• Before Stonehenge monuments, hunter-gath

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 22:30:50
    Before Stonehenge monuments, hunter-gatherers made use of open habitats
    Study investigates habitat conditions encountered by first farmers and monument-builders

    Date:
    April 27, 2022
    Source:
    PLOS
    Summary:
    Hunter-gatherers made use of open woodland conditions in the
    millennia before Stonehenge monuments were built, according to a
    new study.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Hunter-gatherers made use of open woodland conditions in the millennia
    before Stonehenge monuments were built, according to a study published
    April 27, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONEby Samuel Hudson of
    the University of Southampton, U.K., and colleagues.


    ==========================================================================
    Much research has explored Bronze Age and Neolithic history of the
    region surrounding Stonehenge, but less is known about earlier times in
    this area.

    This leaves open questions about how ancient people and wildlife used this region before the famous archaeological monuments were constructed. In
    this paper, Hudson and colleagues reconstruct environmental conditions
    at the site of Blick Mead, a pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherer site on the
    edge of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.

    The authors combine pollen, spores, sedimentary DNA, and animal remains
    to characterize the pre-Neolithic habitat of the site, inferring
    partially open woodland conditions, which would have been beneficial
    to large grazing herbivores like aurochs, as well as hunter-gatherer communities. This study supports previous evidence that the Stonehenge
    region was not covered in closed canopy forest at this time, as has
    previously been proposed.

    This study also provides date estimates for human activity at Blick Mead.

    Results indicate that hunter-gatherers used this site for 4,000 years
    up until the time of the earliest known farmers and monument-builders
    in the region, who would also have benefited from the space provided
    in open environments. These results indicate that the first farmers and monument-builders in the Stonehenge area encountered open habitats already maintained and used by large grazers and earlier human populations.

    Further study on similar sites will provide important insights into the interactions between hunter-gatherers and early farming communities in
    the U.K.

    and elsewhere. Furthermore, this study provides techniques for combining sedimentary DNA, other ecological data, and stratigraphic data to
    interpret the ancient environment at a site where such information is
    difficult to assess.

    The authors add: "The Stonehenge World Heritage Site is globally
    recognized for its rich Neolithic and Bronze Age monumental
    landscape, but little is known of its significance to Mesolithic
    populations. Environmental research at Blick Mead suggests that hunter-gatherers had already chosen part of this landscape, an alluvial clearing, as a persistent place for hunting and occupation."

    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited
    for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Samuel M. Hudson, Ben Pears, David Jacques, Thierry Fonville, Paul
    Hughes, Inger Alsos, Lisa Snape, Andreas Lang, Antony Brown. Life
    before Stonehenge: The hunter-gatherer occupation and environment
    of Blick Mead revealed by sedaDNA, pollen and spores. PLOS ONE,
    2022; 17 (4): e0266789 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266789 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220427140650.htm

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