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tiompan

5758 posts

Re: CULINARY HABITS OF THE STONEHENGE BUILDERS

Oct 15, 2015, 20:19

tjj wrote:

tiompan wrote:

.... what was interesting is that there was no evidence for cereals and their production at DW ,that's what the reviews missed out on and picked the wrong horse by suggesting there was no veg .
The move away from cereals and their production is evident in other areas in the period and some see this as a move away from farming after the earlier introduction .

Does the absence of grain indicate a move away from farming? If Durrington Walls was indeed a settlement for the builders of Stonehenge, would they involve themselves in farming? Probably not, they would be too knackered. If Durrington Walls had another purpose - such as a seasonal festive gathering, again grain based food probably wouldn't be on the menu.

The absence of evidence for cereals and their production ,querns etc.at DW is not a sign of a move away from from farming in the period , but it is further evidence for that shift which has been noted in the past decade . The most obvious paper in relation to the period and area is "Did Neolithic
farming fail? The case for a Bronze Age agricultural revolution in the British Isles. "by Stevens and Fuller 2012 . Where they produce eveidence for that shift ,citing the lack of evidence for dental caries for that period ,which would be expected for a processed cereal diet and is common later when that diet was certainly found .Evidence for cereal cultivation, including querns and ard marks are rare for the period ,granaries, storage pits and, for many regions, field systems are unknown before the Middle Bronze Age ,isotope evidence indicates that Neolithic diets were higher in animal protein than later periods . The charred evidence is not there and there seems to be greater reliance and return to wild food like hazlenuts .Cereals were introduced and produced earlier but there appears to have been a point when they were not grown ,the authors ,along with other continental authors ,who have noted similar changes ,cite climate change as a possible reason . I mentioned this a couple of tiimes here but don't know how to find the the originals .

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Re: CULINARY HABITS OF THE STONEHENGE BUILDERS (tjj)

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CULINARY HABITS OF THE STONEHENGE BUILDERS – moss, Oct 14, 2015, 11:19


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