Jessica Smyth
I am Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Archaeology within the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin.
From 2014-2016, I was Research Associate on 'NeoMilk: the Milking Revolution in Temperate Neolithic Europe', funded through an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (2013-2018) and based out of the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol. NeoMilk explores the introduction and spread of cattle-based agriculture by Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) farmers in Northern and Central Europe during the 6th millennium BC through the analysis of a number of inter-related biochemical proxies.
From 2013-2014, I was a research associate with The Times of Their Lives project, based at Cardiff University and funded through an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant. ToTL aims to construct much more precise chronologies for the European Neolithic, exploring the timings and the duration of key events and phenomena. It offers a series of case studies across the continent, applying formal chronological modelling in a Bayesian statistical framework combined with critical, problem-oriented archaeological analysis.
Previous to this, I was Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol (2011-13). The fellowship was awarded for a two-year project, SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal Husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating), and aimed to identify the original contents of c. 500 pottery vessels from a range of Irish Neolithic sites through systematic lipid analysis of visible organic encrusted remains and of absorbed organic residues. The project also sought to provide more secure date markers for the period by directly dating, where feasible, surface and absorbed residues from selected vessels in key assemblages.
From 2009-2010, I was an IRCHSS (Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences) Postdoctoral Fellow, at the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin. This one-year fellowship was awarded for the purpose of preparing my doctoral thesis for publication. The monograph, published in the Prehistoric Society Research Paper Series in 2014, examines the settlement evidence of the earliest agricultural communities in Ireland (c.4000-2500 BC), interpreting patterns and architectural traditions and placing them in their wider social and landscape context.
From 2007-2009, I was employed by The Heritage Council of Ireland as editor and project co-ordinator of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site Research Framework. The framework document, published in 2009, was the first of its kind for Ireland and one of the few World Heritage Site research frameworks in existence worldwide.
Phone: +441173317073
Address: Dept of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol
From 2014-2016, I was Research Associate on 'NeoMilk: the Milking Revolution in Temperate Neolithic Europe', funded through an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant (2013-2018) and based out of the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol. NeoMilk explores the introduction and spread of cattle-based agriculture by Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) farmers in Northern and Central Europe during the 6th millennium BC through the analysis of a number of inter-related biochemical proxies.
From 2013-2014, I was a research associate with The Times of Their Lives project, based at Cardiff University and funded through an ERC Advanced Investigator Grant. ToTL aims to construct much more precise chronologies for the European Neolithic, exploring the timings and the duration of key events and phenomena. It offers a series of case studies across the continent, applying formal chronological modelling in a Bayesian statistical framework combined with critical, problem-oriented archaeological analysis.
Previous to this, I was Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol (2011-13). The fellowship was awarded for a two-year project, SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal Husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating), and aimed to identify the original contents of c. 500 pottery vessels from a range of Irish Neolithic sites through systematic lipid analysis of visible organic encrusted remains and of absorbed organic residues. The project also sought to provide more secure date markers for the period by directly dating, where feasible, surface and absorbed residues from selected vessels in key assemblages.
From 2009-2010, I was an IRCHSS (Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences) Postdoctoral Fellow, at the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin. This one-year fellowship was awarded for the purpose of preparing my doctoral thesis for publication. The monograph, published in the Prehistoric Society Research Paper Series in 2014, examines the settlement evidence of the earliest agricultural communities in Ireland (c.4000-2500 BC), interpreting patterns and architectural traditions and placing them in their wider social and landscape context.
From 2007-2009, I was employed by The Heritage Council of Ireland as editor and project co-ordinator of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site Research Framework. The framework document, published in 2009, was the first of its kind for Ireland and one of the few World Heritage Site research frameworks in existence worldwide.
Phone: +441173317073
Address: Dept of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol
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Books by Jessica Smyth
Along with tracking sedentism, Neolithic houses also allow researchers to address changing cultural and group identity, and the varying social and cosmological significance of building. All these aspects alter considerably as one moves westwards and northwards across the European continent and as sedentism becomes more established in each region.
Chapters are arranged geographically and chronologically to allow for easy comparisons between neighbouring areas. Contributors address:
· Construction materials and architectural characteristics
· How houses facilitated certain kinds of routine practice and dwelling
· The cosmological dimensions of domestic architecture
· The role of tradition and change
Three insightful discussion chapters—on the continent-wide development of Neolithic architecture over time, archaeological approaches to buildings, and anthropological perspectives—round off the volume. Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe: Sedentism, Architecture, and Practice is for archaeologists, anthropologists, and any student of the Neolithic.
Papers by Jessica Smyth
interpreted from rock art in a prehistoric Holocene context and
a beeswax find in a pre-agriculturalist site. However, when and
where the regular association of A. mellifera with agriculturalists emerged is unknown. One of the major products of A. mellifera is beeswax, which is composed of a complex suite of lipids including n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters. The composition is highly constant as it is determined genetically through the insect’s biochemistry. Thus, the chemical ‘fingerprint’ of beeswax provides a reliable basis for detecting this commodity in organic residues preserved at archaeological sites, which we now use to trace the exploitation by humans of A. mellifera temporally and spatially. Here we present secure identifications of beeswax in lipid residues preserved in pottery vessels of Neolithic Old World farmers. The geographical range of bee product exploitation is traced in Neolithic Europe, the Near East and North Africa, providing the palaeoecological range of honeybees during prehistory. Temporally, we demonstrate that bee products were
exploited continuously, and probably extensively in some regions, at least from the seventh millennium cal BC, likely fulfilling a variety of technological and cultural functions. The close association of A. mellifera with Neolithic farming communities dates to the early onset of agriculture and may provide evidence for the beginnings of a domestication process.
Authors: Roffet-Salque, M., Regert, M., Evershed, R. P., Outram, A. K., Cramp, L. J. E., Decavallas, O., Dunne, J., Gerbault, P., Mileto, S., Mirabaud, S., Pääkkönen, M., Smyth, J., Šoberl, L., Whelton, H. L., Alday-Ruiz, A., Asplund, H., Bartkowiak, M., Bayer-Niemeier, E., Belhouchet, L., Bernardini, F., Budja, M., Cooney, G., Cubas, M., Danaher, E. M., Diniz, M., Domboróczki, L., Fabbri, C., González-Urquijo, J. E., Guilaine, J., Hachi, S., Hartwell, B. N., Hofmann, D., Hohle, I., Ibáñez, J. J., Karul, N., Kherbouche, F., Kiely, J., Kotsakis, K., Lueth, F., Mallory, J. P., Manen, C., Marciniak, A., Maurice-Chabard, B., Mc Gonigle, M. A., Mulazzani, S., Özdoğan, M., Perić, O. S., Perić, S. R., Petrasch, J., Pétrequin, A.-M., Pétrequin, P., Poensgen, U., Pollard, C. J., Poplin, F., Radi, G., Stadler, P., Stäuble, H., Tasić, N., Urem-Kotsou, D., Vuković, J. B., Walsh, F., Whittle, A., Wolfram, S., Zapata-Peña, L. and Zoughlami, J.
The wet, acidic conditions that accelerate the decay of so much prehistoric organic matter fortunately preserve these lipid residues exceedingly well. This paper details the results of a recent programme of molecular and compound-specific
stable isotope analysis on lipids from nearly 500 Irish Neolithic vessels, providing unparalleled insights into the diet, and food procurement and processing activities of our earliest farming communities.
As in many parts of Europe, pottery appears in Ireland at the same time as farming, and examining the contents of pottery vessels can provide great insight into the lifestyles of early farming communities. SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal Husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating) is a recently completed two-year research project based at the Organic Geochemistry Unit, University of Bristol, which saw the systematic analysis of ancient organic residues in nearly 500 pots from fifteen Irish Neolithic sites (c. 4000 – 2500 cal BC). Eight of these fifteen sites were recently excavated along Irish road schemes.
Molecular and stable isotope analyses undertaken on the fat residues preserved in these pots have firmly established that dairying was taking place in early Neolithic Ireland. Indeed, current evidence indicates that by the time farming arrives at the western edge of Europe, i.e. the islands of Britain and Ireland, dairying is a key—perhaps even the primary— component of farming practice. T
This paper represents a first attempt to characterise the phenomenon of pit-digging across Ireland through the Neolithic, with a particular emphasis on the material from eastern Leinster. Also examined are the commonalities of deposition across different contexts, from seemingly isolated pits to hilltop enclosures to passage tombs, and whether these might give us some insight into how the Neolithic world was structured.
"
Conference Presentations by Jessica Smyth
Investigations on these preserved regions show that a combined evaluation of the changes in landscape and cultural responses are possible. We want to know more about ongoing or already completed research on this topic with a focus on prehistory. How do you trace archaeological features and changes in landscape use within the bog, what are your methods and what are the results? We are interested in all kinds of research approaches; from coring, botanical analysis and remote sensing to the usage of archaeological biomarkers, such as pottery lipids or bog butter analysis. The focus of papers should be your conclusions about the environmental-cultural interaction of prehistoric societies. What role did the developing bog have on choice of settlement areas, ritual practices, economic life, communication structure and networks. We welcome papers from all bog regions of Northern Europe and throughout prehistory to explore these questions.
Along with tracking sedentism, Neolithic houses also allow researchers to address changing cultural and group identity, and the varying social and cosmological significance of building. All these aspects alter considerably as one moves westwards and northwards across the European continent and as sedentism becomes more established in each region.
Chapters are arranged geographically and chronologically to allow for easy comparisons between neighbouring areas. Contributors address:
· Construction materials and architectural characteristics
· How houses facilitated certain kinds of routine practice and dwelling
· The cosmological dimensions of domestic architecture
· The role of tradition and change
Three insightful discussion chapters—on the continent-wide development of Neolithic architecture over time, archaeological approaches to buildings, and anthropological perspectives—round off the volume. Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe: Sedentism, Architecture, and Practice is for archaeologists, anthropologists, and any student of the Neolithic.
interpreted from rock art in a prehistoric Holocene context and
a beeswax find in a pre-agriculturalist site. However, when and
where the regular association of A. mellifera with agriculturalists emerged is unknown. One of the major products of A. mellifera is beeswax, which is composed of a complex suite of lipids including n-alkanes, n-alkanoic acids and fatty acyl wax esters. The composition is highly constant as it is determined genetically through the insect’s biochemistry. Thus, the chemical ‘fingerprint’ of beeswax provides a reliable basis for detecting this commodity in organic residues preserved at archaeological sites, which we now use to trace the exploitation by humans of A. mellifera temporally and spatially. Here we present secure identifications of beeswax in lipid residues preserved in pottery vessels of Neolithic Old World farmers. The geographical range of bee product exploitation is traced in Neolithic Europe, the Near East and North Africa, providing the palaeoecological range of honeybees during prehistory. Temporally, we demonstrate that bee products were
exploited continuously, and probably extensively in some regions, at least from the seventh millennium cal BC, likely fulfilling a variety of technological and cultural functions. The close association of A. mellifera with Neolithic farming communities dates to the early onset of agriculture and may provide evidence for the beginnings of a domestication process.
Authors: Roffet-Salque, M., Regert, M., Evershed, R. P., Outram, A. K., Cramp, L. J. E., Decavallas, O., Dunne, J., Gerbault, P., Mileto, S., Mirabaud, S., Pääkkönen, M., Smyth, J., Šoberl, L., Whelton, H. L., Alday-Ruiz, A., Asplund, H., Bartkowiak, M., Bayer-Niemeier, E., Belhouchet, L., Bernardini, F., Budja, M., Cooney, G., Cubas, M., Danaher, E. M., Diniz, M., Domboróczki, L., Fabbri, C., González-Urquijo, J. E., Guilaine, J., Hachi, S., Hartwell, B. N., Hofmann, D., Hohle, I., Ibáñez, J. J., Karul, N., Kherbouche, F., Kiely, J., Kotsakis, K., Lueth, F., Mallory, J. P., Manen, C., Marciniak, A., Maurice-Chabard, B., Mc Gonigle, M. A., Mulazzani, S., Özdoğan, M., Perić, O. S., Perić, S. R., Petrasch, J., Pétrequin, A.-M., Pétrequin, P., Poensgen, U., Pollard, C. J., Poplin, F., Radi, G., Stadler, P., Stäuble, H., Tasić, N., Urem-Kotsou, D., Vuković, J. B., Walsh, F., Whittle, A., Wolfram, S., Zapata-Peña, L. and Zoughlami, J.
The wet, acidic conditions that accelerate the decay of so much prehistoric organic matter fortunately preserve these lipid residues exceedingly well. This paper details the results of a recent programme of molecular and compound-specific
stable isotope analysis on lipids from nearly 500 Irish Neolithic vessels, providing unparalleled insights into the diet, and food procurement and processing activities of our earliest farming communities.
As in many parts of Europe, pottery appears in Ireland at the same time as farming, and examining the contents of pottery vessels can provide great insight into the lifestyles of early farming communities. SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal Husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating) is a recently completed two-year research project based at the Organic Geochemistry Unit, University of Bristol, which saw the systematic analysis of ancient organic residues in nearly 500 pots from fifteen Irish Neolithic sites (c. 4000 – 2500 cal BC). Eight of these fifteen sites were recently excavated along Irish road schemes.
Molecular and stable isotope analyses undertaken on the fat residues preserved in these pots have firmly established that dairying was taking place in early Neolithic Ireland. Indeed, current evidence indicates that by the time farming arrives at the western edge of Europe, i.e. the islands of Britain and Ireland, dairying is a key—perhaps even the primary— component of farming practice. T
This paper represents a first attempt to characterise the phenomenon of pit-digging across Ireland through the Neolithic, with a particular emphasis on the material from eastern Leinster. Also examined are the commonalities of deposition across different contexts, from seemingly isolated pits to hilltop enclosures to passage tombs, and whether these might give us some insight into how the Neolithic world was structured.
"
Investigations on these preserved regions show that a combined evaluation of the changes in landscape and cultural responses are possible. We want to know more about ongoing or already completed research on this topic with a focus on prehistory. How do you trace archaeological features and changes in landscape use within the bog, what are your methods and what are the results? We are interested in all kinds of research approaches; from coring, botanical analysis and remote sensing to the usage of archaeological biomarkers, such as pottery lipids or bog butter analysis. The focus of papers should be your conclusions about the environmental-cultural interaction of prehistoric societies. What role did the developing bog have on choice of settlement areas, ritual practices, economic life, communication structure and networks. We welcome papers from all bog regions of Northern Europe and throughout prehistory to explore these questions.