Tracking the British agricultural revolution through the isotopic analysis of dated parchment

Sean Doherty; Michelle Marie Alexander; Stuart  Henderson; Jason Newton; Jonathan Cedric Finch; Matthew James Collins

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-26013-4

Tracking the British agricultural revolution through the isotopic analysis of dated parchment

Sean Doherty^*, Michelle Marie Alexander, Stuart Henderson, Jason Newton, Jonathan Cedric Finch, Matthew James Collins

^*Corresponding author for this work

Archaeology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Between the sixteenth and nineteenth century, British agriculture underwent a ‘revolutionary’ transformation. Yet despite over a century of research and the recognised centrality of agricultural developments to industrialisation and population growth, the character or chronology of any ‘revolution’ during this period remains contentious. Enquiry has been hampered by the fragmented and locally specific nature of historic accounts and the broad dating of early-modern zooarchaeological assemblages. To address this, we conducted stable isotope analysis on 658 legal documents written on sheepskin parchment; a unique biological resource that records the day, month and year of use (AD 1499 to 1969). We find these provide a high temporal resolution analysis of changing agricultural practices and episodes of disease. Most significantly, they suggest that if an ‘Agricultural Revolution’ occurred in livestock management, it did so from the mid-nineteenth century, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

Original language	English
Article number	61
Number of pages	7
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	13
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26013-4
Publication status	Published - 9 Jan 2023

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s41598-022-26013-4
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Cite this

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title = "Tracking the British agricultural revolution through the isotopic analysis of dated parchment",

abstract = "Between the sixteenth and nineteenth century, British agriculture underwent a {\textquoteleft}revolutionary{\textquoteright} transformation. Yet despite over a century of research and the recognised centrality of agricultural developments to industrialisation and population growth, the character or chronology of any {\textquoteleft}revolution{\textquoteright} during this period remains contentious. Enquiry has been hampered by the fragmented and locally specific nature of historic accounts and the broad dating of early-modern zooarchaeological assemblages. To address this, we conducted stable isotope analysis on 658 legal documents written on sheepskin parchment; a unique biological resource that records the day, month and year of use (AD 1499 to 1969). We find these provide a high temporal resolution analysis of changing agricultural practices and episodes of disease. Most significantly, they suggest that if an {\textquoteleft}Agricultural Revolution{\textquoteright} occurred in livestock management, it did so from the mid-nineteenth century, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.",

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T1 - Tracking the British agricultural revolution through the isotopic analysis of dated parchment

AU - Doherty, Sean

AU - Alexander, Michelle Marie

AU - Henderson, Stuart

AU - Newton, Jason

AU - Finch, Jonathan Cedric

AU - Collins, Matthew James

PY - 2023/1/9

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AB - Between the sixteenth and nineteenth century, British agriculture underwent a ‘revolutionary’ transformation. Yet despite over a century of research and the recognised centrality of agricultural developments to industrialisation and population growth, the character or chronology of any ‘revolution’ during this period remains contentious. Enquiry has been hampered by the fragmented and locally specific nature of historic accounts and the broad dating of early-modern zooarchaeological assemblages. To address this, we conducted stable isotope analysis on 658 legal documents written on sheepskin parchment; a unique biological resource that records the day, month and year of use (AD 1499 to 1969). We find these provide a high temporal resolution analysis of changing agricultural practices and episodes of disease. Most significantly, they suggest that if an ‘Agricultural Revolution’ occurred in livestock management, it did so from the mid-nineteenth century, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

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