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Testing the presence of cereal-type pollen grains in coastal pre-Elm Decline peat deposits: Fine-resolution palynology at Roudsea Wood, Cumbria, UK (2024)
Journal Article
Innes, J., Rutherford, M., Ryan, P., Rowley-Conwy, P., & Blackford, J. (2024). Testing the presence of cereal-type pollen grains in coastal pre-Elm Decline peat deposits: Fine-resolution palynology at Roudsea Wood, Cumbria, UK. Holocene, 34(4), 420-437. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836231219461

By the time of the Mid-Holocene Ulmus pollen decline (UD) ca. 5100 14C bp (ca. 5900 cal. BP), the Neolithic was becoming well established in Britain and Ireland. The importance of cereal cultivation as part of the initial neolithization process in th... Read More about Testing the presence of cereal-type pollen grains in coastal pre-Elm Decline peat deposits: Fine-resolution palynology at Roudsea Wood, Cumbria, UK.

Neolithisation through bone: Stable isotope analysis of human and faunal remains from Syltholm II, Lolland, Denmark (2024)
Journal Article
Gron, K. J., Gröcke, D. R., Groß, D., Rowley-Conwy, P., Robson, H. K., & Montgomery, J. (2024). Neolithisation through bone: Stable isotope analysis of human and faunal remains from Syltholm II, Lolland, Denmark. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 53, Article 104384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104384

Despite an increasing number of studies, the application of stable sulfur (δ34S) isotope analysis to prehistoric bone collagen remains in its infancy. Conventionally, stable sulfur isotope compositions reflect coastal proximity and the interaction be... Read More about Neolithisation through bone: Stable isotope analysis of human and faunal remains from Syltholm II, Lolland, Denmark.

Epipalaeolithic animal tending to Neolithic herding at Abu Hureyra, Syria (12,800–7,800 calBP): Deciphering dung spherulites (2022)
Journal Article
Smith, A., Oechsner, A., Rowley-Conwy, P., & Moore, A. M. (2022). Epipalaeolithic animal tending to Neolithic herding at Abu Hureyra, Syria (12,800–7,800 calBP): Deciphering dung spherulites. PLoS ONE, 17(9), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272947

Excavations at Abu Hureyra, Syria, during the 1970s exposed a long sequence of occupation spanning the transition from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture. Dung spherulites preserved within curated flotation samples from Epipalaeolithic (ca. 13,300–... Read More about Epipalaeolithic animal tending to Neolithic herding at Abu Hureyra, Syria (12,800–7,800 calBP): Deciphering dung spherulites.

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.

Transhumance in the Early Neolithic? Carbon and oxygen isotope insights into sheep husbandry at Arene Candide, Northern Italy (2021)
Journal Article
Karkuleviciute, K., Gron, K., Patterson, W., Panelli, C., Rossi, S., Timsic, S., …Rowley-Conwy, P. (2021). Transhumance in the Early Neolithic? Carbon and oxygen isotope insights into sheep husbandry at Arene Candide, Northern Italy. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 40(Part B), Article 103240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103240

Vertical transhumance is historically known as an animal management practice in the Mediterranean that mitigates the risk of overgrazing and unpalatable pastures. It has long been debated whether the practice developed together with the spread of the... Read More about Transhumance in the Early Neolithic? Carbon and oxygen isotope insights into sheep husbandry at Arene Candide, Northern Italy.

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.

Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe (2019)
Journal Article
Frantz, L. A., Haile, J., Lin, A. T., Scheu, A., Geörg, C., Benecke, N., …Larson, G. (2019). Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(35), 17231-17238. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1901169116

Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the... Read More about Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe.

A Meeting In The Forest: Hunters And Farmers At The Coneybury ‘Anomaly’, Wiltshire (2018)
Journal Article
Gron, K. J., Rowley-Conwy, P., Fernandez-Dominguez, E., Gröcke, D. R., Montgomery, J., Nowell, G. M., & Patterson, W. P. (2018). A Meeting In The Forest: Hunters And Farmers At The Coneybury ‘Anomaly’, Wiltshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 84, 111-144. https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2018.15

The Coneybury ‘Anomaly’ is an Early Neolithic pit located just south-east of Stonehenge, Wiltshire. Excavations recovered a faunal assemblage unique in its composition, consisting of both wild and domestic species, as well as large quantities of cera... Read More about A Meeting In The Forest: Hunters And Farmers At The Coneybury ‘Anomaly’, Wiltshire.

Fire in the Moor: Mesolithic carbonised remains in riverine deposits at Gleann Mor Barabhais, Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland (2018)
Journal Article
Piper, S., Bishop, R., Rowley-Conwy, P., Elliott, L., & Church, M. (2018). Fire in the Moor: Mesolithic carbonised remains in riverine deposits at Gleann Mor Barabhais, Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland. Journal of the North Atlantic, 35, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3721/037.006.3501

This paper presents the results of a palaeoenvironmental investigation of riverine deposits containing charred heathland plant material, recovered during an archaeological survey of Gleann Mor Barabhais, Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland. This survey... Read More about Fire in the Moor: Mesolithic carbonised remains in riverine deposits at Gleann Mor Barabhais, Lewis, Western Isles of Scotland.

Zooarchaeology and the elusive feast: from performance to aftermath (2018)
Journal Article
Rowley-Conwy, P. (2018). Zooarchaeology and the elusive feast: from performance to aftermath. World Archaeology, 50(2), 221-241. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2018.1445024

Ethnographic descriptions of feasts reveal that consumption of meat is usually prominent. Zooarchaeological evidence may thus provide the best way of seeing feasts in the archaeological record. The accumulation of trophy arrays and ongoing high-statu... Read More about Zooarchaeology and the elusive feast: from performance to aftermath.

Modelling the earliest north-western dispersal of Mediterranean Impressed Wares: new dates and Bayesian chronological model (2018)
Journal Article
Binder, D., Lanos, P., Angeli, L., Gomart, L., Guilaine, J., Manen, C., …Thiébault, S. (2018). Modelling the earliest north-western dispersal of Mediterranean Impressed Wares: new dates and Bayesian chronological model. Documenta Praehistorica, 44, 54-77. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.44.4

The authors attempt to specify the diffusion pattern of the Impressed-Ware Neolithic (Im­presso-cardial complex, ICC), from south-eastern Italy onto the French Mediterranean coasts. Using ChronoModel® software, a Bayesian model was built with sets of... Read More about Modelling the earliest north-western dispersal of Mediterranean Impressed Wares: new dates and Bayesian chronological model.

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 advance of cultivation at its northern European limit: process or event? (2016)
Journal Article
Lahtinen, M., Oinonen, M., Tallavaara, M., Walker, J., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2017). The advance of cultivation at its northern European limit: process or event?. Holocene, 27(3), 427-438. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683616660164

Dates for early cultivation in Finland obtained from pollen analysis and remains from archaeological sites are compared with the changes in population size derived from the summed calendar-year probability distributions. The results from these two in... Read More about The advance of cultivation at its northern European limit: process or event?.

Herbivore Diets and the Anthropogenic Environment of Early Farming in Southern Scandinavia (2016)
Journal Article
Gron, K., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2017). Herbivore Diets and the Anthropogenic Environment of Early Farming in Southern Scandinavia. Holocene, 27(1), 98-109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683616652705

Farming practice in the first period of the southern Scandinavian Neolithic (Early Neolithic I, Funnel Beaker Culture, 3950–3500 cal. BC) is not well understood. Despite the presence of the first farmers and their domesticated plants and animals, lit... Read More about Herbivore Diets and the Anthropogenic Environment of Early Farming in Southern Scandinavia.

Strontium isotope evidence of early Funnel Beaker Culture movement of cattle (2016)
Journal Article
Gron, K., Montgomery, J., Otto Nielsen, P., Nowell, G., Peterkin, J. L., Sørensen, L., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2016). Strontium isotope evidence of early Funnel Beaker Culture movement of cattle. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 6, 248-251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.02.015

The movement of livestock across and within landscapes is increasingly being recognized as common in northern European prehistoric contexts, and was performed for various purposes. However, almost nothing is known about the movement of livestock in t... Read More about Strontium isotope evidence of early Funnel Beaker Culture movement of cattle.

Hunter-Gatherer variability: developing the models for the northern coasts (2016)
Journal Article
Rowley-Conwy, P., & Piper, S. (2016). Hunter-Gatherer variability: developing the models for the northern coasts. Arctic, 69(5), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4623

Hunter-fisher-gatherer (HFG) variability has received a lot of attention. We review the key developments in the theories of variability, which have usually resulted in binary classifications. We argue that a range of variation based on the degree of... Read More about Hunter-Gatherer variability: developing the models for the northern coasts.

Cattle Management for Dairying in Scandinavia’s earliest Neolithic (2015)
Journal Article
Gron, K., Montgomery, J., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2015). Cattle Management for Dairying in Scandinavia’s earliest Neolithic. PLoS ONE, 10(7), Article e0131267. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131267

New evidence for cattle husbandry practices during the earliest period of the southern Scandinavian Neolithic indicates multiple birth seasons and dairying from its start. Sequential sampling of tooth enamel carbonate carbon and oxygen isotope ratio... Read More about Cattle Management for Dairying in Scandinavia’s earliest Neolithic.

Firewood, food and niche construction: the potential role of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in actively structuring Scotland's woodlands (2014)
Journal Article
Bishop, R., Church, M., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2015). Firewood, food and niche construction: the potential role of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in actively structuring Scotland's woodlands. Quaternary Science Reviews, 108, 51-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.11.004

Over the past few decades the potential role of Mesolithic hunter–gatherers in actively constructing their own niches, through the management of wild plants, has frequently been discussed. It is probable that Mesolithic hunter–gatherers systematicall... Read More about Firewood, food and niche construction: the potential role of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in actively structuring Scotland's woodlands.

Seeds, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Mesolithic (2014)
Journal Article
Bishop, R., Church, M., & Rowley-Conwy, P. (2014). Seeds, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Mesolithic. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 143, 9-72

Over the past few decades, the potential importance of plants within European Mesolithic economies has frequently been discussed, but there has been little systematic consideration of the archaeobotanical evidence for Mesolithic plant consumption in... Read More about Seeds, fruits and nuts in the Scottish Mesolithic.