another update

At www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151103064601.htm … scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology say that traces of cereals found at the bottom of Bouldnor Cliff in the Solent, thought to date back to the Mesolithic period some 8000 years ago or more were misdated as a result of contamination. They have turned up dates within the last couple of hundred years – using a more up to date methodology. The DNA was compromised by contamination, source unknown. Perhaps anglers had been tossing in bread to attract fish to feed or one of the divers had not washed his hand after eating his cheese and tomato sandwiches – who knows. We may suppose this bit of negative science will blunt the claim that Mesolithic Britons were trading with Mediterranean farmers or that they might even have been making their own porridge from wild cereals. It depends on the archaeologists now – do they knuckle down and accept what the biologists say or do they look for more samples to test.