Lead (Pb) isotopes provide a complementary method to other provenance tools for tracking the origin and movement of humans and animals. The method is founded in the geographic distribution of Pb ...isotope ratios. However, unlike the Sr isotope method that is closely linked to the lithology of underlying rocks, Pb more closely reflects the tectonic regimes. This makes it particularly pertinent to use in Britain as there is major tectonic boundary (the Iapetus Suture) that runs between Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Solway Firth providing a compositional boundary in Pb isotope domains that approximates to the geographic areas of Scotland versus England and Wales. Modern pollution makes it difficult to use modern floral or faunal samples to characterize biosphere variation, and so we use geological datasets to define isoscape variation and present the first Pb isotope map of Britain. We have validated the use of these data form biosphere studies using well provenanced samples. Reference fields of diagnostic compositions, are created in μ-
T
space and these have been used in a test case to assess the geographic origins of Neolithic animals in Great Britain.
This first of two volumes presents the archaeological evidence of a long sequence of settlement and funerary activity from the Beaker period (Early Bronze Age c. 2000 BC) to the Early Iron Age (c. ...500 BC) at the unusually long-occupied site of Cladh Hallan on South Uist in the Western Isles of Scotland. Particular highlights of its sequence are a cremation burial ground and pyre site of the 18th–16th centuries BC and a row of three Late Bronze Age sunken-floored roundhouses constructed in the 10th century BC. Beneath these roundhouses, four inhumation graves contained skeletons, two of which were remains of composite collections of body parts with evidence for post-mortem soft tissue preservation prior to burial. They have proved to be the first evidence for mummification in Bronze Age Britain. Cladh Hallan’s remarkable stratigraphic sequence, preserved in the machair sand of South Uist, includes a unique 500-year sequence of roundhouse life in Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain. One of the most important results of the excavation has come from intensive environmental and micro-debris sampling of house floors and outdoor areas to recover patterns of discard and to interpret the spatial use of 15 domestic interiors from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. From Cladh Hallan’s roundhouse floors we gain intimate insights into how daily life was organized within the house – where people cooked, ate, worked and slept. Such evidence rarely survives from prehistoric houses in Britain or Europe, and the results make a profound contribution to long-running debates about the sunwise organisation of roundhouse activities. Activity at Cladh Hallan ended with the construction and abandonment of two unusual double-roundhouses in the Early Iron Age. One appears to have been a smokery and steam room, and the other was used for metalworking.
Cremated human remains from Stonehenge provide direct evidence on the life of those few select individuals buried at this iconic Neolithic monument. The practice of cremation has, however, precluded ...the application of strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel as the standard chemical approach to study their origin. New developments in strontium isotopic analysis of cremated bone reveal that at least 10 of the 25 cremated individuals analysed did not spend their lives on the Wessex chalk on which the monument is found. Combined with the archaeological evidence, we suggest that their most plausible origin lies in west Wales, the source of the bluestones erected in the early stage of the monument's construction. These results emphasise the importance of inter-regional connections involving the movement of both materials and people in the construction and use of Stonehenge.
A geostatistical model to predict human skeletal oxygen isotope values (δ
O
) in Britain is presented here based on a new dataset of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age human teeth. The spatial ...statistics which underpin this model allow the identification of individuals interpreted as 'non-local' to the areas where they were buried (spatial outliers). A marked variation in δ
O
is observed in several areas, including the Stonehenge region, the Peak District, and the Yorkshire Wolds, suggesting a high degree of human mobility. These areas, rich in funerary and ceremonial monuments, may have formed focal points for people, some of whom would have travelled long distances, ultimately being buried there. The dataset and model represent a baseline for future archaeological studies, avoiding the complex conversions from skeletal to water δ
O values-a process known to be problematic.
The geographic origins of livestock found at the Late Neolithic site of Durrington Walls (Wiltshire, UK) is explored using strontium (
87
Sr/
86
Sr) and oxygen (δ
18
O
carbVSMOW
) isotope analysis of ...tooth enamel as an archive of lifetime movement. The analysis of 49 cattle is augmented with data for small numbers of animals from the contemporaneous monumental centres of West Kennet Palisade Enclosures (4), Stonehenge (1), and Marden (1). Unburnt human remains are scarce at these sites and the suite of biomolecular analyses that can be undertaken on cremated remains is limited. Therefore, these animals provide the best proxy for the origins of the people who raised them and give key information on livestock management. This builds on the Sr isotope analysis of 12 animals previously published from Durrington Walls and complements recent research on pig remains from the same sites, providing further evidence for the scale of human and animal movement and the catchment of these sites. The strontium isotope signatures from the animals’ teeth range between values that are consistent with local chalkland grazing to radiogenic values typical of granites and older rock types. The oxygen isotope data, coupled with the strontium results, provide new geographic resolution and indicate that the majority of the animals come from southern and western areas of Britain.
Durrington Walls was a large Neolithic settlement in Britain dating around 2500 BCE, located very close to Stonehenge and likely to be the campsite where its builders lived during its main stage of ...construction. Nineteen coprolites recovered from a midden and associated pits at Durrington Walls were analysed for intestinal parasite eggs using digital light microscopy. Five (26%) contained helminth eggs, 1 with those of fish tapeworm (likely Dibothriocephalus dendriticus) and 4 with those of capillariid nematodes. Analyses of bile acid and sterol from these 5 coprolites show 1 to be of likely human origin and the other 4 to likely derive from dogs. The presence of fish tapeworm reveals that the Neolithic people who gathered to feast at Durrington Walls were at risk of infection from eating raw or undercooked freshwater fish. When the eggs of capillariids are found in the feces of humans or dogs it normally indicates that the internal organs (liver, lung or intestines) of animals with capillariasis have been eaten, and eggs passed through the gut without causing disease. Their presence in multiple coprolites provides new evidence that internal organs of animals were consumed. These novel findings improve our understanding of both parasitic infection and dietary habits associated with this key Neolithic ceremonial site.
The roles of migration, admixture and acculturation in the European transition to farming have been debated for over 100 years. Genome-wide ancient DNA studies indicate predominantly Aegean ancestry ...for continental Neolithic farmers, but also variable admixture with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Neolithic cultures first appear in Britain circa 4000 BC, a millennium after they appeared in adjacent areas of continental Europe. The pattern and process of this delayed British Neolithic transition remain unclear. We assembled genome-wide data from 6 Mesolithic and 67 Neolithic individuals found in Britain, dating 8500-2500 BC. Our analyses reveal persistent genetic affinities between Mesolithic British and Western European hunter-gatherers. We find overwhelming support for agriculture being introduced to Britain by incoming continental farmers, with small, geographically structured levels of hunter-gatherer ancestry. Unlike other European Neolithic populations, we detect no resurgence of hunter-gatherer ancestry at any time during the Neolithic in Britain. Genetic affinities with Iberian Neolithic individuals indicate that British Neolithic people were mostly descended from Aegean farmers who followed the Mediterranean route of dispersal. We also infer considerable variation in pigmentation levels in Europe by circa 6000 BC.
The recording of tooth wear is essential for the investigation of age in zooarchaeological assemblages, but most tooth wear methodologies apply only to mandibular teeth, thereby neglecting ...potentially valuable maxillary data. The large sample of pig maxillary jaws and teeth recovered at Durrington Walls has provided the opportunity to design a new recording method for maxillary as well as mandibular jaws. Work on previously excavated animal bone material from Durrington Walls (Albarella and Payne, 2005) suggested the possibility of seasonal pig killing at the site, but the issue has not, until now, been explored in detail. This paper therefore has a dual purpose: to describe the new method for recording tooth wear on pig teeth; and to use the new information from both the mandibular and maxillary teeth to explore pig age at death and seasonality at Durrington Walls. The results provide evidence of differential deposition of pigs of different ages at Durrington Walls, with one midden context containing younger pigs brought to the site to provide meat for predominately winter-based feasting events, and other contexts containing remains of older pigs (mainly in their second year) deposited in both domestic and more public locales also predominantly in winter. The study highlights the usefulness of maxillary teeth for our understanding of past systems of pig exploitation as well as the desirability of recording their wear in animal bone assemblages.
•We outline a new recording methodology for pig tooth wear, applicable to the upper and lower jaw.•The methodology was applied to the large pig sample from Late Neolithic Durrington Walls.•There is a clear seasonality of pig slaughtering.•Differential deposition between different context types can also be seen.•Consolidates the evidence for winter feasting at Durrington Walls, and its links to Stonehenge.
ABSTRACT
New radiocarbon (
14
C) dates suggest a simultaneous appearance of two technologically and geographically distinct axe production practices in Neolithic Britain; igneous open-air quarries in ...Great Langdale, Cumbria, and from flint mines in southern England at ~4000–3700 cal BC. In light of the recent evidence that farming was introduced at this time by large-scale immigration from northwest Europe, and that expansion within Britain was extremely rapid, we argue that this synchronicity supports this speed of colonization and reflects a knowledge of complex extraction processes and associated exchange networks already possessed by the immigrant groups; long-range connections developed as colonization rapidly expanded. Although we can model the start of these new extraction activities, it remains difficult to estimate how long significant production activity lasted at these key sites given the nature of the record from which samples could be obtained.
PDF
