The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

by Chris Fowler

  Kaul. F. 1997. Et tidligneolitisk hus ved Skreppekaergård, Nordsjälland. Aarböger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1996, 7–21.

  Kempfner-Jörgensen, L. and Watt, M. 1985. Settlement sites with middle Neolithic houses at Grödby, Bornholm. Journal of Danish Archaeology 4, 97–101.

  Kyhlberg, O., Göthberg, H., and Vinberg, A. (eds) 1995. Hus & gård i det förurbana samhället. Stockholm: Avd. för Arkeologiska Undersökningar, Riksantikvarieämbetet.

  Larsson, L. 1982. Segebro: en tidigatlantisk boplats vid Sege ås mynning. Malmö: Malmö museum.

  Larsson, L. 1983. Ageröd V: an Atlantic Bog Site in Central Scania. Acta Archaeologica Lundensia 8:12. Lund: Lunds Universitets Historiska Museum.

  Larsson, L. 1992. Settlement and environment during the middle Neolithic and late Neolithic. In L. Larsson, J. Callmer, and B. Stjernquist (eds), The archaeology of the cultural landscape: field work and research in a south Swedish rural region, 91–159. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell International.

  Larsson, M. 1984. Tidigneolitikum i Sydvästskåne: kronologi och bosättningsmönster. Acta Archaeologica Lundensia 4:17. Lund: Lunds Universitets Historiska Museum.

  Larsson, M. 1985. The early Neolithic Funnel-Beaker culture in south-west Scania, Sweden: social and economic change 3000–2500 B.C. Oxford: BAR International Series 264.

  Larsson, M. 1992. The early and middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture in the Ystad area (southern Scania). Economic and Social Change, 3100–2300 BC. In L. Larsson, J. Callmer, and B. Stjernquist (eds), The archaeology of the cultural landscape: field work and research in a south Swedish rural region, 17–91. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

  Larsson, M. 1994. Ett tidigneolitiskt hus från Brunneby i Östergötland. Arkeologi i Sverige 3, 30–38.

  Larsson, M. 1995. Förhistoriska och tidigmedeltida husi södra Sverige. In H. Göthberg, O. Kyhlberg, and A. Vinberg (eds), Hus och gård i det förurbana samhället, 23–64. Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet.

  Larsson, M. and Olsson, E. (eds) 1997. Regionalt och interrefionalt. Stenåldersundertsökningar I Syd- och Mellansverige. Stokholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet.

  Larsson, M. 1999. Den gropkeramiska kulturens ‘mikrorum’: om Åby-boplatsen i Östergötland. In K. Andersson, A. Lagerlöf and A. Åkerlund (eds), Forskaren i fält, 43–52. Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet.

  Larsson M. 2003. People and sherds: the Pitted Ware site Åby in Östergötland, eastern Sweden. In C. Samuelsson and N. Ytterberg (eds), Uniting sea: Stone Age societies in the Baltic Sea region: proceedings from the first uniting sea workshop at Uppsala University, Sweden, January 26–27, 2002, 117–131. Uppsala: Uppsala University.

  Larsson, M. 2004. Living in cultural diversity: the Pitted Ware culture and its relatives. Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science 14, 61–69.

  Larsson, M. 2006. A tale of a strange people: the Pitted Ware culture in southern Sweden. Kalmar: Kalmar Studies in Archaeology 2.

  Larsson, M. 2007a. I was walking through the wood the other day: man and landscape during the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic in Scania, southern Sweden. In B. Hårdh, K. Jennbert, and D. Olausson (eds), On the road: studies in honour of Lars Larsson, 212–216. Lund: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

  Larsson, M. 2007b. The guardians and protectors of mind: ritual structures in the middle Neolithic of southern Sweden. In M. Larsson and M. Parker Pearson (eds), From Stonehenge to the Baltic: living with cultural diversity in the third millennium BC, 17–23. Oxford: BAR International Series 1692.

  Larsson, M. and Rzepecki, S. 2005. Pottery, houses and graves: the early Funnel Beaker culture in southern Sweden and central Poland. Lund Archaeological Review 8/9, 1–21.

  Lindström, J. 1994. Gläntan—Dödshuset från stridsyxetid. Sörmlandsbygden (Nyköping) 63, 59–70.

  Liversage, D. 1992. Barkaer: long barrows and settlements. København: Akad. Forl.

  Madsen, T. 1979. Earthen long barrows and timber structures: aspects of the early Neolithic mortuary practice in Denmark. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 45, 301–320.

  Madsen, T. 1982. Settlement systems of early agricultural societies of East Jutland, Denmark. A regional study of change. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 1, 72–91.

  Malmer, M.P. 1962. Jungneolithische Studien. Acta Archaeologica Lundensia 8:2. Lund: Lunds Universitets Historiska Museum.

  Malmer, M.P. 1975. Stridsyxekulturen i Sverige och Norge. Lund: Liber.

  Malmer, M.P. 2002. The Neolithic of south Sweden: TRB, GRK, and STR. Stockholm: Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.

  Nielsen, F.-O. and Nielsen, P.O. 1985. Middle and late Neolithic houses at Limensgård, Bornholm. Journal of Danish Archaeology 4, 101–114.

  Papmehl-Dufay, L. 2006. Shaping an identity: Pitted Ware pottery and potters in south-east Sweden. Stockholm: Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur.

  Papmehl-Dufay, L. 2010. Runsbäck. En trattbägarboplats på Öland. In K. Alexandersson, L. Papmehl-Dufay, and R. Wikell (eds), Forntid längs ostkusten 1, 64–81. Kalmar.

  Persson, P. 1999. Neolitikums Början: undersökningar kring jordbruketsiIntroduktion i Nordeuropa. Uppsala: Dept. of Archaeology and Ancient History.

  Petersen-Vang, P. 1984. Chronological and regional variation in the late Mesolithic. Journal of Danish Archaeology 3, 21–45.

  Rostovanyi, A.V. 2007. Stenålderslandskapet: inte bara jägare och bönder. Malmö: Malmö Kulturmiljö.

  Skaarup, J. 1975. Stengade: ein Langeländischer Wohnplatz mit Hausresten aus der Fruhhneolithischen Zeit. Rudkøbing: Langelands Museum.

  Stålbom, U. 1995. Hus, grop och fynd: preliminära resultat från den arkeologiska undersökningen vid Pryssgården utanför Norrköping. In M. Larsson and A. Toll (eds), Samhällsstruktur och förändring under bronsåldern, 54–66. Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet.

  Stenvall, J. 2007. En vråboplats i Kimstad. UV Öst Raport 2007: 45. Linköping: Riksantikvarieämbetet.

  Svensson, M. (ed.) 2003. I det Neolitiska rummet. Lund: UV Syd, Avd. för Arkeologiska Undersökningar, Riksantikvarieämbetet.

  Vandkilde, H. 1996. From stone to bronze: the metalwork of the late Neolithic and earliest Bronze Age in Denmark. Århus: Århus University Press.

  Subsistence and Social Routine

  CHAPTER 19

  STABLE ISOTOPES AND NEOLITHIC SUBSISTENCE

  Pattern and Variation

  RICK SCHULTING

  INTRODUCTION

  THE role of the subsistence economy in defining the ‘Neolithic’ ranges from central to epiphenomenal in the thinking of various scholars and national traditions. In western Europe, the Neolithic is often defined as the shift to an economy dominated by domesticated plants and animals. In eastern Europe, on the other hand, it involves above all the appearance of pottery. For some scholars, it is a state of mind. Since the definition of the term itself varies, it is not surprising that subsistence evidence also varies widely across Europe. Despite this, the study of ‘Neolithic’ subsistence remains of great interest, since making a living affects so much of people’s day-to-day activities. Biomolecular approaches to the investigation of past human diet are becoming increasingly important, not least in the characterization of European Neolithic diets, where stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis has played a pivotal role in challenging notions of a gradual uptake of domesticated resources. More recently, stable isotope analysis has also been used to challenge the idea of dietary homogeneity across Europe, of a single Neolithic way of life. This chapter presents an overview of the state of play, and raises some cautions regarding the interpretation of finer-scale regional variation in isotopic data.

  One cannot hope to cover all of Europe adequately in an overview of this kind. Instead, I focus on a number of regions to highlight themes, and on selected areas that can be used to address both similarities and differences (Fig. 19.1). The question of scale will be crucial. To expect similar subsistence practices from the Mediterranean to northern S
candinavia would clearly be untenable—even before considering different culture histories—given the varying climates, soils, and native fauna and flora, and the diverse possibilities and challenges these present to growing cereals and keeping livestock. On the other hand, one of the characteristics of the relatively restricted number of domesticated plants and animals that have expanded with humans to cover huge parts of the globe is their adaptability (Bellwood 2005). Consider where wheat and barley are grown today, and where cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs are kept, and it is apparent that they are subject to few strictly environmental limitations. But it is the detail that matters here, the particular ways in which cereals are grown and animals are kept, the varying proportions of domestic species, the contribution of wild plants and animals, and how these decisions impact on the routines of individuals and communities.

  FIG. 19.1. Map showing locations of key sites.

  STABLE ISOTOPES

  The two stable isotopes of central importance for studying diet are carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N). Most studies have focused on bone and tooth (dentine) collagen, which provide information primarily on the protein component of the diet (Ambrose and Norr 1993; Tieszen and Fagre 1993; Jim et al. 2006). This is a point worth emphasizing, since this means the two other principal components of food—carbohydrates and lipids—will be under-represented, the more so in high-protein diets. Bioapatite, the mineral component of bone, does reflect the whole diet, but is more subject to diagenesis, and so is less used (though see Papathanasiou 2003). This is an area that could certainly benefit from further exploration in the European Neolithic. The other crucial point is that measurements on adult human bone collagen represent protein consumed during approximately the last decade of a person’s life. However, the question of carbon and nitrogen turnover in bone is far more complex than this: different bones, for example, can exhibit different turnover rates, and an individual’s age and nutritional status are additional factors. But the main point for present purposes is that we are not measuring short-term variation, such as seasonal changes in diet or the last year of a person’s life, which may have a greater chance of being atypical. Teeth present an exception, as there is negligible turnover in dentine once it is formed in childhood. They therefore ‘lock in’ a dietary signal from the time that tooth was developing; this itself varies from tooth to tooth, and so allows us to trace dietary changes through childhood and early adolescence (Eriksson 2004; Sealy et al. 1995).

  In Europe, stable isotope analysis, especially δ13C, has undoubtedly been most effective in coastal areas, because it differentiates clearly between marine and terrestrial protein sources. For δ13C, typical values for marine organisms’ bone collagen are –12 ± 1‰, whilst those of most terrestrial organisms’ bone collagen in C3 systems are –21 ± 1‰ (C4 plants, such as millet, complicate the picture, but do not feature significantly in Neolithic Europe and so are not considered here). These endpoints are crucial to interpreting human bone collagen measurements, and any local variation in their values can greatly affect conclusions. This is especially relevant in the Baltic Sea, for example, where δ13C values of marine organisms vary considerably through space and time, depending on the degree of water flow between the Baltic and North Seas. Freshwater systems can also vary quite widely, with some having elevated values and others exhibiting values more depleted than in most terrestrial systems (Dufour et al. 1999).

  Stable nitrogen isotopes for the most part reflect trophic level, though there are a number of other factors (Hedges and Reynard 2007). Because aquatic (both marine and freshwater) food chains are usually far longer than terrestrial ones, δ15N values of top predators (e.g. seals) will typically be considerably higher than is possible for terrestrial mammalian carnivores. There can be considerable variation in δ15N values, but on average the bone collagen of adult terrestrial herbivores in Europe ranges between 4‰ and 6‰, leading to values 3–5‰ higher in predators. Young animals still nursing, or recently weaned, have higher values than their mothers, by as much as 3‰. Their consumption would have an impact on human diets, though their low body mass would limit the importance of this resource. Herbivore values themselves depend primarily on the values of the plants consumed, which can also vary widely, though this variation tends to be averaged out by the long-term diet reflected in bone collagen.

  One of the interesting points to emerge recently is the extent to which manuring crops with animal dung can increase their δ15N values (Bogaard et al. 2007). Experiments show that this enrichment can easily be on the order of a full trophic level. Thus, the high nitrogen isotope values that often characterize Neolithic humans, interpreted as indicating diets high in animal protein (meat and/or dairy products) (e.g. Richards 2000), could equally come about by consuming intensively manured crops, or a combination of cereals and animal protein. This has clear implications for the nature of early farming practices and landscape use. A manuring signal can be retained in charred Neolithic cereal grains through elevated δ15N values, so it should be possible to investigate the practice and identify any spatial and temporal variability, though in practice this has turned out to be less than straightforward (Fraser et al. 2011). Another possibility involves naturally elevated δ15N values in wetland habitats, as proposed by Britton et al. (2008). Equally, however, aridity has been found to have the same effect (Amundson et al. 2003). Whilst the latter would not be a factor in temperate Europe, it could affect the interpretation of values in the Mediterranean, particularly dry regions such as central Spain. More subtle environmental factors have also been found to be relevant (Hedges et al. 2013).

  A further complicating factor arises from the consumption of nitrogen-fixing plants, such as lentils and peas. These leguminous species can exhibit very low δ15N values, since they can fix nitrogen directly from the air, rather than from nitrates in the soil (leading to values of around 0‰, that is equivalent to the AIR (Ambient Inhalable Reservoir) standard used in calculating δ15N ratios) (Fraser et al. 2011). Considering all the possible sources of variation in δ15N values, there is clearly the potential for the problem of equifinality, and interpretation must take into account other sources of information, including above all archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological findings from the site/culture in question. Legumes, for example, will primarily affect human values around the Mediterranean, as they were far less important further north (Colledge and Connolly 2007). The consumption of freshwater fish can lead to elevated values in human consumers, and this possibility also needs to be considered. The dietary use of marine shellfish, fish, and mammals is usually visible in elevated δ13C values, and so presents less of an interpretive problem.

  ATLANTIC EUROPE: A STRONG PATTERN AND SOME EXCEPTIONS

  The first application of stable isotope analysis (specifically δ13C) in Europe was Tauber’s (1981, 1986) observation of a seemingly rapid shift from the use of marine to terrestrial resources in Denmark, coinciding with the appearance of the Neolithic at c. 3900 cal. BC. This pattern remains striking, though it has become clear that the situation may be more complex, and that shellfish and fish, including freshwater species, still contributed to the diet, though a clear shift away from marine protein remains supported (Fischer et al. 2007; Price et al. 2007).

  Subsequent studies in several areas along the Atlantic façade have shown that the Danish pattern is not unique. In Portugal (Lubell et al. 1994), Spain (Arias 2005), Brittany (Schulting and Richards 2001; Schulting 2005), Wales (Schulting and Richards 2002a; Schulting et al. 2013), Ireland (Schulting et al. 2012; Woodman 2004), and Scotland (Richards and Sheridan 2000; Schulting and Richards 2002b, 2009; Schulting et al. 2010) a similar marked shift from marine to terrestrial isotopic signatures appears to coincide with the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition. In all these cases, coastal Mesolithic populations exhibit moderate to high use of marine resources (approaching 100% of the protein consumed in the case of Oronsay in western Scotland, with human values similar to those of seals and sea otters), whilst Neolithic
populations in the same regions show little or none. This is not to say that marine foods were never consumed by Neolithic communities, as the resolution of the technique is insufficient to identify the consumption of small amounts (5–10%) of marine protein on an individual basis. However, given adequate sample sizes, a comparison of coastal and inland groups should detect differences of this order. Unfortunately, such samples are not always available: survival of bone is rare to non-existent in inland Brittany and Scotland, for example. But at present, in England and Wales at least, no significant differences can be detected in the isotopic signatures of individuals from coastal (within 5km) and inland sites, strongly suggesting that marine protein really did not feature significantly in the diets of coastal populations here (Richards et al. 2003; Richards and Schulting 2006; Schulting 2011, 2013).

  As pointed out by Thomas (2003, 2004; see also Milner et al. 2004), that Neolithic individuals in Britain show a terrestrial isotopic signature does not in and of itself indicate that this resulted from the consumption of domesticated resources, since wild terrestrial plants and animals would give similar, if not indistinguishable, values. However, when other lines of evidence are brought to bear, it is clear that domestic animals overwhelmingly dominate all Neolithic faunal assemblages throughout Britain, from both ceremonial contexts and settlements (Schulting 2008, 2013). Perhaps most tellingly, this includes the earliest Neolithic site in Orkney with surviving faunal remains, the settlement at Knap of Howar (Ritchie 1983; Tresset 2003), dating to c. 3600 BC, only a few centuries later than the initial appearance of the Neolithic in southern England.

  Located near Knap of Howar (and possibly representing the burial place for at least some members of that community), the chambered tomb of Holm of Papa Westray North presents an interesting variation on the farming theme. Humans here show slightly but significantly elevated δ13C values compared with Neolithic humans from other Scottish coastal sites (Schulting and Richards 2009; Schulting et al. 2010). As noted above, the mammalian fauna at the nearby and contemporary settlement is completely dominated by domestic fauna. A few seals are present, as are shellfish and fish remains. Whilst a small amount of fish could well account for the observed human values, an intriguing alternative presents itself. During AMS 14C dating of animal remains from the tomb, two neonatal lambs presented extremely elevated δ13C values, indicating that their mothers must have consumed seaweed (and little else) in the months prior to lambing (Balasse et al. 2006; Schulting et al. 2004). Only slightly elevated values were found in adult sheep, so that, unlike on modern North Ronaldsay, where sheep eat seaweed year-round (Ambers 1990), the animals must have usually grazed on pasture. Young lambs would quickly develop typical terrestrial δ13C values once they began to consume grass, but because of the relatively slow turnover rates in bone (even for young animals), they would have retained an elevated signal for some months. Thus the consumption of such animals, most probably males culled before winter, would present another way in which humans could indirectly acquire a slight ‘marine’ isotopic signal (though flesh turnover would be quicker, so that the full effect would only be seen with the consumption of very young animals).