Wheat was imported into Britain during the Stone Age, before the development of agriculture, new research reveals. The crops was brought onto the island 8,000 years ago. This finding suggests a level of cultural sophistication previously unknown from the ancient people of the region.
Stone Age humans were believed to be exclusively hunter-gathers, largely devoid of agriculture. Samples of wheat from 80 centuries ago were examined, and DNA analyzed. The ancient cultures there would not develop agriculture for 2,000 years after the site where the wheat was found was occupied. People in lands that would become France and Germany started to work the land 400 years after the period when the wheat was brought to the encampment.
Farming was taking place in some other regions on the European continent during that period, suggesting the food product was imported over a vast distance, with cultures thought to be independent from each other. The practice started in the Middle East, and spread to the Balkans 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, before other Europeans learned how to raise crops.
"This is a smoking gun of cultural interaction. It will upset archaeologists. The conventional view of Britain at the time was that it was cut off. We can only speculate how they got wheat -- it could have been trade, a gift or stolen," Robin Allaby of the University of Warwick said.
Researchers discovered DNA evidence of several other plants and animals in their samples, including wolves, dogs, deer, poplar, beech, and oak woods. However, no wheat pollen was found from the site, suggesting the plant was not grown nearby. In addition, both species of wheat traced to the site are native to the Middle East, having no native wild ancestors in Europe.
The stone age settlement, currently 38 feet beneath the surface of the ground, is believed to have once been a ship-building site for the ancient people. Sea levels were lower during the Ice Age than they are today, resulting in a land bridge between Britain and the European continent. At least part of that land formation may have still existed at the time the settlement was occupied, potentially providing a route to facilitate travel between the continent and island.
Other evidence of trade during the Stone Age have also been found in the region. This includes bones of domesticated pigs in Germany when people there were strictly hunter-gatherers, with no farm animals of their own.
It is possible wheat was rare in Stone Age Britain, and revered as a delicacy, instead of the staple we think of today.
Discovery of the wheat DNA and analysis of possible trade between that region and eastern Europe during the Stone Age was detailed in the journal Science.
