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The effect of seaweed fertilisation on sulfur isotope ratios (δ³⁴S) and grain size in barley: Implications for agronomy and archaeological research (2024)
Journal Article
Blanz, M., Gröcke, D. R., Martin, P., & Church, M. J. (in press). The effect of seaweed fertilisation on sulfur isotope ratios (δ³⁴S) and grain size in barley: Implications for agronomy and archaeological research. Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, 3, https://doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2024.1465082

Stable sulfur isotope ratios (δ³⁴S) in bone collagen are often employed to study the consumption of marine and freshwater fish, wetland grazing, marine foraging patterns, and the possible geographic origins of food sources. However, a recent small-sc... Read More about The effect of seaweed fertilisation on sulfur isotope ratios (δ³⁴S) and grain size in barley: Implications for agronomy and archaeological research.

Further investigation into the impact of manuring on stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values in pulses: a four-year experiment examining Celtic bean (Vicia faba) (2024)
Journal Article
Treasure, E. R., Gröcke, D. R., Lester, J. J., Bishop, R. R., Jackson, S. E., & Church, M. J. (2024). Further investigation into the impact of manuring on stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values in pulses: a four-year experiment examining Celtic bean (Vicia faba). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 16(8), Article 130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02045-x

Plant stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values can be used to directly investigate crop husbandry practices such as manuring; a key variable in understanding the scale and intensity of past farming practices. We present new results fro... Read More about Further investigation into the impact of manuring on stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values in pulses: a four-year experiment examining Celtic bean (Vicia faba).

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.

Getting to the root of the problem: New evidence for the use of plant root foods in Mesolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence in Europe (2022)
Journal Article
Bishop, R., Kubiak-Martens, L., Warren, G., & Church, M. (2023). Getting to the root of the problem: New evidence for the use of plant root foods in Mesolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence in Europe. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 32(1), 65-83. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-022-00882-1

This paper presents new evidence for the harvesting of edible plant roots and tubers at Northton, a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site on Harris, in the Western Isles of Scotland, in the north-west corner of Europe. The excavations uncovered abundant ro... Read More about Getting to the root of the problem: New evidence for the use of plant root foods in Mesolithic hunter-gatherer subsistence in 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.

Neolithic farming and wild plant exploitation in western Britain: archaeobotanical and crop stable isotope evidence from Wales (c. 4000–2200 cal BC) (2019)
Journal Article
Treasure, E., Gröcke, D., Caseldine, A., & Church, M. (2019). Neolithic farming and wild plant exploitation in western Britain: archaeobotanical and crop stable isotope evidence from Wales (c. 4000–2200 cal BC). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 85, 193-222. https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2019.12

The introduction of agriculture is a key defining element of the Neolithic, yet considerable debate persists concerning the nature and significance of early farming practices in north-west Europe. This paper reviews archaeobotanical evidence from 95... Read More about Neolithic farming and wild plant exploitation in western Britain: archaeobotanical and crop stable isotope evidence from Wales (c. 4000–2200 cal BC).

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.

Vikings, peat and settlement abandonment: a multi-method chronological approach from Shetland (2019)
Journal Article
Swindles, G., Outram, Z., Batt, C., Hamilton, W., Church, M., Bond, J., …Dugmore, A. (2019). Vikings, peat and settlement abandonment: a multi-method chronological approach from Shetland. Quaternary Science Reviews, 210, 211-225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.02.026

Understanding the chronology of Norse settlement is crucial for deciphering the archaeology of many sites across the North Atlantic region and developing a timeline of human-environment interactions. There is ambiguity in the chronology of settlement... Read More about Vikings, peat and settlement abandonment: a multi-method chronological approach from Shetland.

Deforestation and human agency in the North Atlantic region: Archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Western Isles of Scotland (2018)
Journal Article
Bishop, R., Church, M., Lawson, I., Roucoux, K., O’Brien, C., Ranner, H., …Flitcroft, C. (2018). Deforestation and human agency in the North Atlantic region: Archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Western Isles of Scotland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 84, 145-184. https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2018.8

This paper considers the timing and mechanisms of deforestation in the Western Isles of Scotland, focusing in particular on the landscape around the Calanais stone circles, one of the best preserved late Neolithic/early Bronze Age monumental landscap... Read More about Deforestation and human agency in the North Atlantic region: Archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Western Isles of Scotland.

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.

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.

Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects for the Mesolithic and Medieval periods in the Western Isles of Scotland (2016)
Journal Article
Ascough, P., Church, M., & Cook, G. (2016). Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects for the Mesolithic and Medieval periods in the Western Isles of Scotland. Radiocarbon, 59(1), 17-31. https://doi.org/10.1017/rdc.2016.99

This article presents new values for the Scottish marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) during the Mesolithic at 4540–4240 BC (6490–6190 BP) and the Medieval period at AD 1460–1630 (490–320 BP). The results give a ΔR of –126±39 14C yr for the Mes... Read More about Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects for the Mesolithic and Medieval periods in the Western Isles of Scotland.

Can't find a pulse? Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.) in British prehistory (2016)
Journal Article
Treasure, E., & Church, M. (2017). Can't find a pulse? Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.) in British prehistory. Environmental Archaeology, 22(2), 113-127. https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2016.1153769

Archaeobotanical research on prehistoric crops in Britain has primarily focussed on cereals and the potential importance of alternative crops, such as pulses, has often been overlooked. This paper reviews evidence for Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.) in B... Read More about Can't find a pulse? Celtic bean (Vicia faba L.) in British prehistory.

Islands of change vs. islands of disaster: Managing pigs and birds in the Anthropocene of the North Atlantic (2015)
Journal Article
Brewington, S., Hicks, H., Edwald, Á., Einarsson, Á., Anamthawat-Jónsson, K., Cook, G., …McGovern, T. (2015). Islands of change vs. islands of disaster: Managing pigs and birds in the Anthropocene of the North Atlantic. Holocene, 25(10), 1676-1684. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683615591714

The offshore islands of the North Atlantic were among some of the last settled places on earth, with humans reaching the Faroes and Iceland in the late Iron Age and Viking period. While older accounts emphasizing deforestation and soil erosion have p... Read More about Islands of change vs. islands of disaster: Managing pigs and birds in the Anthropocene of the North Atlantic.

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.

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.