Rosie R. Bishop

Did Late Neolithic farming fail or flourish? A Scottish perspective on the evidence for Late Neolithic arable cultivation in the British Isles

Abstract This paper critically assesses the recent claim (Stevens and Fuller 2012) that cereal agriculture was abandoned in the Late Neolithic of the British Isles. The Scottish archaeobotanical dataset is considered in detail to test the universal applicability of the model proposed by Stevens and Fuller (2012) and a series of alternative hypotheses are suggested to explain the nature of the current evidence. It is argued that the importance of arable agriculture probably varied on a local as well as a regional scale and that caution should be exercised when attempting to apply unitary models to complex datasets.

Summed radiocarbon probability distributions from cereal grains: arable cultivation proxy or the ‘archaeology of us’? (a reply to Stevens and Fuller 2015).

Abstract In response to the critique in this volume (Bishop 2015), Stevens and Fuller (2015) have modified their original interpretation of Late Neolithic subsistence strategies in the British Isles (Stevens and Fuller 2012). This article highlights the key issues that remain with their analysis. It is reiterated that radiocarbon summed probability distributions from cereals are not a suitable proxy for the changing importance of arable cultivation through time.

Fire in the Moor: Mesolithic Carbonised Remains in Riverine Deposits at Gleann Mor Barabhais, Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland

Abstract This paper presents the results of a palaeoenvironmental investigation of riverine deposits containing charred heathland plant material, recovered during an archaeological survey of Gleann Mor Barabhais, Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland. This survey was conducted to identify Mesolithic occupation in the interior of the island and was undertaken as part of a wider project investigating the Mesolithic of the Western Isles. The recovery of carbonised material of Mesolithic date is discussed in light of the long-standing debate on detecting hunter-gatherer impact on environments using palaeoenvironmental records. The findings are compared to regional pollen sequences, where peaks in micro-charcoal levels and associated reductions in arboreal pollen are interpreted as evidence for anthropogenic fire ecology. These have been identified in areas where archaeological evidence for human occupation is absent. It is argued that this site reflects deliberate burning of vegetation by humans, most likely a small hearth, and therefore represents the first direct inferred evidence for the Mesolithic in the interior of the Western Isles.