Abstract
Despite being surrounded by aquatic resources, the Prehistoric populations of the North Atlantic Islands have a complex history of aquatic resource that until now has been little understood. Specifically the changing importance and uses of aquatic resources through time, and the role of aquatic resources in the management of animals in prehistory requires further attention. This paper presents results of faunal isotopic analysis in combination with existing human isotopic evidence and zooarchaeological datasets from Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age sites in the Western Isles (also known as the Outer Hebrides) and Orkney to explore the importance of aquatic resources in the lives of these prehistory populations. In Orkney coastal grazing was an important aspect in the management of sheep throughout prehistory, whereas in the Western Isles this was only evident in the Bronze Age. Aquatic protein was also used in the management of pigs in the Western Isles during the Middle Iron Age. There is little evidence of humans consuming aquatic resources in the Neolithic, and only minor evidence of consumption in the Bronze Age. During the Iron Age aquatic resources become more important in the diet of humans. The Prehistoric Atlantic Islanders of Scotland had a complex and dynamic relationship with aquatic resources, especially in the role of animal management that changed throughout the course of prehistory.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 665-677 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports |
| Volume | 6 |
| Early online date | 12 Sept 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2016 |
Bibliographical note
The authors would like to express thanks to NERC for funding this research (Grant number NE/F021054/1, PI Richard Evershed), and the NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility in East Kilbride (EK158-03/10) for their financial assistance with the analytical research. Rona McGill was especially helpful with the Mass Spectrometry analysis of the zooarchaeological specimens. Many thanks to Richard Evershed and Lucy Cramp for their valuable insights at team meetings throughout this research. The authors would like to thank Claire Ingrem, Julia Best, and Adrienne Powell for providing valuable access to zooarchaeological datasets. Richard Madgwick provided valuable comments and discussions about the data. Thanks also to Alison Sheridan (National Museum of Scotland) for facilitating sampling of several key sites, and to Mark Elliot for providing access to the Dun Vulan zooarchaeological assemblage (Museum nan Eilean). Nick Card and Martin Carruthas (both Orkney College) provided samples from the Neolithic site of Ness of Brodgar and the Iron Age site of The Cairns, respectively. Janette Park and Linda Aiano (Orkney Museum) facilitated the sampling of faunal remains from Tofts Ness, Pool, and Mine Howe. Sheena Fraser and Glynnis kindly helped in selecting specimens from the recent Links of Noltland excavation and the Knowe O'Skea assemblages. Thanks to Tom Dawson for aiding with the sampling of the Baile Sear material, and for providing radiocarbon dating and isotopes. Many thanks to Ian Armit and Fiona Shapland for very kindly providing the radiocarbon certificates (funded by Historic Scotland) and isotopic information for several of the Iron Age sites. The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments that helped to improve this paper. Finally the authors would like to thank Cardiff University for generously proving funding to make this article Open Access.Keywords
- Animal management
- Aquatic resources
- Islands
- Isotopes
- Orkney
- Prehistory
- Shorefront grazing
- Western isles
- Zooarchaeology