<![CDATA[A team of researchers investigating an archaeological site in the Solent has found surprising evidence of 8,000-year-old wheat. The Solent is the strait that separates the Isle of Wright from the mainland of England, it was here that the archaeological team conducted their research. The British coastline has receded significantly over the last several millennia, and as this happened, structures were left to be enveloped by the rising tides. There have been many archaeological sites discovered in the Solent previously, including the remains of a wooden building, stones that may once have been the structural groundwork of a church and the possible remnants of an ancient port town. Below the strait's depths, the team focused on analysing the sedimentary substances found on the sea bed. In those sediments was 8,000-year-old wheat DNA, or as the researchers refer to the plant,'einkorn'. According to the researchers, this suggests that the Neolithic hunter-gatherers who occupied Briton at the time developed and maintained social and trade networks with their Neolithic farming counterparts on the European mainland. Robin Allaby, who co-led the study and conducts his work out of the University of Warwick, told the BBC, "Common throughout Neolithic Southern Europe, einkorn is not found elsewhere in Britain until 2,000 years after the samples found at Bouldnor Cliff (where the excavations took place). For the einkorn to have reached this site there needs to have been contact between Mesolithic Britons and Neolithic farmers far across Europe. The land bridges provide a plausible facilitation of this contact. As such, far from being insular Mesolithic Britain was culturally and possibly physically connected to Europe." This discovery reveals new information concerning the trade and social networks that existed between Britain and mainland Europe. The research also provides new avenues of study for researchers across the globe, and may help in future endeavors the world over. The technique used to analyse DNA in sediment is a relatively new one, but in the future it could shed new light on aspects of global history for nations, countries and continents. In describing the methodology's significance, Vincent Gaffney, an academic from the University of Bradford who co-led the study with Allaby, stated: "The use of ancient DNA from sediments also opens the door to new research on the older landscapes off the British Isles and coastal shelves across the world." Hopefully, the team's method can be utilised to the world's advantage, as it has been in the Solent. There is much knowledge lost beneath the waves of the Earth's oceans, and this new technique could aid in modern humanity's understanding of our ancient ancestors. Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons user: Kamut ]]>
Submerged English Site Yields Ancient Domestic Wheat DNA
