MEXICO: Early farming started in the Near East around 10,500 years ago. It first reached the Balkans in Europe around eight thousand years ago and after that moved on to the west. Britain didn’t start farming until around six thousand years ago. But now archaeologists have discovered a site that sheds light on the history of wheat import in Britain.
“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.
“The use of, or introduction of, cereal grains in Britain now appears to have been a much longer and more complex process than we had previously imagined,” said archaeologist, Professor Vince Gaffney of the University of Bradford, who is also the co-author of the Science paper.
“Scientists’ ability to analyse genetic material found deep in ancient buried marine sediments will open up a totally new chapter in the study of British and European prehistory. Rather than being cut off as the commonly held view states, these hunter-gatherers had trade links to distant agricultural communities,” says Allaby.
“it is a unique method for exploring and understanding what was taking place in the huge swathes of prehistoric territory lost during sea level rise after the end of the last Ice age,” said Professor Gaffney
Garry Momber, Director of the Maritime Archaeology Trust says, “It is one of the richest collections of pre-Neolithic worked timbers ever found in Britain or elsewhere in Europe.”
“At present, we are only able to examine a tiny percentage of the constantly eroding underwater material – but hopefully, if we succeed in getting more funding, we will be able to recover and analyse much more of this unique site,” he said.
In another journal another archeologist Greger Larsen says that the discovery would help scientists trace out details about the historical movement of plants as well as animal species.
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