All Outputs (5)

Scotland’s first farmers: new insights into early farming practices in north-west Europe (2022)
Journal Article
Bishop, R., Gröcke, D., Ralston, I., Clarke, D., Lee, D., Shepherd, A., …Church, M. (2022). Scotland’s first farmers: new insights into early farming practices in north-west Europe. Antiquity, 96(389), https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2022.107

Thirty years after the discovery of an Early Neolithic timber hall at Balbridie in Scotland was reported in Antiquity, new analysis of the site's archaeobotanical assemblage, featuring 20 000 cereal grains preserved when the building burnt down in th... Read More about Scotland’s first farmers: new insights into early farming practices in north-west Europe.

Effects of marine biofertilisation on Celtic bean carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotopes: implications for reconstructing past diet and farming practices (2021)
Journal Article
Gröcke, D. R., Treasure, E. R., Lester, J. J., Gron, K. J., & Church, M. J. (2021). Effects of marine biofertilisation on Celtic bean carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotopes: implications for reconstructing past diet and farming practices. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 35(5), Article e8985. https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.8985

Rationale: The application of fertilisers to crops can be monitored and assessed using stable isotope ratios. However, the application of marine biofertilisers (e.g. fish, macroalgae/seaweed) on crop stable isotope ratios has been rarely studied, des... Read More about Effects of marine biofertilisation on Celtic bean carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotopes: implications for reconstructing past diet and farming practices.

Archaeological cereals as an isotope record of long-term soil health and anthropogenic amendment in southern Scandinavia (2021)
Journal Article
Gron, K., Larsson, M., Gröcke, D., Andersen, N., Andreasen, M., Bech, J., …Church, M. (2021). Archaeological cereals as an isotope record of long-term soil health and anthropogenic amendment in southern Scandinavia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 253, Article 106762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106762

Maintaining soil health is integral to agricultural production, and the archaeological record contains multiple lines of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental proxy evidence that can contribute to the understanding and analysis of long-term trajecto... Read More about Archaeological cereals as an isotope record of long-term soil health and anthropogenic amendment in southern Scandinavia.

Nitrogen isotope evidence for manuring of Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture cereals from Stensborg, Sweden (2017)
Journal Article
Gron, K., Gröcke, D., Larsson, M., Sørensen, L., Larsson, L., Rowley-Conwy, P., & Church, M. (2017). Nitrogen isotope evidence for manuring of Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture cereals from Stensborg, Sweden. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 14, 575-579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.06.042

Little is known about arable agriculture in the Early Neolithic (4000–3300 cal BC, Funnel Beaker Culture) of Southern Scandinavia. Archaeobotanical material is rare and few archaeological sites have yielded more than a small number of charred cereal... Read More about Nitrogen isotope evidence for manuring of Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture cereals from Stensborg, Sweden.

The influence of manuring on stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) in Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.): archaeobotanical and palaeodietary implications (2015)
Journal Article
Treasure, E., Church, M., & Gröcke, D. (2016). The influence of manuring on stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) in Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.): archaeobotanical and palaeodietary implications. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 8(3), 555-562. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-015-0243-6

This paper examines the impact of animal manure on δ15N and δ13C values in a legume, Celtic Black broad bean (Vicia faba). In a field experiment, V. faba was cultivated in plots treated with farmyard manure and pure sheep manure. The results indicate... Read More about The influence of manuring on stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) in Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.): archaeobotanical and palaeodietary implications.