The wet, the wild and the domesticated: The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition on the west coast of Scotland

Abstract

Models of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Britain in recent years have tended to downplay the role of changes in the subsistence economy, emphasizing a very gradual adoption of new domesticated resources. This view has been particularly pervasive for the west coast of Scotland, which in the context of Britain presents a relatively marginal environment for farming. In this article, we challenge this too-quickly emerging orthodoxy through the presentation and discussion of both new and previously published stable isotope data and AMS dates. The palaeodietary information, while limited, strongly suggests a very rapid and complete change in the subsistence economy coincident with the earliest manifestations of the Neolithic on the west coast of Scotland early in the fourth millennium cal. BC. Whatever explanation is invoked to account for the transition needs to engage with the isotopic data. The possibility of colonization at some level needs to be seriously reconsidered.

Stable isotope palaeodietary study of humans and fauna from the multi-period (Iron Age, Viking and Late Medieval) site of Newark Bay, Orkney

“…The Newark Bay data, with clear marine isotopic signals are most similar to much earlier Mesolithic humans from coastal sites in the UK, who also consumed a significant amount of marine protein [22,23,26,28,29]. At Newark Bay, some inhabitants had a diet where 50% of the protein was from marine sources (assuming end points of approximately ÿ21& for 100% terrestrial and ÿ12& for 100% marine).…”

“…The isotopic results from this site are significant for a UK population, since previous stable isotope studies of Neolithic [20,21,23,28], Iron Age/Roman [27], AngloSaxon [19], and Medieval [17,18] humans have shown almost no, or very little (d 13 C % ÿ18&), marine foods in the diets. The Newark Bay data, with clear marine isotopic signals are most similar to much earlier Mesolithic humans from coastal sites in the UK, who also consumed a significant amount of marine protein [22,23,26,28,29].…”

“…In the UK, male/female isotopic variations (d 15 N only) have only been found during the late Roman period ( [28], Fuller et al, unpublished data). This variation in marine protein consumption between the sexes could be associated with different work activities such as males spending more time at sea fishing.…”

“…In the United Kingdom, a relatively large number of isotopic studies have been undertaken, especially in recent years, on prehistoric [20,21,23,24,26,28,29] and historic [2,3,17,18,19,25,27] collections. One of the surprising findings of this research, and one which is echoed in isotopic studies of Holocene sites in other areas of Europe, is that the only evidence of the significant consumption of marine foods is during the Mesolithic period, which dates from the start of the Holocene to approximately 4000 cal BC in the UK [21,23,26,28,29].…”

Radiocarbon evidence indicates that migrants introduced farming to Britain

“…Analyses of contemporary human DNA have also returned conflicting results regarding the contribution of Neolithic migrants to the European gene pool, including Britain (Chikhi et al, 1998(Chikhi et al, , 2002Currat and Excoffier, 2005;Richards et al, 2000). Analyses of stable isotopes from Mesolithic and Neolithic skeletons have yielded consistent results (Richards et al, 2003;Schulting and Richards, 2002) but opinions differ regarding their significance. Some interpret them as evidence that there was an abrupt shift from marine to terrestrial resources around 6000 cal BP, which is consistent with the migrating farmers hypothesis (Richards et al, 2003;Richards and Schulting, 2006;Schulting and Richards, 2002).…”