Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: increasing temporal resolution in the isotope evidence

Montgomery, J.; Beaumont, J.; Jay, A.; Keefe, K.; Gledhill, A.; Cook, G.; Dockrill, Stephen J.; Melton, N.D.

doi:10.1017/s0003598x00049863

Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: increasing temporal resolution in the isotope evidence

Montgomery, J.; Beaumont, J.; Jay, A.; Keefe, K.; Gledhill, A.; Cook, G.; Dockrill, Stephen J.; Melton, N.D.

Authors

Professor Janet Montgomery janet.montgomery@durham.ac.uk
Professor

J. Beaumont

A. Jay

K. Keefe

A. Gledhill

G. Cook

Stephen J. Dockrill

N.D. Melton

Abstract

Stable isotope analysis has provided crucial new insights into dietary change at the Neolithic transition in north-west Europe, indicating an unexpectedly sudden and radical shift from marine to terrestrial resources in coastal and island locations. Investigations of early Neolithic skeletal material from Sumburgh on Shetland, at the far-flung margins of the Neolithic world, suggest that this general pattern may mask significant subtle detail. Analysis of juvenile dentine reveals the consumption of marine foods on an occasional basis. This suggests that marine foods may have been consumed as a crucial supplementary resource in times of famine, when the newly introduced cereal crops failed to cope with the demanding climate of Shetland. This isotopic evidence is consistent with the presence of marine food debris in contemporary middens. The occasional and contingent nature of marine food consumption underlines how, even on Shetland, the shift from marine to terrestrial diet was a key element in the Neolithic transition.

Citation

Montgomery, J., Beaumont, J., Jay, A., Keefe, K., Gledhill, A., Cook, G., …Melton, N. (2013). Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: increasing temporal resolution in the isotope evidence. Antiquity, 87(338), 1060-1072. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00049863

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Dec 1, 2013
Deposit Date	Nov 22, 2012
Publicly Available Date	Oct 11, 2013
Journal	Antiquity
Print ISSN	0003-598X
Electronic ISSN	1745-1744
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	87
Issue	338
Pages	1060-1072
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00049863
Keywords	Shetland, Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, Marine consumption, Stable isotopes, Dentine, Bone.