Global Economic Intersection
Advertisement
  • Home
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Politics
  • Investments
    • Invest in Amazon $250
  • Cryptocurrency
    • Best Bitcoin Accounts
    • Bitcoin Robot
      • Quantum AI
      • Bitcoin Era
      • Bitcoin Aussie System
      • Bitcoin Profit
      • Bitcoin Code
      • eKrona Cryptocurrency
      • Bitcoin Up
      • Bitcoin Prime
      • Yuan Pay Group
      • Immediate Profit
      • BitQH
      • Bitcoin Loophole
      • Crypto Boom
      • Bitcoin Treasure
      • Bitcoin Lucro
      • Bitcoin System
      • Oil Profit
      • The News Spy
      • Bitcoin Buyer
      • Bitcoin Inform
      • Immediate Edge
      • Bitcoin Evolution
      • Cryptohopper
      • Ethereum Trader
      • BitQL
      • Quantum Code
      • Bitcoin Revolution
      • British Trade Platform
      • British Bitcoin Profit
    • Bitcoin Reddit
    • Celebrities
      • Dr. Chris Brown Bitcoin
      • Teeka Tiwari Bitcoin
      • Russell Brand Bitcoin
      • Holly Willoughby Bitcoin
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Politics
  • Investments
    • Invest in Amazon $250
  • Cryptocurrency
    • Best Bitcoin Accounts
    • Bitcoin Robot
      • Quantum AI
      • Bitcoin Era
      • Bitcoin Aussie System
      • Bitcoin Profit
      • Bitcoin Code
      • eKrona Cryptocurrency
      • Bitcoin Up
      • Bitcoin Prime
      • Yuan Pay Group
      • Immediate Profit
      • BitQH
      • Bitcoin Loophole
      • Crypto Boom
      • Bitcoin Treasure
      • Bitcoin Lucro
      • Bitcoin System
      • Oil Profit
      • The News Spy
      • Bitcoin Buyer
      • Bitcoin Inform
      • Immediate Edge
      • Bitcoin Evolution
      • Cryptohopper
      • Ethereum Trader
      • BitQL
      • Quantum Code
      • Bitcoin Revolution
      • British Trade Platform
      • British Bitcoin Profit
    • Bitcoin Reddit
    • Celebrities
      • Dr. Chris Brown Bitcoin
      • Teeka Tiwari Bitcoin
      • Russell Brand Bitcoin
      • Holly Willoughby Bitcoin
No Result
View All Result
Global Economic Intersection
No Result
View All Result

Ancient Britons Had Wheat 2000 Years Before They Had Farms

admin by admin
March 5, 2015
in Uncategorized
0
0
SHARES
0
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

by Vince Gaffney and Robin Allaby, The Conversation

Wheat has been found in a settlement on England’s south coast dating back to 6000BC – 2000 years before farming reached Britain. This finding overturns many cherished archaeological beliefs – or myths – about the era. Though they were once patronised as simplistic hunter-gatherers, it turns out early Britons must have been active traders with the agricultural superpowers of their day in France and the Balkans. It’s time to reassess Mesolithic man.

The introduction of farming is usually regarded as a defining historic moment for human societies. Agriculture creates the conditions for permanent settlement, urbanisation and complex societies.

The positive impact and significance of farming, starting during the period known as the Neolithic, is often contrasted harshly with preceding hunter gatherer cultures. These societies, associated with a period entitled the Mesolithic in Britain (c. 10,000-4000 BC), were relatively mobile and the passage of time has been unforgiving in respect of the survival of their material culture.

This has meant a tendency to presume the peoples of pre-farming Britain were socially simple and geographically isolated. The recent TV show 10,000 BC, which approximates this period, perpetuates the view that life at this time was simply “nasty, brutish and short” with little for people to do other than eat hazelnuts as they waited patiently for wiser peoples from the East to arrive along with the lifestyle benefits of the new technology – farming.


Mesolithic northern Europe had lots of extra land (light green).
Eleanor Ramsey, CC BY-NC-SA

Yet Mesolithic societies were as complex as any other. For instance, the earliest built ritual monuments in Britain, usually associated with farming societies, emerged as early as 9000BC near Stonehenge and one structure in Scotland may represent a calendrical device nearly 5000 years older than the first historical calendars. The first permanent homes and domestication of animals including the dog also occurred before the introduction of farming.

Yet, the use of grain and specifically wheat, remained essentially absent and a key indicator of farming in regions far from south west Asia, where grain was domesticated 12000 years ago. Consequently, a debate continues as to whether farming was introduced following colonisation by groups already practising agriculture or the new technology was adopted by indigenous hunter gatherer populations. Was farming a movement of people or ideas?

Farming is thought to have been introduced to Britain in around 4000BC, perhaps held back by the island’s new isolation following sea level rises at the end of the ice age. The same processes, however, also provide an opportunity to preserve evidence and Britain’s continental shelf has exceptional archaeological potential.

Under the sea

To investigate whether early traces of farming might be preserved in sediments on the sea bed, we gathered a team from the Universities of Birmingham, Bradford and Warwick, together with the Maritime Archaeology Trust.

Our results, just published in the journal Science, suggest that grain, rather than indicating the onset of farming, was actually present in Mesolithic settlements in Britain 2000 years before local agriculture.

We found evidence of grain after analysing DNA recovered from the uniquely preserved Bouldnor Cliff off the south coast of Britain. In the past ancient DNA has most commonly been obtained from anatomically intact material, such as hair, bones and teeth. It has only recently become clear that DNA can also be retrieved from other materials, including sediments, or SedaDNA – a discovery which has the potential to revolutionise the field.

The sedaDNA sequences at Bouldnor Cliff suggested a mixed habitat of oak forest and herbaceous plants, much as we would expect. We found traces of animals that could indicate human activity – lots of dogs, for instance, and aurochs (ancestors of the modern cow), as well as deer, grouse and rodents.


Garry Momber of Maritime Archaeology Trust with 8,000 year old Bouldnor Cliff flints. Author provided

However, in later sediments, dated to 6000 BC, the results revealed the presence of Einkorn wheat. This was 2000 years earlier than expected and at a time when the cutting edge of agriculture may have lain in the northern Balkans or possibly on the Mediterranean coast of France.

Mesolithic marketplace

What does this mean? In the absence of direct evidence for cultivation, it seems likely that wheat was imported rather than grown locally. If so the implications are considerable.

The presence of wheat suggests the existence of a web of social networks stretching between Mesolithic Britain and the advancing Neolithic front far to the south and east. Far from being simple or isolated, the Mesolithic peoples of southern Britain were probably engaged in trading or gifting exotic foodstuffs across much of continental Europe – it seems absolutely unreasonable to imply that hunter gatherer groups were passive recipients in such an exchange.

The results also indicate that key historical events, including the arrival of people in the Americas and agricultural development of Southeast Asia, may also be best explored through investigating the extensive land masses that were lost to the seas as a consequence of global warming. The results of the work at Bouldnor Cliff now suggests that that such landscapes also retain caches of genetic material that may not be preserved or even represented on land. If so the analysis of marine sediments may be an archaeological “game-changer”.

The ConversationThis article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Previous Post

Younger Americans Are Ditching Coffee For Tea

Next Post

Investing.com Technical Summary 05 March 2015

Related Posts

Web3 Company To Run Super Bowl Ad For NFT Game As Crypto Is Ignored
Business

Web3 Company To Run Super Bowl Ad For NFT Game As Crypto Is Ignored

by John Wanguba
February 8, 2023
Google Introduces ChatGPT Rival Bard, AI Search Plans Accelerate In Battle With Microsoft
Business

Google Introduces ChatGPT Rival Bard, AI Search Plans Accelerate In Battle With Microsoft

by John Wanguba
February 8, 2023
BP Earns Record Profit In 2022, Slows Shift From Oil
Business

BP Earns Record Profit In 2022, Slows Shift From Oil

by John Wanguba
February 8, 2023
How To Mine Bitcoin At Home
Econ Intersect News

How To Mine Bitcoin At Home

by John Wanguba
February 7, 2023
Adani's Market Losses Exceeded $100B As Crisis Shockwaves Extended
Business

Adani’s Market Losses Exceeded $100B As Crisis Shockwaves Extended

by John Wanguba
February 7, 2023
Next Post

Investing.com Technical Summary 05 March 2015

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Browse by Category

  • Business
  • Econ Intersect News
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Politics
  • Uncategorized

Browse by Tags

adoption altcoins banking banks Binance Bitcoin Bitcoin adoption Bitcoin market Bitcoin mining blockchain BTC business China crypto crypto adoption cryptocurrency crypto exchange crypto market crypto regulation decentralized finance DeFi Elon Musk ETH Ethereum Europe finance FTX inflation investment market analysis markets Metaverse mining NFT nonfungible tokens oil market price analysis recession regulation Russia technology Tesla the UK the US Twitter

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • August 2010
  • August 2009

Categories

  • Business
  • Econ Intersect News
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Politics
  • Uncategorized
Global Economic Intersection

After nearly 11 years of 24/7/365 operation, Global Economic Intersection co-founders Steven Hansen and John Lounsbury are retiring. The new owner, a global media company in London, is in the process of completing the set-up of Global Economic Intersection files in their system and publishing platform. The official website ownership transfer took place on 24 August.

Categories

  • Business
  • Econ Intersect News
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Politics
  • Uncategorized

Recent Posts

  • Web3 Company To Run Super Bowl Ad For NFT Game As Crypto Is Ignored
  • Google Introduces ChatGPT Rival Bard, AI Search Plans Accelerate In Battle With Microsoft
  • BP Earns Record Profit In 2022, Slows Shift From Oil

© Copyright 2021 EconIntersect - Economic news, analysis and opinion.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Bitcoin Robot
    • Bitcoin Profit
    • Bitcoin Code
    • Quantum AI
    • eKrona Cryptocurrency
    • Bitcoin Up
    • Bitcoin Prime
    • Yuan Pay Group
    • Immediate Profit
    • BitIQ
    • Bitcoin Loophole
    • Crypto Boom
    • Bitcoin Era
    • Bitcoin Treasure
    • Bitcoin Lucro
    • Bitcoin System
    • Oil Profit
    • The News Spy
    • British Bitcoin Profit
    • Bitcoin Trader
  • Bitcoin Reddit

© Copyright 2021 EconIntersect - Economic news, analysis and opinion.

en English
ar Arabicbg Bulgarianda Danishnl Dutchen Englishfi Finnishfr Frenchde Germanel Greekit Italianja Japaneselv Latvianno Norwegianpl Polishpt Portuguesero Romanianes Spanishsv Swedish