Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T14:17:11.513Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Something fishy in the Neolithic? A re-evaluation of stable isotope analysis of Mesolithic and Neolithic coastal populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

N. Milner
Affiliation:
School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
O. E. Craig
Affiliation:
School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
G. N. Bailey
Affiliation:
School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
K. Pedersen
Affiliation:
School of Historical Studies, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
S. H. Andersen
Affiliation:
Moesgaard museum, DK-8270 Højberg, Denmark

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ambrose, S.H. & Norr, L. 1993. Experimental evidence for the relationship of the carbon isotope ratios of whole diet and dietary protein to those of bone collagen and carbonate. In, Lambert, J.B. & Grupe, G. (Eds.) Prehistoric Human Bone – Archaeology at the Molecular Level., Springer Verlag: 138.Google Scholar
Andersen, S.H. 1985. Tybrind Vig: a preliminary report on a submerged Ertebølle settlement on the west coast of Fyn. Journal of Danish Archaeology 4: 5269.Google Scholar
Andersen, S.H. 1989. Norsminde: a “kjøkkendmødding” with late Mesolithic and early Neolithic occupation. Journal of Danish Archaeology 8: 1340.Google Scholar
Andersen, S.H. 1991. Bjørnsholm: a Stratified Kjøkkenmødding on the Central Limfjord, North Jutland. Journal of Danish Archaeology 10: 5996.Google Scholar
Andersen, S.H. 1993. Mesolithic coastal settlement. In Hvass, S. & Storgaard, B. (eds) Digging into the Past: 25years of archaeology in Denmark: 65–8. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Andersen, S.H. 1998. Ringkloster. Ertebølle trappers and wild boar hunters in eastern Jutland: a survey. Journal of Danish Archaeology 12:1364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, S.H. 2000. Kjøkkendmøddinger (shell middens) in Denmark: a survey. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 66: 36184.Google Scholar
Bailey, G.N. 1982. Coasts, Lakes, and Littorals. In Jarman, M.R. Bailey, G.N. & Jarman, H.N. (eds.) Early European Agriculture: its Foundations and Development: 72130. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, G.N. & Milner, N.J. 2002. Coastal hunters and gatherers and social evolution: marginal or central?. (with Milner, N.) Before Farming: the Archaeology of Old World Hunter-Gatherers 3–4 (1): 115.().CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, G.N. & Milner, N.J. In press. The marine molluscs from the Mesolithic and Neolithic deposits of the Norsminde shell midden. In Andersen, S. (ed.) Stone Age Settlement in the Coastal Fjord of Norsminde, Jutland, Denmark.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.H., Beukens, R.P. & Brothwell, D.R. 2000. Radiocarbon dating and marine reservoir correction of Viking Age Christian burials from Orkney. Antiquity 74:537543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergenstråhle, I. 1999. Skateholm, a late Mesolithic settlement in southern Scania, in a regional perspective. In Thévenin, A. (ed.) L’Europe des derniers chasseurs. Épipaléolithique et Mésolithique: 335–40. Documents préhistoriques. Paris.Google Scholar
Bird, D.W & Bliege Bird, R. 1997. Contemporary shellfish gathering strategies among the Meriam of the Torres Strait Islands, Australia: testing predictions of a central place foraging model. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:3963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonsall, C. 1996. The ‘Obanian’ problem: coastal adaptation in the Mesolithic of western Scotland. In Pollard, A. & Morrison, A. (eds.) The Early Prehistory of Scotland: 183197. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Brand, Rev. J. 1883. A Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth and Caithness. Edinburgh: William Brown Google Scholar
Burenhult, G. 1984. The Archaeology of Carrowmore. Stockholm.Google Scholar
Childe, V.G., 1931. Skara Brae: A Pictish Village in Orkney. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.Google Scholar
Coles, J.M. 1971. The early settlement of Scotland: excavations at Morton, Fife, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 37: 28466.Google Scholar
Connock, K.D., Finlayson, B. & Mills, C.M. 1992. A shell midden with burials at Carding Mill Bay, near Oban, Scotland. Glasgow Archaeological Journal 17: 2538.Google Scholar
Degerbøl, M. 1933. Danmarks Pattedyr i Fortiden. I Sammenligning med Recente Former. Copenhagen: Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening Bd. 96, Festskrift 2: 357641.Google Scholar
Emeis, K-C Struck, U. Blanz, T. Kohly, A. & Vossl, M.. 2003 Salinity changes in the central Baltic Sea (NW Europe) over the last 10 000 years. Holocene 13: 411421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eriksson, G. & Lidèn, K. 2002. Mammalian stable isotope ecology in a Mesolithic lagoon at Skateholm. Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science 13: 510.Google Scholar
Eriksson, G., Lõugas, L. & Zagorska, I. 2003. Stone Age hunter-fisher-gatherers at Zvejnieki, northern Latvia: radiocarbon, stable isotope and archaeozoology data. Before Farming: the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers 2003/1: 126 ().Google Scholar
Eriksson, G. 2003. Norm and difference: Stone Age dietary practice in the Baltic region. Thesis and papers in Scientific Archaeology 5. Archaeological Research Laboratory, Stockholm University.Google Scholar
Fogel, M.L. & Tuross, N. 2003. Extending the limits of paleodietary studies of humans with compound specific carbon isotope analysis of amino acids. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 535545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischer, A. 2002. Food for Feasting. In Fischer, A. and Kristiansen, K. (eds.) The Neolithisation of Denmark, 150 Years of Debate, pp. 341–94. Sheffield: J.R.Collis publications.Google Scholar
Galimov, E. 1985. The biological fractionation of isotopes. New York: Academic Press: 1638.Google Scholar
Hardy, K. & Wickham-Jones, C. 2002. Scotland’s first settlers: the Mesolithic seascape of the Inner Sound, Skye and its contribution to the early prehistory of Scotland. Antiquity 76: 825–33.Google Scholar
Heier-Nielsen, S., Heinemeier, J. Nielsen, H.L. & Rud, N. 1995. Recent reservoir ages for Danish fjords and marine waters. Radiocarbon 37: 875–82.Google Scholar
Higgs, E.S. 1968. Archaeology - where now? Mankind 6: 617–20.Google Scholar
Johansen, K.L. In press. 1997. Settlement and land use at the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in southern Scandinavia. Journal of Danish Archaeology 13.Google Scholar
Kemp, D. (1801). Observations on the Islands ofShetland and their Inhabitants. Edinburgh: Charles Stewart.Google Scholar
Laderman, C. 1981. Symbolic and empirical reality: a new approach to the analysis of food avoidances. American Ethnologist 8: 468–93.Google Scholar
Larsson, L. 2000. Cemeteries and mortuary practice in the Late Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia. In Lang , V. (ed.) De temporibus antiquissimis ad honorem Lembit Jaanits: 81102. Muinasaja Teadus (Research into ancient times). Tallinn.Google Scholar
Lidèn, K., 1996. A dietary perspective on Swedish hunter–gatherer and Neolithic populations: an analysis of stable isotopes and trace elements. Laborativ Arkeologi: Journal of Nordic Archaeological Science 9: 523.Google Scholar
Lidèn, K., Eriksson, G. Nordqvist, B. Götherström, A. & Bendixen, E. 2003. “The wet and the wild followed by the dry and the tame” - or did they occur at the same time? Antiquity Vol. 299, No. 299.Google Scholar
Lubell, D., Jackes, M. Schwarcz, H. Knyf, M. & Meiklejohn, C. 1994. The Mesolithic Neolithic Transition in Portugal - Isotopic and Dental Evidence of Diet. Journal of Archaeological Science 21: 201216.Google Scholar
Madsen, A.P., Muller, S. Neergaard, C. Petersen, C.G.J. Rostrup, E. Steenstrup, K.J.V. & Winge, H. 1900. Affaldsdynger fra Stenalderen i Danmark. Copenhagen: Reitzel.Google Scholar
Malm, T. 1995. Excavating submerged Stone Age sites in Denmark-the Tybrind Vig example. In Fischer, A. (ed.). Man and Sea in the Mesolithic: coastal settlement above and below present sea level: 385–96. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Meehan, B. 1982. Shell Bed to Shell Midden. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Mellars, P.A. 1987. Excavations on Oronsay:prehistoric human ecology on a small island. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Meiklejohn, C & Denston, C.B. 1987. The human skeletal material. In PA Mellars 1987. Excavations on Oronsay: prehistoric human ecology on a small island: 290300. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Møhl, U. 1971 Fangstdyrene ved de danske strande. Den zoologiske baggrund for harpunerne. Kuml 1970: 297329.Google Scholar
Moss, M.L. 1993. Shellfish, gender, and status on the Northwest coast: reconciling archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistorical records of the Tlingit. American Anthropologist 95 (3): 631–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nithart, M. 2000. Comparison of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures of the polychaete Nereis diversicolor from different estuarine sites. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 80: 763–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkington, J. 1991. Approaches to dietary reconstruction in the western Cape: are you what you have eaten? Journal of Archaeological Science 18: 331–42.Google Scholar
Pedersen, L. 1995. 7000 years of fishing: stationary fishing structures in the Mesolithic and afterwards. In Fischer, A. (ed.) Man and Sea in the Mesolithic: coastal settlement above and below present sea level: 7586. Oxford: Oxbow Monograph.Google Scholar
Polis, G.A. & Hurd, S.D. 1996. Allochthonous input across habitats, subsidized consumers, and apparent trophic cascades: examples from the ocean-land interface. In Polis, G.A. & Winemiller, K.O. (eds) Food Webs: integration of patterns and dynamics: 275–85. New York: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, M.P. 2000. Human consumption of plant foods in the British Neolithic; direct evidence from bone stable isotopes. In Fairbairn, A. (ed.) Plants in Neolithic Britain and Beyond. Oxford,. Oxbow Monograph. Pgs. 123135 Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. 2003. Explaining the dietary isotope evidence for the rapid adoption of the Neolithic in Britain. In Parker Pearson , M. (ed.) Food, Culture and Identity in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age: 31–6. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 117.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. & Hedges, R.E.M. 1999a. Stable isotope evidence for similarities in the types of marine foods used by late Mesolithic humans on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 26: 717–22.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. & Hedges, R.E.M. 1999b. A Neolithic revolution? New evidence of diet in the British Neolithic. Antiquity 73: 891–7.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. & Koch, E. 2001. Neolitisk kost. Analyser af kvaslstof-isotopen 15N I menneskeskeletter fra yngre stenalder. Aarbøgger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie 1999 (2001): 717.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. & Mellars, P. 1998. Stable isotopes and the seasonality of the Oronsay middens. Antiquity 72 (275):178–84.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P., Price, T.D. & Koch, E. 2003 The Mesolithic/Neolithic transition in Denmark: new stable isotope data. Current Anthropology 44: 288–94.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P., Schulting, R.J. & Hedges, R.E.M 2003. Sharp shift in diet at onset of Neolithic. Nature 425: 366.Google Scholar
Richards, M.P. & Sheridan, J.A. 2000. New AMS dates on human bone from Mesolithic oronsay. Antiquity 74: 313–15.Google Scholar
Riera, P. & Richard, P. 1996. Isotopic determination of food sources of Crassostrea gigas along a trophic gradient in the estuarine bay of Marennes-Oléron. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 42: 347–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowley-Conwy, P. 1983. Sedentary hunters: the Ertebølle example. In Bailey, G.N. (ed.) Hunter-Gatherer Economy in Prehistory: 111–26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schulting, R.J. & Richards, M.P. 2000. Mesolithic subsistence and seasonality: the use of stable isotopes. in Young, R. (ed.) Current Research on the Mesolithic of Britain and Ireland: 5565. Leicester: University of Leicester Press.Google Scholar
Schulting, R.J. & Richards, M.P. 2001. Dating women and becoming farmers: new palaeodietary and AMS data from the Breton Mesolithic cemeteries of Téviec and Hoëdic. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20: 314344.Google Scholar
Schulting, R.J. & Richards, M.P. 2002a. The wet, the wild and the domesticated: the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition on the West Coast of Scotland. Journal of European Archaeology 5: 147–18Google Scholar
Schulting, R.J. & Richards, M.P. 2002b. Finding the coastal Mesolithic in southwest Britain: AMS dates and stable isotope results on human remains from Caldey island, Pembrokeshire, South Wales. Antiquity 76: 10111025.Google Scholar
Scott, J.G. 1961. The excavation of the chambered cairn at Crarae, Loch Fyneside, Mid Argyll. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 94: 127.Google Scholar
Sealy, J.C. & Van Der Merwe, N. 1992. On “Approaches to dietary reconstruction in the western Cape: are you what you have eaten?” a reply to Parkington. Journal of Archaeological Science 19: 459–66.Google Scholar
Skaarup, J. 1973 Hesselø-Sølager. Jagdstationen der südskandinavischen Trichterbecherkultur. Arkeologiske Studier Volume 1. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Sloan, D. 1984. Shell middens and chronology in Scotland. Scottish Archaeological Review 3: 7379.Google Scholar
Sloan, D. 1989. Shells and settlement: European implications of oyster exploitation. in Clutton-Brock, J. (ed.) The Walking Larder: 316–25. London: Unwin-Hyman.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Braziunas, T.F. 1993. Modelling atmospheric 14C influences and 14C ages of marine samples to 10,000 BC. Radiocarbon 35: 137–89.Google Scholar
Tauber, H. 1981. 13C evidence for dietary habits of prehistoric man in Denmark. Nature 292: 332–3.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 2003. Thoughts on the “repacked” Neolithic Revolution. Antiquity`77 (295): 6775.Google Scholar
Tiezen, L.L. & Farge, T. 1993. Effect of diet quantity and composition on the isotopic composition of respiratory CO2, bone collagen, bioapatite and soft tissues. In, Lambert, J.B. & Grupe, G. (Eds.) Prehistoric Human Bone - Archaeology at the Molecular Level., Springer Verlag: 121156.Google Scholar
Wheeler, A. 1979. The fish bones. In Renfrew, C. (ed.) Investigations in Orkney. London: Society of Antiquaries, Report of the Research Committee 38:144–9.Google Scholar
Whittle, A & Wysocki, M. 1998. Parc le Breos Cwm transepted long cairn, Gower, West Glamorgan: date, contents and context. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 64: 139–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar