... None of which, of course, is prehistoric!
A.
Dr Allan Hall, English Heritage Senior Research Fellow, Department of
Archaeology, University of York, The King's Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK
+44 1904 434950 (fax 433902)
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/Hall.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: The archaeobotany mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Mandy Jay
Sent: 16 June 2008 09:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Panicum miliaceum in prehistoric UK
I'm working on carbon isotope shifts in late prehistoric skeletal material
(late Neolithic through to Iron Age) from both Britain & the Continent.
Millet, as a C4 plant, is a suspect for some of what I'm seeing on the
western European mainland & I've seen literature which supports the presence
of Panicum miliaceum in increasing amounts over the period I'm looking at.
But I've never seen any reference to its presence in the UK.
I'm increasingly wondering why it isn't there - surely if it's around in
small quantities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland & Denmark (for instance)
as early as the Neolithic and increasing in quantities through to the Iron
Age, it would have got to Britain somehow, at least by the Iron Age, even if
only on a bird & a breeze? I'm not necessarily so concerned about the idea
of it as a domesticated crop, only as a presence, perhaps just as a 'weed'
that could get included in the diet of domesticated herbivores.
Does anyone have any information/literature references/comments?
Mandy Jay
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