The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

by Chris Fowler

  The problems are illustrated by the samples in Fig. 22.1, all from early Neolithic timber houses. Tankardstown in Ireland is dominated by cereals, with an admixture of apple or pear; chaff and weeds are uncommon. Chaff is much more common at Lismore Fields 1, whilst at Yarnton hazelnut shell predominates. The early Neolithic plant economy was however probably fairly similar at all three: the chance exigencies of charring caution us not to accept these samples at face value. This understanding has led to a recent reappraisal of the role of cereals in the British Neolithic: even the proponents of a gradual transition and the continuation of a largely ‘Mesolithic’ economy into the artefactual Neolithic now restrict their arguments to the early Neolithic (Thomas 2008). A degree of regional variation (Cummings and Harris 2011) remains possible: Bishop et al. (2010) found that whilst agricultural plants dominated the Neolithic economy in most of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides might have persisted in a largely hunter-gatherer way of life. The importance of cereals in the early Neolithic is now generally accepted, to the extent that a cereal decline has recently been suggested for the late Neolithic (Stevens and Fuller 2012); but whether this is anything other than an artefact of research emphasis remains to be seen.

  The importance of dairying has been mentioned. We lack settlement sites producing samples like that from Grime’s Graves (Fig. 22.2). Most information on the Neolithic economy in England comes from sites of a ceremonial or ritual nature, such as the causewayed enclosures (Andersen, this volume). Distal metacarpal measurements from three are plotted in Fig. 22.4. The British sites, like contemporary Troldebjerg in Denmark, have smaller cattle than the German LBK sites, reflecting the fact that they are some 1,500 years younger. Unlike Troldebjerg, however, cattle ate at the British sites do not divide equally between the sexes: females predominate at all three.

  Cattle at Hambledon Hill were killed mostly between two and four years of age (Legge 2008). An economy in which dairy husbandry was highly developed would have a surplus of young females at precisely this age, when the best breeding cows would be selected whilst those with less desirable traits would be culled and eaten. Further, the cattle bones at Hambledon Hill showed less breakage than is commonly found at archaeological sites, often with the limb segments discarded with the bones still in articulation. This shows that the cattle were consumed in a more lavish manner than usual, indicative of large-scale meat consumption in the manner of feasting. The cereals too were brought partly prepared. Hence, this was a site for consumption rather than a place where such foods were raised and prepared. Thus whilst the entire cattle economy is not represented here in the way that it is at Grime’s Graves, the pattern nevertheless supports the argument for a dairy economy.

  CONCLUSIONS

  We have traced the arrival and development of farming in the Neolithic of western and northern Europe. The spread was not steady; it stopped at the northern edge of the LBK for some 1,500 years before it then rapidly moved into southern Scandinavia, Britain, and Ireland; northern central Germany was apparently missed out of the initial advance, being infilled only later; and the spread into environmentally hostile regions such as north-western Scotland was delayed.

  For the most part, however, the spread of agriculture appears to have been a rapid and complete process. Claims for domestic animals (other than the dog) in Mesolithic contexts have almost all proved spurious—Ferriter’s Cove in Ireland is an outstanding exception to this. The ‘Mesolithic’ economic component in most Neolithic economies is currently being downplayed. Consequently most transition events look much sharper than they did just a few years ago (Rowley-Conwy 2011).

  A gradual transition implies local continuity, and thus a considerable local component in the human population that became farmers—though some immigrants are never excluded. A rapid transition need not imply local community, but could be brought about by immigrant farmers—though of course some local involvement is never excluded either. This debate continues. As the study of prehistoric genetics becomes more routine, more light will be cast on this issue. But for the time being the pendulum has swung towards a greater immigrant component. Whether this will stand the test of time will be a matter of great future interest.

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