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

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 e

SUBMITTER: Doherty SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9829728 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature