Rat b*stards--Belgium voles in Orkney

A firm believer in human necessity as the mother of invention, whether or not early Neolithic settlers of Orkney had a proto-written language system ultimately comes down to whether their society had need of it.  Had Neolithic society become sophisticated or complicated enough to have a need to record or tally?  Did it have a need to transmit information remotely to a broader group than merely the family or clan?  Story telling around the campfire hearth is one thing.  Oral tradition need not require literacy.  But dealing with distant trade routes and multiple social interactions among substantial settlements is altogether a different matter.

"Marked" stone; BCC image Ness of Brodgar excavation

As with most things today, archaeology has entered a technological revolution.  Classical archaeology--detailed stratigraphy and context--has yet to be dethroned.  Nor will it likely be.  One still needs boots on the ground and trowels in hands, so to speak.   That said, advanced analytical tools now allow for increasingly precise dating of humankind's timeline and ancestry.  

Genetic tracing advancements now permit information simply unknowable in archaeology practiced even as little as a decade or two ago.  Paleo-genetic analyses of ancient human remains now make it possible to peer deeply into prehistoric ancestors with an almost unfathomable level of detail and across a mind boggling expanse of time--tens of thousands of years.  By way of reference, most Europeans today descend in part from haplogroup G2a, as discussed here:  https://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplogroup_G2a_Y-DNA.shtml#Neolithic  

The Orkney vole, image courtesy BCC

The Orkney vole (Microtus arvalis orcadensis), a small ground dwelling, grass eating rodent, is yet another example with applicability to Orkney's history.  The vole (rat b*stards as we irately call them here in grazing land Idaho) is invasive.  It was most likely introduced to Orkney mistakenly by Neolithic farmers and traders from the European continent in fresh cut bedding hay or livestock fodder.  

With few predators in Neolithic Orkney, the vole naturalized in the island ecosystem.  So sharp was the invasive colonization by the vole, its presence or absence has become an archaeological marker for the middle 4th millennium BC in Orkney.  It is a dichotomous key.  

Because the vole did not appear in the bio-record of Orkney until after c. 3300 BC, the short take is that wherever evidence of the Orkney vole exists in Neolithic stratum those layers can be no earlier than the vole's introduction.  Conversely, if the vole is absent, the Neolithic layers must be earlier than c. 3300 BC.

"Barnhouse" Neolithic village rock slab walls-April 11, 2022

Curiously, the vole was introduced into Orkney roughly the same time Orkney's Neolithic people shifted to building with stone versus their earlier more temporary wood post construction.  Neolithic settlement in Orkney took hold and became more permanent.  

Apparently, their settlements were substantial enough to support long distant trade and interaction.  Orcadian finds indicating extensive trade routes are a Cumbrian axe head and Arran pitchstone, as well as pottery in the Grooved Ware style (which originated in Orkney) having been found as far away as Knowth Cairns in the Boyne Valley (County Meath, Ireland) c. 3100 BC.

Indeed, Orkney is considered somewhat akin to  Britain's Neolithic capital, with stone henges and Grooved Ware pottery originating in Orkney then being adopted in Britain and Ireland...a southward cultural movement that is counter to general assumptions made by earlier archaeologists. 

In any case, "pre-vole" layers are associated with Orkney's first Neolithic settlers, who colonized Orkney c. 3800 BC - 3600 BC.  Biological dating using the vole's presence is an old school archaeological method, to be sure.  But this "vole marker" now melds with biotechnology.  Paleo-geneticists only within the last five or ten years or so have identified the Orkney rodent's likely continental origin.  

It turns out the Okney vole hailed from a population in Stalhille, Begium.  Stalhille (roughly meaning 'cattle corral hill') is located in present day West Flanders, about a mile from the Noordede River, which empties into the North Sea at Oostende.  So, Stalhille potentially linked to extensive Neolithic maritime trade and in particular with cattle.  Early Neolithic farmers in Orkney were bringing in cattle and thus establishing stock rearing as the "economic" basis of their culture.

Standing Stones of Stenness--April 11, 2022 

This is important because without the means of available Neolithic oceanic navigation a vole from Belgium could not have realistically colonized Orkney.  While "sweepstakes colonization" (i.e. all conditions, however improbable, are met to permit successful colonization from accidental floating debris) cannot "absolutely" be ruled out, still it is generally accepted that the Orkney vole was more probably introduced by Neolithic humans via ocean going trade.  And key along with oceanic navigation would be a Neolithic developed cattle trade, with its fresh cut hay aboard--becoming the rat b*stard (vole) vector to Orkney. 

So, the question becomes two-fold.  (1)  Did Neolithic people possess the ability to navigate open water trade routes in vessels capable of transporting their livestock and introducing the Orkney vole in the process? (2)  Did they have a developed and substantial enough "market" for cattle and other trade goods?  The answer is yes to both, as will be addressed next post.