil remains, currently one of the largest of its type from any individual European country. Issues of taphonomy notwithstanding, a relatively wide range of plant foods have been detected, with early farming communities consuming fruits such as crab apple and blackberry, tubers, leafy greens and flax seeds. Cereal remains were found to be present on more than three quarters of the sites analysed, second only to hazelnut shell fragments in their ubiquity (albeit mostly in small quantities). The data set also highlights interesting regional preferences in cereal cultivation, such as the paucity of einkorn across early Neolithic Ireland, Britain and possibly northern France, an area already argued to be connected on the basis of pottery styles. At a different scale, there is a striking contrast between the preference for emmer wheat on Irish sites and 2 Sean O Riordain, ‘Lough Gur excavations: Neolithic and Bronze Age houses on Knockadoon’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 56C (1953/4), 297 459; Gabriel Cooney, ‘In Retrospect: Neolithic activity at Knockadoon, Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, 50 years on’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 107C (2007), 215 25. 3 Knud Jessen and Hans Helbaek, ‘Cereals in Great Britain and Ireland in prehistoric and early historic times’, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab Bioligiske Skrifter 3:2 (1944), 1 68; Hans Helbaek, ‘Early crops in southern England’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 18 (1953), 194 233: 48 ff. 4 Nicki J. Whitehouse, Rick J. Schulting, Meriel McClatchie, Phil Barratt, T. Rowan McLaughlin, Amy Bogaard, Sue Colledge, Rob Marchant, Joanne Gaffrey and M. Jane Bunting, ‘Neolithic agriculture on the western fringes of Europe: a multi-disciplinary approach to the boom and bust of early farming in Ireland’, Journal of Archaeological Science 51 (2014), 181 205; Meriel McClatchie, Amy Bogaard, Sue Colledge, Nicki J. Whitehouse, Rick J. Schulting, Phil Barratt and T. Rowan McLaughlin, ‘Neolithic farming in north-western Europe: archaeobotanical evidence from Ireland’, Journal of Archaeological Science 51 (2014), 206 15. 5 The vast majority of plant remains were preserved through charring, with waterlogged remains occurring at only three sites. 6 Alison Sheridan, ‘From Picardie to Pickering and Pencraig Hill? New information on the ‘‘Carinated Bowl Neolithic’’ in northern Britain’, in Alasdair Whittle and Vicki Cummings (eds), Going over: the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in north-west Europe (Oxford, 2007), 441 92; Alison Sheridan, ‘The Neolithisation of Britain and Ireland: the ‘‘big picture’’, in Bill Finlayson and Graeme Warren (eds), Landscapes in transition, Levant Supplementary Series 8 (Oxford and London, 2010), 89 105. Jessica Smyth