Posted on 09/28/2013 2:48:30 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
While the nature and timing of the very beginning of the Neolithic in Ireland is still debated, our results -- based on new Bayesian chronologies of plant macro-remains -- are consistent with a rapid and abrupt transition to agriculture from c. 3750 cal BC, though there are hints of earlier Neolithic presence at a number of sites... Cereals were being consumed at many sites during this period, with emmer wheat dominant, but also barley (naked and hulled), as well as occasional evidence for einkorn wheat, naked wheat and flax. The earliest farmers in Ireland, like farmers elsewhere across NW Europe... practised longer-term fixed-plot agriculture. The association between early agriculture and the Elm Decline seen in many pollen diagrams shows that this latter event was not synchronous across all sites investigated... aside from passage tombs, the evidence for activity between 3400-3100 cal BC is limited. From 3400 cal BC, we see a decrease in the frequency of cereal evidence and an increase in some wild resources (e.g. fruits, but not nuts, in the records), alongside evidence for re-afforestation in pollen diagrams (3500-3000 cal BC). Changes occur at a time of worsening climatic conditions, as shown in Irish bog oak and reconstructed bog surface wetness records, although the links between the various records, and assessment of causes and effects, will require further investigation and may prove complex. This period seems to have been one of environmental, landscape, settlement and economic change. The later 4th millennium BC emerges as a period that would benefit from focused research attention, particularly as the observed changes in Ireland seem to have parallels in Britain and further afield.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedirect.com ...
CAPTION
What is naked wheat?
Very interesting.
I love these sorts of articles.
Did you ever see an older TV show called connection?
(Yes,the guy sort became weird)
He did though make many connection to advancement or decline based on shifting weather patterns.
As just one example, was a mini ice age led to two story houses, fire places and tapestries for the walls to block out the cold.
Anyway, thanks always enjoyable.
James Burke’s “Connections” series (BBC, but I saw the PBS reruns) was and is a blast; his second series “The Day the Universe Changed” was an expanded rehash with much better production values and like the earlier series had a book version. I think he did two or three other series, the only one I remember (somewhere I have the book on tape of it) is “The Axemaker’s Gift”, which is more frankly Marxist, how disappointing.
Naked wheat... that’s the kind grown in warmer climates? No, that’s not it. ;’) It’s a domesticated variety which has been bred to have no husk.
Coexistence of Tetraploid and Hexaploid Naked Wheat in a Neolithic Lake Dwelling of Central Europe: Evidence from Morphology and Ancient DNA
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440398903387
TRITICUM PARVICOCCUM SP. NOV., THE OLDEST NAKED WHEAT
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0021213X.1979.10676861
Thanks for the kind remarks!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craggaunowen
Mr. Mercat and I stumbled upon this open air museum in Ireland in 2006. I highly recommend it. We liked it better than Bunhatty. It shows what they think the human existence was like in Ireland back to the beginning. My favorite part was learning what the word/name “Pollard” means.
That’s it and the other was really funny
How long after the Irish learned to make beer did they discover that some of the ingredients of beer can also be consumed in solid form as food?
For me, having a house and dependable food source in the Irish climate sounds pretty darn good.
Yeah, male dominated society, nothing more dominating than working the ass off as a farmer. :’) AFAIC, use of the phrase “phallic symbol” as if its some kind of intelligent critique of something, or worse yet, a complaint about any inanimate object, should be grounds for public beheading. Okay, sure, maybe I’ve been reading too much about Islam, it’s possible...
:’) Two Irish guys walk out of a pub.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Hey, it could happen.
He is a card, no doubt about it, much more effective when he uses humor.
Thanks, looks very interesting! Bunhatty sounds a lot funnier though. ;’)
Crannog does sound like a cranberry-based alcoholic drink. Imagine that, alcoholic drink, in Ireland. Near-fetched.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
