Survey of animal remains from southern Britain finds no evidence for continuity from the Mesolithic period

Abstract

A recent review of bone remains from more than 90 assemblages from southern Britain confirms that the animals show no evidence for continuity from the Mesolithic period. Fish and birds are almost absent and few remains – less than 5% – are from wild animals. One site only, the Coneybury Anomaly, has a mix of wild and domestic animals as well as birds and fish, but it is unique. Nearly all assemblages, even those with a few bones only, include sheep, an animal unsuited to the environment of Britain at the time. The animal remains support the argument that all aspects of the Neolithic way of life were introduced together by incomers rather than adopted by a local population.