Coastal shell middens and agricultural origins in Atlantic Europe

The project developed new techniques for analysing seasonality of shellgathering in prehistoric shell middens, using analysis of growth structures, and applied these to a wide range of midden sites ranging from Mesolithic Spain to Viking-age Scotland, and from prehistoric and historic Ireland to Mesolithic and Neolithic Denmark. It also critically applied and developed new biomolecular methods for the reconstruction of palaeodiets from the stable isotope composition of human bone and from food residues in ceramic vessels. These results opened up new perspectives on the relationship between earlier coastal and later farming communities, allowed a critical appraisal of some long-standing assumptions about the nature of the so-called Neolithic Revolution, opened up a wide range of international collaborations, stimulated an international workshop, culminated in two edited monographs in addition to a large number of journal papers and chapters in books, significantly advanced the careers of the participants, and laid the foundations for new and ongoing research.