Journal Articles by James H Barrett
Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2022
Mediaeval walrus hunting in Iceland and Greenland-driven by Western European demand for ivory and... more Mediaeval walrus hunting in Iceland and Greenland-driven by Western European demand for ivory and walrus hide ropes-has been identified as an important pre-modern example of ecological globalization. By contrast, the main origin of walrus ivory destined for eastern European markets, and then onward trade to Asia, is assumed to have been Arctic Russia. Here, we investigate the geographical origin of nine twelfth-century CE walrus specimens discovered in Kyiv, Ukraine-combining archaeological typology (based on chaîne opératoire assessment), ancient DNA (aDNA) and stable isotope analysis. We show that five of seven specimens tested using aDNA can be genetically assigned to a western Greenland origin. Moreover, six of the Kyiv rostra had been sculpted in a way typical of Greenlandic imports to Western Europe, and seven are tentatively consistent with a Greenland origin based on stable isotope analysis. Our results suggest that demand for the products of Norse Greenland's walrus hunt stretched not only to Western Europe but included Ukraine and, by implication given linked trade routes, also Russia, Byzantium and Asia. These observations illuminate the surprising scale of mediaeval ecological globalization and help explain the pressure this process exerted on distant wildlife populations and those who harvested them.
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The Holocene, 2021
In the context of global warming, ice patches are increasingly important foci of high-elevation a... more In the context of global warming, ice patches are increasingly important foci of high-elevation archaeology. Langfonne in Jotunheimen, central southern Norway, is uniquely suited to provide a window onto site formation processes and taphonomy in this novel archaeological setting. Here the site record from systematic survey includes the largest number of arrows, bones and antlers from a single ice patch worldwide. Combining data from these finds with the results of glaciological investigations provides an opportunity to interpret the influence of archaeological site formation processes and taphonomy on chronological and spatial patterning. It is inferred that the spatial patterning of artefacts at Langfonne is partly a result of displacement by ice movement, meltwater and other natural processes. Nevertheless, the finds yield information regarding past hunting practices and the extent of ice at different times. An early cluster of finds from c.6000 cal yr BP may result from ice deformation which has brought early objects to the surface. The number of arrows increases from c. 1700 cal yr BP onwards, peaking around c.1200 cal yr BP. Artefacts from this period show a wide spatial distribution indicating both the preferential survival of more recent finds and that they were lost when the ice patch was large. Based on comparison with the chronology of natural bone and antler samples from the site, the greater number of finds of this date may also reflect a period of increased hunting.
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Antiquity, 2020
Mountain passes have played a key role in past mobility , facilitating transhumance, intra-region... more Mountain passes have played a key role in past mobility , facilitating transhumance, intra-regional travel and long-distance exchange. Current global warming has revealed an example of such a pass at Lendbreen, Norway. Artefacts exposed by the melting ice indicate usage from c. AD 300-1500, with a peak in activity c. AD 1000 during the Viking Age-a time of increased mobility, political centralisation and growing trade and urbanisation in Northern Europe. Lendbreen provides new information concerning the socioeconomic factors that influenced high-elevation travel, and increases our understanding of the role of mountain passes in inter-and intra-regional communication and exchange.
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Quaternary Science Reviews, 2020
The impacts of early ecological globalisation may have had profound economic and environmental co... more The impacts of early ecological globalisation may have had profound economic and environmental consequences for human settlements and animal populations. Here, we review the extent of such historical impacts by investigating the medieval trade of walrus (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) ivory. We use an interdisciplinary approach including chaîne op eratoire, ancient DNA (aDNA), stable isotope and zooarchaeological analysis of walrus rostra (skull sections) to identify their biological source and subsequent trade through Indigenous and urban networks. This approach complements and improves the spatial resolution of earlier aDNA observations, and we conclude that almost all medieval European finds of walrus rostra likely derived from Greenland. We further find that shifting urban nodes redistributed the traded ivory and that the latest medieval rostra finds were from smaller, often female, walruses of a distinctive DNA clade, which is especially prevalent in northern Greenland. Our results suggest that more and smaller animals were targeted at increasingly untenable distances, which reflects a classic pattern of resource depletion. We consider how the trade of walrus and elephant ivory intersected, and evaluate the extent to which emergent globalisation and the "resource curse" contributed to the abandonment of Norse Greenland.
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Journal of Fish Biology, 2019
This paper explores the past and potential contribution of archaeology to marine historical ecolo... more This paper explores the past and potential contribution of archaeology to marine historical ecology. The primary focus is European fishing of marine and diadromous taxa, with global comparisons highlighting the wider applicability of archaeological approaches. The review illustrates how study of excavated fish bones, otoliths and shells can inform our understanding of: (a) changes in biogeography, including the previous distribution of lost species; (b) long-term fluctuations in the aquatic environment, including climate change; (c) the intensity of exploitation and other anthropogenic effects; (d) trade, commodification and globalisation. These issues are also relevant to inform fisheries conservation and management targets. Equally important, the long (pre)history of European fishing raises awareness of our ecological heritage debt, owed for centuries of wealth, sustenance and well-being, and for which we share collective responsibility. This debt represents both a loss and a reason for optimism, insofar as it is a reservoir of potential to be filled by careful stewardship of our rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2019
Horses are the most common grave goods found in Icelandic Viking Age graves. Horse skeletons have... more Horses are the most common grave goods found in Icelandic Viking Age graves. Horse skeletons have previously been sexed based on pelvis shape and the presence of canine teeth in male horses over 4-5 years of age. Morphological data has shown that all horses from Icelandic burials that were amenable to sexing were male. Yet the use of morphological methods to determine sex is problematic since they rely on finding a well-preserved pelvis and/or robust canine teeth. Furthermore, quantitative data underlying the features of the horse pelvis used for sexing is lacking and canine teeth have been reported to occur in mares. In this study we build upon and extend recently developed methodologies to make use of shotgun sequencing of ancient DNA (aDNA) for molecular sexing of Viking Age horse remains. With minimal sequencing effort we identified the sex of the largest collection (n = 22) of Viking Age Icelandic horses studied to date, sourced from both burial (n = 19) and non-burial (n = 3) sites. Our results revealed a male to female sex bias ratio of 18:1 in burial sites, versus 0:3 in non-burial sites. These findings support the significant over-representation of male horses in Viking Age graves in Iceland, yet show that-albeit rare-mares could also be selected for ritual burial in Viking Age Iceland. This cost-effective method provides statistical confidence to allow for sexing of highly fragmented archaeological specimens with low endogenous DNA content.
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The importance of the Atlantic walrus ivory trade for the colonization, peak, and collapse of the... more The importance of the Atlantic walrus ivory trade for the colonization, peak, and collapse of the medieval Norse colonies on Greenland has been extensively debated. Nevertheless, no studies have directly traced medieval European ivory back to distinct Arctic populations of walrus. Analysing the entire mitogenomes of 37 archaeological specimens from Europe, Sval-bard, and Greenland, we here discover that Atlantic walrus comprises two monophyletic mitochondrial (MT) clades, which diverged between 23 400 and 251 120 years ago. Our improved genomic resolution allows us to rein-terpret the geographical distribution of partial MT data from 306 modern and nineteenth-century specimens, finding that one of these clades was exclusively accessible to Greenlanders. With this discovery, we ascertain the biological origin of 23 archaeological specimens from Europe (most dated between 900 and 1400 CE). These results reveal a significant shift in trade from an early, predominantly eastern source towards a near exclusive representation of Greenland ivory. Our study provides empirical evidence for how this remote Arctic resource was progressively integrated into a medieval pan-European trade network, contributing to both the resilience and vulnerability of Norse Greenland society.
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The melting of perennial ice patches globally is uncovering a fragile record of alpine activity, ... more The melting of perennial ice patches globally is uncovering a fragile record of alpine activity, especially hunting and the use of mountain passes. When rescued by systematic fieldwork (glacial archaeology), this evidence opens an unprecedented window on the chronology of high-elevation activity. Recent research in Jotunheimen and surrounding mountain areas of Norway has recovered over 2000 finds—many associated with reindeer hunting (e.g. arrows). We report the radiocarbon dates of 153 objects and use a kernel density estimation (KDE) method to determine the distribution of dated events from ca 4000 BCE to the present. Interpreted in light of shifting environmental, preservation and socioeconomic factors, these new data show counterintuitive trends in the intensity of reindeer hunting and other high-elevation activity. Cold temperatures may sometimes have kept humans from Norway's highest elevations, as expected based on accessibility, exposure and reindeer distributions. In times of increasing demand for mountain resources, however, activity probably continued in the face of adverse or variable climatic conditions. The use of KDE modelling makes it possible to observe this patterning without the spurious effects of noise introduced by the discrete nature of the finds and
the radiocarbon calibration process.
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A rich archaeological record of fish-bone remains testifies to the millennia-long human exploitat... more A rich archaeological record of fish-bone remains testifies to the millennia-long human exploitation of the natural resources of the oceans. In Europe, historical evidence demonstrates that an extensive international industry developed during the Middle Ages that exported preserved cod from the Lofoten Archipelago, northern Norway, to expanding urban centers around the North and Baltic Sea regions. The early origins of this iconic exchange, however, have long been debated. We genetically trace the ancestry of Viking Age fish from mainland Europe to the North East Arctic cod population that supports the modern Lofoten fisheries. This application of genome-wide analyses from ancient fish bone reveals an early origin of what became an economically important trade, with implications for archaeology and environmental history.
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Hutchinson WF, Culling M, Orton DC, Hänfling B, Lawson Handley L, Hamilton-Dyer S, O’Connell TC, ... more Hutchinson WF, Culling M, Orton DC, Hänfling B, Lawson Handley L, Hamilton-Dyer S, O’Connell TC, Richards MP, Barrett JH. 2015. The globalization of naval
provisioning: ancient DNA and stable isotope analyses of stored cod from the wreck of the Mary Rose, AD 1545. Royal Society Open Science 2: 150199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150199
A comparison of ancient DNA (single-nucleotide poly-
morphisms) and carbon and nitrogen stable isotope evidence
suggests that stored cod provisions recovered from the wreck
of the Tudor warship Mary Rose, which sank in the Solent,
southern England, in 1545, had been caught in northern and
transatlantic waters such as the northern North Sea and the
fishing grounds of Iceland and Newfoundland. This discovery,
underpinned by control data from archaeological samples of
cod bones from potential source regions, illuminates the role
of naval provisioning in the early development of extensive sea
fisheries, with their long-term economic and ecological impacts.
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The growth of medieval cities in Northern Europe placed new demands on food supply, and led to th... more The growth of medieval cities in Northern Europe placed new demands on food supply, and led to the import of fish from increasingly distant fishing grounds. Quantitative analysis of cod remains from London provides revealing insight into the changing patterns of supply that can be related to known historical events and circumstances. In particular it identifies a marked increase in imported cod from the thirteenth century AD. That trend continued into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, after a short downturn, perhaps attributable to the impact of the Black Death, in the mid fourteenth century. The detailed pattern of fluctuating abundance illustrates the potential of archaeological information that is now available from the high-quality urban excavations conducted in London and similar centres during recent decades. Supplementary material is published online
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Identifying people of exotic origins with isotopes depends upon finding isotopic attributes that ... more Identifying people of exotic origins with isotopes depends upon finding isotopic attributes that are inconsistent with the indigenous population. This task is seldom straightforward and may vary with physical geography, through time, and with cultural practices. Isotopes and trace elements were measured in four Viking Age (8 th to 10 th centuries A.D.) skeletons from Dublin, Ireland, and three from Westness, Orkney. These were compared with other data from these locations and contemporaneous skeletons from Britain. We conclude that the male skeletons from Dublin have disparate origins, two originating beyond the shores of Ireland, and that the female and two male skeletons from Westness are not indigenous to Orkney. However, the homeland of the female, in contrast to the males, is unlikely to be in Scandinavia.
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PLoS ONE, 2011
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2011
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Journal of the North Atlantic 2:81–94, 2009
The grass-covered top of the Brough of Deerness, a small sea stack in Orkney, Scotland, holds the... more The grass-covered top of the Brough of Deerness, a small sea stack in Orkney, Scotland, holds the remains of
a substantial Viking Age settlement and associated chapel. The chapel was excavated by Christopher Morris in the 1970s
and discovered to have two phases, one above and one below an Anglo-Saxon coin minted between 959 and 975. New
excavations of two buildings from the surrounding settlement aim to illuminate the function of the site, and to inform our
understanding of the relationship between power and religion during the Viking Age diaspora. At least one of the buildings
was a domestic dwelling, of typical Scandinavian style, abandoned in the 11th to 12th centuries. However, both structures
represent only the top of a long stratigraphic sequence, with underlying middens radiocarbon dated to as early as the 6th to
7th centuries A.D. In its latest phases, the site was probably a chiefl y stronghold (as previously suggested by Morris) with
a symbiotic relationship with surrounding farms. In this preliminary report on new research, several models are tentatively
proposed to account for the role of such a settlement within the political economy of late Viking Age Scotland.
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The spatial distribution of the European freshwater eel (Anguilla anguilla) was very different in... more The spatial distribution of the European freshwater eel (Anguilla anguilla) was very different in historic and prehistoric times in comparison to the present. A database of the spatial and temporal distribution of eel remains in archaeological and palaeontological sites is presented and used to assess the spatial distribution of populations from the height of the last glacial maximum. The results show that the eel was absent from northern Europe until about 11 000 years ago. The reason was probably a southerly displacement of the Gulf Stream carrying the larval migration from the Sargasso Sea. However, additional factors preventing eel populations in northern Europe may have also been the colder temperatures in the Arctic tundra landscape that existed at the time and the extreme distance to the European Atlantic coast along the Channel River. The archaeological record shows that eels were absent from the Baltic Sea until about 6700 cal BC, but there is some indication of an earlier presence during the Yoldia Sea stage at the beginning of the Holocene. Only in southern Europe south of the Gironde river basin were eel populations maintained through the last glaciation. The species may have survived the last glaciation in a relatively restricted area in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coast of western Europe. Published palaeontological and genetic information gives important insights into climatic, geologic, and tectonic events on longer time scales. The oldest subfossil remains from Pleistocene sediments in northern Europe are approaching the age of the estimated genetic divergence of the European and American eel populations, and hence the species identity of the oldest subfossil remains may be ambiguous.
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Journal Articles by James H Barrett
the radiocarbon calibration process.
provisioning: ancient DNA and stable isotope analyses of stored cod from the wreck of the Mary Rose, AD 1545. Royal Society Open Science 2: 150199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150199
A comparison of ancient DNA (single-nucleotide poly-
morphisms) and carbon and nitrogen stable isotope evidence
suggests that stored cod provisions recovered from the wreck
of the Tudor warship Mary Rose, which sank in the Solent,
southern England, in 1545, had been caught in northern and
transatlantic waters such as the northern North Sea and the
fishing grounds of Iceland and Newfoundland. This discovery,
underpinned by control data from archaeological samples of
cod bones from potential source regions, illuminates the role
of naval provisioning in the early development of extensive sea
fisheries, with their long-term economic and ecological impacts.
a substantial Viking Age settlement and associated chapel. The chapel was excavated by Christopher Morris in the 1970s
and discovered to have two phases, one above and one below an Anglo-Saxon coin minted between 959 and 975. New
excavations of two buildings from the surrounding settlement aim to illuminate the function of the site, and to inform our
understanding of the relationship between power and religion during the Viking Age diaspora. At least one of the buildings
was a domestic dwelling, of typical Scandinavian style, abandoned in the 11th to 12th centuries. However, both structures
represent only the top of a long stratigraphic sequence, with underlying middens radiocarbon dated to as early as the 6th to
7th centuries A.D. In its latest phases, the site was probably a chiefl y stronghold (as previously suggested by Morris) with
a symbiotic relationship with surrounding farms. In this preliminary report on new research, several models are tentatively
proposed to account for the role of such a settlement within the political economy of late Viking Age Scotland.
the radiocarbon calibration process.
provisioning: ancient DNA and stable isotope analyses of stored cod from the wreck of the Mary Rose, AD 1545. Royal Society Open Science 2: 150199. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150199
A comparison of ancient DNA (single-nucleotide poly-
morphisms) and carbon and nitrogen stable isotope evidence
suggests that stored cod provisions recovered from the wreck
of the Tudor warship Mary Rose, which sank in the Solent,
southern England, in 1545, had been caught in northern and
transatlantic waters such as the northern North Sea and the
fishing grounds of Iceland and Newfoundland. This discovery,
underpinned by control data from archaeological samples of
cod bones from potential source regions, illuminates the role
of naval provisioning in the early development of extensive sea
fisheries, with their long-term economic and ecological impacts.
a substantial Viking Age settlement and associated chapel. The chapel was excavated by Christopher Morris in the 1970s
and discovered to have two phases, one above and one below an Anglo-Saxon coin minted between 959 and 975. New
excavations of two buildings from the surrounding settlement aim to illuminate the function of the site, and to inform our
understanding of the relationship between power and religion during the Viking Age diaspora. At least one of the buildings
was a domestic dwelling, of typical Scandinavian style, abandoned in the 11th to 12th centuries. However, both structures
represent only the top of a long stratigraphic sequence, with underlying middens radiocarbon dated to as early as the 6th to
7th centuries A.D. In its latest phases, the site was probably a chiefl y stronghold (as previously suggested by Morris) with
a symbiotic relationship with surrounding farms. In this preliminary report on new research, several models are tentatively
proposed to account for the role of such a settlement within the political economy of late Viking Age Scotland.
the International Council for Archaeozoology - Fish Remains Working Group (ICAZ-FRWG), hosted by the
Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage - Archaeosciences Laboratory (DGPC - LARC) and the Research
Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources – Environmental Archaeology Research Group (CIBIO -
EnvArch).
The meeting is aimed primarily for archaeozoologists interested in the systematic study of fish bones
retrieved from archaeological sites around the world, and also to archaeologists, ichthyologists, historians,
ethnographers, and fishery biologists. To this end the conference is structured to encompass a multiplicity
of approaches to the study of fish remains and their contribution to our understanding of how fishing, fish
trade, fish consumption, biodiversity, ecology and human impact on aquatic environments have changed
through time.