Hazel Nuts: Britain’s first farmed food? Part 3 »

Francis Pryor’s (blog) experiments with our first Great British Post-Glacial staple. The humble hazelnut: favourite of our Mesolithic ancestors, gathered (excuse the pun?) by the quantities found on some sites like Howick, Northumberland. But why did they burn them | or how did they get burnt? Hazelnuts are also a staple for archaeologists who want and need Radiocarbon (AMS) dating for their sites. They’re a short-lived species and therefore much better than “old wood”.

I mean the hazelnuts, not the archaeologists.

♦ Spence | Old Wood