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Isle of Wight wheat DNA points to ancient trade

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  • 18-03-2015 9:20pm
    #1
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,761 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-31647440
    DNA from an archaeological site off the Isle of Wight suggests there was an international wheat trade 2,000 years before agriculture came to Britain.

    Scientists analysing the DNA fragments from the underwater site said they matched wheat strains but there was no evidence of cultivation.

    The deposits came from 8,000-year-old sediment cores from Bouldnor Cliff.

    When the DNA was deposited, the English Channel was yet to be formed and Britain was part of mainland Europe.

    It's cold under the sea so things get preserved. Who knows what else is down there covered by the rise in sea levels since the ice age.


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    #2
    Linnaeus
    Registered Users Posts: 218 ✭✭Linnaeus


    Hello Capt'n Midnight,

    This article is thought-provoking. I'm wondering if the wheat in question might have been be of a wild, spontaneous variety which possibly grew in Britain prior to the cultivation of cereals there. If so, it would not have been introduced by trade. But, whether brought in by commerce or not, we should not imagine that the lands of Britain were ever particularly isolated or unwilling to look beyond their own borders. We know that all throughout the Neolithic, there were wide contacts and brisk cultural-social interchanges among ancient nations. If wheat was being cultivated in the south of Europe by ca. 6000 B.C., it's not impossible that some of it might eventually have reached Britain.


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