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The grape (Vitis vinifera L.) in the Neolithic of Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Glynis Jones  and
Anthony Legge
Glynis Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN
Anthony Legge*
Affiliation:
Department of Extra-Mural Studies, University of London, 26 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DQ
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Abstract

Southern England, especially after yet another miserably wet summer, seems a surprising place to find neolithic grape-pips – at least by comparison with the sunnier places like southern France and Greece where early records of both wild and domesticated grapes have been reported. But here is a find of a grape-pip from neolithic Dorset.

Since seeds and grains have in the past proved intrusive even into deposits that seemed stratigraphically secure, an uncomfortable choice had to be made after the identification: to preserve the pip, leaving its date unproven; or to make a radiocarbon determination on the pip and so to destroy it in securing evidence of its date. The second option was taken, which is why this report is on a pip which no longer exists.

Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 61 , Issue 233 , November 1987 , pp. 452 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1987

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