Britain Imported Wheat 2,000 Years Before Growing It

scientificamerican.com ^ | Cynthia Graber

[BenLurkin]

Early farming began in the Near East about 10,500 years ago. Farming first reached the Balkans in Europe some 8 to 9,000 years ago, and then crept westward. Locals in Britain, separated from the mainland by the relatively newly formed English Channel, did not start farming until about 6,000 years ago.

But an analysis of sediment from a submerged British archaeological site called Bouldner Cliff found something unexpected.

“Amongst our Bouldner Cliff samples we found ancient DNA evidence of wheat at the site, which was not seen in mainland Britain for another 2,000 years.” Robin Allaby of the University of Warwick.

“However, wheat was already being grown in southern Europe. This is incredibly exciting because it means Bouldner’s inhabitants were not as isolated as previously thought. In fact, they were in touch, one way or another, with more advanced Neolithic farming communities in southern Europe.” The work by Allaby and colleagues is in the journal Science.

[BenLurkin]

gnip

[Perdogg]

ping

[ClearCase_guy]

So, the global economy was just humming along, trade shipments from central Europe were arriving at a steady pace. Life was pretty good.

Then -- WHAM! -- the Brits figured out agriculture!
That's when things really escalated quickly.

[holden]

Howzabout maybe they needed some of that good global warming before growing wheat could really take off?

HF

[Hugin]

Probably didn’t bother to grow it until they learned to make beer.

[Olog-hai]

How would they know what was grown in Britain thousands of years ago? I do not think they have a TARDIS.

[minnesota_bound]

They grew wheat back then and used Stonehenge to grind the wheat into flour.

[BenLurkin]

Yes, but they has technology which we don't have today........

[Rockpile]

In my totally uneddymakated SWAG opinion some ancient folks tried eating wild cereal plants that had been scorched in a range fire and thought “Hey, this stuff’s not bad!”

[ProtectOurFreedom]

1,500’to 2,500 years for agriculture to diffuse from the near east to the Balkans. About one mile per year?

That’s astonishingly slow.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin and Perdogg. Nice topic you've ploughed up. Archaeology is such and interesting, uh, field...

[wildbill]

Cereal grains scorched in fire would go snap, crackle and pop, no?

And now you know the rest of the story of Rice Crispies.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[colorado tanker]

Once again, modern researchers are astounded Neolithic people traded with one another. The surprise is they are always surprised.

[Tainan]

"This is incredibly exciting..."

A bit of an overstatement here. Just a bit.

[BenLurkin]

"I don't get out very much."

[SunkenCiv]

True, but they will still resist the obvious seagoing trade angle. One would think that the 50 year old breakthrough regarding the obsidian trade would have ended that, but apparently the obsidian arrived on those Aegean Islands because some of those guys could *really* hold their breath a long time.

[Rudder]

Like the Irish and their potatoes...