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Cereals, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Neolithic

Bishop, RR; Church, MJ; Rowley-Conwy, PA

Authors

RR Bishop

PA Rowley-Conwy



Abstract

The importance of wild and domestic plants within British Neolithic economies has been much disputed but the contribution of the Scottish archaeobotanical evidence to this issue has previously been understated. This paper assesses the use of plants in the Scottish Neolithic economy using the archaeobotanical evidence from 75 sites. It is argued that plant exploitation was geographically and socially diverse in Neolithic Scotland; while domestic plants became the mainstay of the economy for some social groups, wild plant exploitation remained an important part of the subsistence strategies of other groups. In this context, geographic, social and temporal differences in the importance of wheat and barley are also discussed.

Citation

Bishop, R., Church, M., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2009). Cereals, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Neolithic. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 139, 47-103

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date 2009
Deposit Date Nov 15, 2010
Journal Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Print ISSN 0081-1564
Publisher Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 139
Pages 47-103
Publisher URL http://www.socantscot.org/