Neolithic farmers

Fig. 6.13 Plot of carbon and nitrogen isotopes in pottery from Mesolithic (Tybrind Vig and Ringkloster) and Neolithic sites (Funnel Beaker). A distinct separation of these two groups is seen reflecting the more terrestrial diet of the Neolithic farmers. This pattern is also seen in the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in human bone collagen from the Mesolithic and Neolithic in this region...

Early Neolithic peoples domesticated the more productive local plants, cared for them m densely planted plots, protected them from animals and other plants (weeds) and haiwested the results. Likewise they tamed, bred and cared for local animals and ate them as they deemed fit. In the cases of cattle, horses, sheep and goats, milk and its products became staple foods. In some places larger domestic animals became beasts of burden. For very sound ecological reasons, agriculture allowed even early farmers to lib-... 

Circa 10,000 Humans enter the Neolithic Period, or New Stone Age, begin to farm, and live in villages shamans adapt to the needs of farmers and new religions develop with priests who practice ceremonial magic. 

The origin of flax lies in sonthem Europe, the Near East, or Central Asia (Tamtnes, 1925 Helbaek, 1959 Zeven, 1982). There is evidence of flax use in Neolithic cultures as a source of fiber. Flax fiber was identified in prehistoric sites in Israel and Syria (van Zeist and Bakker-Heeres, 1975). Flax was grown in Egypt between 4500 and 4000 BC and reached Switzerland by around 3000 BC it was found somewhat later at WiUium Hill in England (Smith, 1969). It is believed that Lois Hebert, the first farmer in Canada, introduced flax to Canada almost 400 years ago (Prairie Flax Products, 2007). By 1875, European settlers were growing flax on the Canadian prairies. 

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