The inhabitants of prehistoric England were believed to be hunter-gatherers more than farmers. But a recent discovery of wheat DNA in an archeological excavation of an underwater site could rewrite Britain's history since it indicates that the early Brits were also traders.

The wheat, found under 36 feet of water off the Isle of Wright, means the grain arrived 2,000 years earlier than the previous belief that farming came to the British Isles only 6,000 years ago.

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According to Michael Balter, in an article in ScienceNow, the team got four core samples of sediments from a site full of burnt hazelnut shells left by hunter-gatherers. They used radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA analysis on the wood and plant samples.

Based on those methods, the team estimates the age of the artefacts to be between 8,020 and 7,980 years ago. The site was eventually flooded by the rising sea and created the English Channel which now separates France from Britain.

They then tapped ancient DNA analysis methods developed by paleogeneticist Eske Willerslev from the University of Copenhagen which allows recovery and sequencing of genetic material that remained in sediments after the plans where it came from have long disintegrated.

What they discovered was not only wheat DNA but also more varieties of trees and plants that were known to have grown in southern Britain 8,000 years ago. These include the oak, poplar, beech and several grasses and herbs.

As for the wheat, what the analysis showed is that it originated in the Middle East where farming began 10,500 years ago. The findings belie the belief among archeologists that farming reached the Balkan region and modern Hungary only 8,000 years ago.

Balter said the discovery is "resetting our notions of when Western Europeans and Britons transitioned from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic era" or when they moved from hunting and gathering to farming.

The researchers opine that the wheat wasn't cultivated by the hunters-gatherer based on the lack of wheat pollen in the samples. They added that farming then could have spread to western France earlier than previously thought or about 7,600 years ago. Or the nomadic hunter-gatherers from south of Britain could have reached deeper into Europe than what is commonly known. That would assume a trade link and boats that allowed them to traverse the English Channel, or it was the Europeans who came to trade with the ancient Brits.

However, Quirin Schiermeier doubts the theory. In an article in Nature News, he cites Durham University archeologist Peter Rowley-Conwy who didn't believe that farming reached north of the Danube 8,000 years ago because it is "too far for hunter-gatherer networks to extend." Rowley-Conwy pointed out that if artifacts such as flint blades and arrowheads that showed up in Portugal to the Urals didn't reach Britain, why would wheat then make it?

Rowley-Conwy sought more evidence from Mesolithic settlements under the sea to help better understand how and when Neolithic culture arrived in Britain.

Tagswheat, stone age, britain history