The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
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• 54 • Steven Mithen<br />
seeds <strong>from</strong> Newferry, wild pear/apple <strong>from</strong> Mount Sandel and bog bean <strong>from</strong> Star Carr <strong>of</strong>fer a<br />
glimpse <strong>of</strong> the range regularly exploited.<br />
Only hazelnuts, usually represented by fragments <strong>of</strong> their charred shells, have been found<br />
in large quantities and on many sites. <strong>The</strong>se were probably roasted to improve their flavour and<br />
digestibility or to prepare a paste for ease <strong>of</strong> transport and storage; in this process, some were<br />
burnt. <strong>The</strong> apparent importance <strong>of</strong> hazelnuts in Mesolithic diets is likely to be more than a<br />
factor <strong>of</strong> preservation and recovery: as a highly nutritious plant food, they were probably<br />
intensively exploited and regularly harvested. At sites such as Broom Hill and Staosnaig, hundreds<br />
<strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> charred nuts were deposited in large, circular depressions. As these nuts are<br />
presumably only a fraction <strong>of</strong> those roasted, a very intensive exploitation <strong>of</strong> hazel trees in the<br />
vicinity is implied, especially if, as at Staosnaig, such deposits formed over a number <strong>of</strong> years<br />
rather than centuries.<br />
<strong>The</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> plant foods in the diet may be indi<strong>ca</strong>ted by the evidence for environmental<br />
manipulation by igniting vegetation, which increases in frequency during the Later Mesolithic.<br />
Firing may have been used to encourage plant growth, and been particularly valuable for hazel.<br />
Management <strong>of</strong> plants may also be indi<strong>ca</strong>ted by artefacts: amongst other purposes, antler mattocks<br />
may have been used to break ground or to weed, so that edible wild plants could flourish.<br />
<strong>The</strong> use <strong>of</strong> cereals?<br />
Numerous pollen cores provide a further contentious aspect <strong>of</strong> Mesolithic plant use: the<br />
exploitation, perhaps cultivation, <strong>of</strong> cereals. For example, at Cothill Fen, Oxfordshire, a single<br />
Triticum type (wheat) pollen grain was found at a level dating to c.6,800 radio<strong>ca</strong>rbon years BP<br />
(Day 1991), while another cereal type pollen grain was identifed at a level dating to c.5,880<br />
radio<strong>ca</strong>rbon years BP at Machrie Moor, Arran. <strong>The</strong>se may indi<strong>ca</strong>te Mesolithic groups experimenting<br />
with growing non-indigenous cereals, but some specialists consider that the ‘cereal type pollen’<br />
was either produced by native wild grasses, or occured in such early contexts due to contamination.<br />
Unless cereal grains are found in well-dated, in situ Mesolithic contexts, it seems unlikely that this<br />
issue will be resolved.<br />
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, IDEOLOGY AND THE HUMAN POPULATION<br />
Depressingly little <strong>ca</strong>n be stated with confidence about the social organization <strong>of</strong> Mesolithic<br />
hunter-gatherers in <strong>Britain</strong>, about which archaeologists remain unable to draw inferences <strong>from</strong><br />
records composed primarily <strong>of</strong> stone artefacts. Of course, this does not stop speculation, some<br />
<strong>of</strong> which may be correct. For instance, Jacobi (1978) argued that in northern England during the<br />
Earlier Mesolithic, two distinct social groups are represented by assemblages with specific<br />
frequencies <strong>of</strong> particular microlith types, and differences in raw material usage. Subtle variations<br />
in the retouch <strong>of</strong> obliquely blunted points, for example, are recognized. Such differences are<br />
unlikely to have been functional and, since such equipment is too inconspicuous to have acted as<br />
a means <strong>of</strong> social identifi<strong>ca</strong>tion, may reflect largely unconscious social traditions unique to particular<br />
human groups. A similar argument may be appli<strong>ca</strong>ble to other distinctive artefacts, such as Horsham<br />
points, found in discrete geographi<strong>ca</strong>l areas and chronologi<strong>ca</strong>l periods.<br />
<strong>An</strong>other route into prehistoric social organization is to consider the distribution <strong>of</strong> prestige<br />
goods in order to identify patterns <strong>of</strong> exchange, but few such items are known. Perhaps the best<br />
examples are shale beads, apparently signifi<strong>ca</strong>nt artefacts <strong>of</strong> the Early Mesolithic. At Nab Head I<br />
(Dyfed), over 600 have been found (David in Bonsall 1989), made <strong>from</strong> lo<strong>ca</strong>l material. This<br />
seems to have been worked there, given the numbers <strong>of</strong> perforating tools, unperforated shale