title: Crop manuring and intensive land management by Europe's first farmers.
abstract: The spread of farming from western Asia to Europe had profound long-term social and ecological impacts, but identification of the specific nature of Neolithic land management practices and the dietary contribution of early crops has been problematic. Here, we present previously undescribed stable isotope determinations of charred cereals and pulses from 13 Neolithic sites across Europe (dating ca. 5900-2400 cal B.C.), which show that early farmers used livestock manure and water management to enhance crop yields. Intensive manuring inextricably linked plant cultivation and animal herding and contributed to the remarkable resilience of these combined practices across diverse climatic zones. Critically, our findings suggest that commonly applied paleodietary interpretations of human and herbivore δ(15)N values have systematically underestimated the contribution of crop-derived protein to early farmer diets.
authors.affiliation: School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2PG, United Kingdom. amy.bogaard@arch.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bogaard
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: Tim H E
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Heaton
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vaiglova
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Charles
authors.forename: Glynis
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Evershed
authors.forename: Amy K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Styring
authors.forename: Niels H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.forename: Rose-Marie
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Arbogast
authors.forename: László
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bartosiewicz
authors.forename: Armelle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gardeisen
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kanstrup
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marinova
authors.forename: Lazar
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ninov
authors.forename: Marguerita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schäfer
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stephan
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history*; D001106:Archaeology; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000266:history*; D002523:Edible Grain / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans
keywords: agriculture; husbandry; paleodiet; prehistoric