Milking the megafauna: Using organic residue analysis to understand early farming practice

Abstract

In Europe, the shift to agriculture starts around cal 7000 BC, spreading across the continent over several thousand years. The island of Ireland lies geographically and chronologically at the end of this trajectory, in the centuries around cal 4000 BC. Molecular and stable carbon isotope analyses undertaken of ca. 450 pottery vessels from a range of Irish Neolithic sites firmly establishes that dairying is one of the very earliest farming practices in evidence in Ireland, successfully introduced into an island environment that had not supported large mammals for at least the preceding 9000 years – a significant logistical feat.

Keywords:

• Neolithic Ireland
• Pottery
• Fatty acids
• Compound-specific carbon isotope analysis
• Dairying

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013/under REA grant agreement n°273462. SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal Husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating) was undertaken during 2011-2013 as part of a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development. Jessica Smyth wishes to thank the staff of museums, university departments and commercial archaeology companies across Ireland, who facilitated access to and sampling of pottery assemblages. Colleagues at the Organic Geochemistry Unit are also thanked for their patience and kindness throughout the Marie Curie fellowship, with special thanks to Alison Kuhl and James Williams for laboratory guidance, and to Mélanie Roffet-Salque and Helen Whelton for their help and advice in writing up results. The patience of the volume editors and the helpful comments of two anonymous reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged. SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal Husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating) was undertaken during 2011–13, funded by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development.