The ancient artificial islands known as crannogs may have been used by elites to display their power and wealth through elaborate parties, according to a new study.
A crannog is an artificial island within a lake, wetlands or estuary, according to a study published in the journal Antiquity. Between 4,000 B.C. and the 16th century A.D., hundreds of crannogs were created in Scotland, Wales and Ireland by building up a shallow reef or an elevated portion of a lakebed. There was a lot of trade and communication along the lakes. During the Iron Age, crannogs were used as farmsteads and later became elite gathering places.
The archaeology of crannogs is new because it is more difficult to study than a wetlands site. The purpose of the crannogs was better understood by Brown and colleagues. The spread of archaeological material from the center of the site was used to do it.
Brown told Live Science that material is deposited quickly around the crannog.
RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU...
Medieval trends are related.
Scientists can identify all the plants and animals that contributed to the ancient environment of a site with the help of a new technique. The analysis showed that people were growing cereals on the artificial islands, but it also showed that bracken, a type of toxic plant, was brought to the crannog sites to be used as bedding or roofing material.
Evidence of mammals were found at the sites. Combining the new sedaDNA work with previous studies of pollen and animal bones suggested they could quickly and inexpensively identify a range of activities that occurred in the past.
The study sheds light on how crannogs are used. Simon Hammann, a food chemist at Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen-Nrnberg, said that the methods and results described here are very interesting. A study on the presence of wheat in pottery at Neolithic crannogs in Scotland was published last month. The work of Brown and colleagues was very compelling because the soils in the Outer Hebrides don't support bone preservation.
In an email to Live Science, Hammann said that "in combination these methods seem to draw a conclusive picture."
The pollen sedaDNA data are important because they offer new approaches to the study of human-plant interactions that are not possible using traditional pollen techniques. In an email to Live Science, O'Meara, who was not involved with the new research, pointed out that the sedaDNA technique provides information only on the plants growing locally, while traditional pollen analysis may not be able to distinguish local plants from those transported by wind or water from
17 people were killed in an antisemitic massacre in England.
Archeological sites can be threatened by factors such as glacier melting and coastline destruction. The sedaDNA approach has the potential to be adapted to other archaeological wetlands, according to an email from an archaeologist.
The three sites that Brown and colleagues studied were abandoned. Two whipworm parasites were found on the floor of a crannog in Ireland. The remains of human excrement were deposited around the time of the crannog's abandonment.
There have been no other human remains found at crannog.
Brown said that Crannogs were a good place to live.
It was originally published on Live Science
All Rights Reserved © 2024
