- The Neolithic marked the first adoption of agriculture as the main means of subsistence. A range of domesticated plants were cultivated, in particular wheat, oats and barley. The first evidence for the use of domesticated animals was also present, with animals used both for their meat, and for secondary products such as wool, milk and hide. Sheep – probably also goats – cattle and pigs were used in this way. Dogs also make their first confirmed appearance as domesticated animals, though no evidence of these animals has as yet been recovered in South West Scotland. Forest clearance is inferred, as woodland would have to be cleared in order to allow the cultivation of crops and the grazing of animals. Such clearance was once associated with a marked fall in tree pollen (in particular the ‘elm decline’ (Iversen 1969), but the extent to which such woodland clearance was already underway in the Mesolithic is still a matter for debate and ongoing study (see Chapter 2 Archaeological Practice and Chapter IV Palaeolithic and Mesolithic).
- Poor survival means little evidence for cultivated plants or animals occurs on archaeological sites in South West Scotland. Carbonised wheat has been recovered from a possible settlement site at Drummullan and barley from Doonhill. Unspecified cereal grains have been recorded from the rectangular timber hall at Laigh Newton, and from Neolithic pits and other features at Carzield and Auchenwinn Bridge. The carbonised remains of beans or peas were recovered from the Holywood cursus complex. Organisation of the landscape into field systems is likely, but evidence rarely survives, probably through the repeated impacts from later, more intensive agricultural systems. One rare example where traces of small fields defined by rickles of stone and deemed to be Neolithic in date was, however, identified at Machrie Moor on Arran (Barber 1997).
- Evidence for livestock is even scarcer. Unburnt animal bone invariably does not survive, while burnt bone is usually so fragmented that it is hard to identify even the type of animal represented, let alone the species. Excavations at the Late Neolithic ritual enclosure at Dunragit revealed burnt animal bone that could have come from either sheep or cattle (Thomas 2015). An even rarer find came from the excavation of a group of pits and a hearth at Auchenwinn Bridge, Maybole. This was a carbonised dropping from an ovicaprid, that is, a sheep or goat (the authors thought it more likely to be a goat), which confirmed the presence of this species of domesticated livestock in the region (Becket and MacGregor 2010). Carbonised grains of wheat and barley were also present.
- Another particularly noteworthy discovery at Auchenwinn Bridge was the presence of burnt seaweed. While it was possible that this had been used as a supplementary fuel source, its use for the winter foddering of livestock, such as the goat identified by its faeces, was also entirely possible (Becket and MacGregor 2010).
- The use of seaweed at Auchenwinn Bridge demonstrated how wild resources were still used by people living mainly as agriculturalists. That they often supplemented their diets through foraging is indicated by the frequent presence of charred hazelnut shells at a variety of sites. These include Auchenwinn Bridge, Carzield, Drumullan and Laigh Newton, all of which also revealed evidence for the consumption of cereals. Charred hazelnut shells have also been found on sites where Neolithic material culture is present, but where no evidence for cultivated plants or domesticated livestock was reported, such as the putative timber hall at Hillhouse Farm (Green et al 2021) and the group of Middle Neolithic firepits at Ayr Academy, which yielded a date range of 3300 to 2900 BC. A more unusual find from the Holywood cursus complex was the carbonised remains of fat hen, an edible wild food plant.
- While the consumption of hazelnuts is recorded frequently on Neolithic sites, finds from crab apple at Auchenwinn Bridge showed that other wild resources might be utilised. The presence of fire-cracked stone and a hearth site suggested that heating and/or cooking probably took place on the site, which also produced sherds from Early Neolithic carinated bowls and radiocarbon dates ranging from 3780 to 3650 BC (Becket and MacGregor 2010).
- There is evidence that the hunting of wild game continued throughout the Neolithic. Arrowheads worked from flint and other lithic materials are common finds: around 40 Late Neolithic arrowheads were recovered from the sand dunes around Torrs Warren and Luce Bay in Dumfries and Galloway (Bradley et al 2016). How game might have been hunted by Neolithic communities may be hinted at by an unusual series of features recorded by Ludovic Mann following excavations at Mye Plantation. Here, a series of pits were uncovered, which revealed clusters of sharpened stakes placed in the base (Mann 1903). It has been suggested that these were pit-traps for use during game drives, with red deer and wild cattle (aurochs) the intended prey (Thomas 2015, 12).