Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 110, Issue 31, Pages 12589-12594Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1305918110
Keywords
agriculture; prehistoric; husbandry; paleodiet
Categories
Funding
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/E003761/1]
- l'Ecole francaise d'Athenes (Koufovouno)
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/E003761/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- NERC [NE/E003761/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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The spread of farming from western Asia to Europe had profound long-term social and ecological impacts, but identification of the specific nature of Neolithic land management practices and the dietary contribution of early crops has been problematic. Here, we present previously undescribed stable isotope determinations of charred cereals and pulses from 13 Neolithic sites across Europe (dating ca. 5900-2400 cal B. C.), which show that early farmers used livestock manure and water management to enhance crop yields. Intensive manuring inextricably linked plant cultivation and animal herding and contributed to the remarkable resilience of these combined practices across diverse climatic zones. Critically, our findings suggest that commonly applied paleodietary interpretations of human and herbivore delta N-15 values have systematically underestimated the contribution of crop-derived protein to early farmer diets.
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