By analyzing ancient DNA retrieve from an subaqueous site off the south coast of England , a U.K. team expose that wheat showed up about 2,000 old age before the great unwashed even began farm it in this realm . Thefindings , published inSciencelast week , suggest that British hunter - gatherers were trading with European farmers in the east for the cereal grain long before agribusiness was introduced in the region .
There ’s been disagreement over what happened during the early stages of the Mesolithic - to - Neolithic transition – or when farmers began supersede hunter - collector throughout Europe from the eastward to the due west . Some say migrating farmers displaced hunter - gatherers in Britain rapidly ; others say the espousal of Department of Agriculture on the isolated island was gradual .
Now , a squad take byRobin Allaby from the University of Warwickexamined the microfossils and ancient deoxyribonucleic acid in a deposit center obtain from Bouldnor Cliff , a hero sandwich archaeological site near the Isle of Wight . They were attempt to reconstruct various floral and faunal changes in the area , which was a shipyard before it submerged around 8,000 years ago due to disappear glaciers .
The investigator find ancient DNA sequences that matched strains of a Near easterly wheat berry called einkorn – but no evidence of its cultivation ( like remnant stalk or cum casings ) and no trace of its pollen . The gravy boat builders likely had a fondness for matte breads to complement their protein - rich dieting of game and scrounge nut and plants , Allaby tells New Scientist .
Since agriculture took detention in the British Isles about 6,000 years ago , these determination advise that hunter - gatherers in northwest Europe had develop social networks with migrate husbandman thousands of twelvemonth beforehand . “ For the einkorn to have attain this website there needs to have been contact between Mesolithic Britons and Neolithic farmers far across Europe , ” Allaby says in anews release . " The Din Land bridge provide a plausible facilitation of this link . As such , far from being insular Mesolithic Britain was culturally and mayhap physically connected to Europe . ”
