A response to Richards and Schulting.

A response to Richards and Schulting. We welcome the comments of Mike Richards For other people named Michael Richards, see Michael Richards (disambiguation).Michael "Mike" Richards (born 11 February, 1985 in Kenora, Ontario) is a Canadian professional ice hockey center who currently plays for the Philadelphia Flyers and Rick Schulting;however, rather than attempting to close the debate on the isotopeevidence and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, as suggested in theirintroduction, we agree that the issues raised should be widely discussedand subject to critical and well informed scrutiny. We certainly did notattempt a 'simple outright denial of the validity of one of themethods of analysis' (i.e. stable isotopes); rather we wished tomake the point that interpretations have to take into accountuncertainties associated with the measurements. We have been pleased bythe discussion that our article has invoked: two published responses(Barbarena & Borrero 2005; Hedges 2004) and numerous personalcommunications which have been supportive and critical in equal measure.In addition other papers have recently been published on similar themesfor other parts of Europe (e.g. Boris et al. 2004; Eriksson 2004; Lidenet al. 2004). Space does not allow us to deal with all the points raised byRichards and Schulting and so we will address a couple of key points.Firstly, we need to find ways of reconciling the different data sets.This is particularly important for the Danish material wherezooarchaeological evidence is so strong for the exploitation of marineresources in the first part of the Early Neolithic (here defined as TN1:c. 4000-3450 BC). Richards and Schulting suggest that the remains offish and shellfish shellfish,popular name for certain edible mollusks (see Mollusca), e.g., oysters, clams, and scallops, and for certain edible crustaceans, e.g., crabs, lobsters, and shrimps. All are aquatic invertebrates with shells; they are not fish. are 'largely irrelevant in the overall questionof large scale dietary shifts'--fish and shellfish being theremains of individual meals which are not indicative of the overall dietof human populations. However, we would argue that these remainsaccumulated often over hundreds of years and therefore provide evidenceof long term subsistence practices. Very often the TN1 shell middensconsist of as much, if not more, food remains than the Mesolithic partsof the midden middendungheap. , e.g. Norsminde, Bjornsholm, Krabbesholm (Andersen 1991,1993). In addition, most of these sites are found on the coastline andat the same locations as the Late Mesolithic ones, demonstrating a clearcontinuity in settlement. The same species of animals, birds and fishesare found; the only additions are a few indicators of domesticatedanimals This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.This article has been tagged since September 2007.This is a list of animals which have been domesticated by humans. . Of course we accept that there are inherent biases in the studyof this faunal data, but this vast quantity of archaeological evidencecannot be dismissed simply because it cannot be reconciled with thesmall number of stable isotope stable isotopen.An isotope of an element that shows no tendency to undergo radioactive breakdown. results for this period. If the stable isotope data is accepted as showing a terrestrialbased diet we need to ask other sorts of questions which may help usexplore why the zooarchaeological and stable isotope data sets appear tobe opposed: Who is eating all this marine food? Are these peoplerepresented in the stable isotope data? If so, why does so much marinefood waste occur and yet not show up in the stable isotopes? Is themarine food being consumed much more sporadically (so that consumptionequals < 10 per cent of the individual's overall diet) andtherefore is this quantity of food being spread out across a much largerpopulation? Or, are there different groups with different diets perhapssome living a hunter gatherer life at the coast as evidenced in theBaltic (see e.g. Eriksson 2004)? Without considering these sorts ofissues we cannot begin to think about subjects such as widespreadtaboos. Scotland is very different to the Danish situation in that it hasbeen possible to sample many more individuals and here we do not denythat there is a strong grouping of isotope results indicative of aterrestrial diet from about 4000 BC. However, unfortunately the onlybone stable isotope evidence of Late Mesolithic diet in Scotland comesfrom Oronsay: a rather unique set of sites and a very small dataset.Although three of the four dated bones have a strong marine isotopesignal, if we consider other sites in Britain and Ireland, the evidencefor marine exploitation in the late Mesolithic is much more variable andincludes stable isotope evidence for mixed or solely terrestrial diets,e.g. Rockmarshall and Killuragh cave (Woodman 2004: 49). In some senses we are not contradicting Richards and Schulting, inthat we agree that a change in diet did occur in the Early Neolithic.However, we perhaps disagree about the rate and timing of change. Thekey problem is that the terms rapid or sudden are rarely defined. Wequestion what is meant by sudden change when dealing with time scalesthat cannot be reliably subdivided into units much smaller than 100years. We also argue that there was probably much dietary variabilityacross Europe during the period c. 4500-3500 BC. For example in Scotlandthere is stable isotope evidence for terrestrial based diets from 4000BC, but in Denmark there is less evidence until about 500 years latercoinciding with the absence of marine fauna on archaeological sites. We suspect that there is variability both within the Mesolithic andwithin the Neolithic, and that we should look for such variabilityrather than assume a single uniform Mesolithic package, replaced in duetime by a single Neolithic one. Isotope data certainly has a role toplay in that exploration but, as with all archaeological datasets, theyshould be treated critically and interpreted in conjunction with othersources of information (cf. Claassen 1998: 191). In sum, we need tostart bringing different types of data together, synthesise newquestions, think especially about time scales and look for spatialvariability Spatial variability is characterized by different values for an observed attribute or property that are measured at different geographic locations in an area. The geographic locations are recorded using GPS (global positioning systems) while the attribute's spatial variability is in order to continue the debate. References ANDERSEN, S.H. 1991. Norsminde: a "kjokkendmodding" withlate Mesolithic and early Neolithic occupation. Journal of DanishArchaeology 8: 13-40. --1993. Bjornsholm. A stratified stratified/strat��i��fied/ (strat��i-fid) formed or arranged in layers. strat��i��fiedadj.Arranged in the form of layers or strata. kokkenmodding on the centralLimfjord, north Jutland. Journal of Danish Archaeology 10: 59-96. BARBARENA, R. & L.A. BORRERO. 2005. Stable isotopes and faunalbones: Comments on Milner et al. (2004). Antiquity 79: 191-5. BORIC bo��ric? also bo��rac��icadj.Of, relating to, derived from, or containing boron.boricAdjectiveof or containing boronAdj. 1. , D., G. GRUPE, J. PETERS & Z. MIKIC. 2004. Is theMesolithic-Neolithic subsistence dichotomy real? New stable isotopeevidence from the Danube Gorges. European Journal of Archaeology 7:221-48. CLAASSEN, C. 1998. Shells. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). . ERIKSSON, G. 2004. Part-time farmers or hard-core sealers?Vasterbjers studied by means of stable isotope analysis. Journal ofAnthropological Archaeology 23: 135-62. HEDGES, R.E.M. 2004. Isotopes and red herrings: comments on Milneret al. and Liden et al. Antiquity 78: 34-7. LIDEN, K., G. ERIKSSON, B. NORDQVIST, A. GOTHERSTROM & E.BENDIXEN. 2004. "The wet and the wild followed by the dry and thetame"--or did they occur at the same time? Diet inMesolithic-Neolithic southern Sweden. Antiquity 78: 23-33. WOODMAN, P. 2004. The exploitation of Ireland's coastalresources--a marginal resources through time?, in M. Gonzalez Morales& G.A. Clark (ed.) The Mesolithic of the Atlantic facade:proceedings of the Santander symposium: 37-56. Anthropological researchpaper no. 55. Arizona: Arizona State University Arizona State University,at Tempe; coeducational; opened 1886 as a normal school, became 1925 Tempe State Teachers College, renamed 1945 Arizona State College at Tempe. Its present name was adopted in 1958. . N. Milner (1), O.E. Craig (2), G.N. Bailey (1) & S.H. Andersen(3) (1) Department of Archaeology, University of York This article is about the British university. For the Canadian university, see York University. The University of York is a campus university in York, England. , King'sManor, York, YO1 7EP, UK (2) Centro di antropologia molecolare per lo studio del DNA DNA:see nucleic acid. DNAor deoxyribonucleic acidOne of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. antico,Dipartimento di Biologia, Universita di Roma "Tor Vergata",Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma, Italy (3) Senior researcher, The National Museum of Denmark,Frederiksholms Kanal 12, DK-1220 Kobenhavn K, Denmark