Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36624123›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2023

Tracking the British agricultural revolution through the isotopic analysis of dated parchment.

Sean P Doherty, Michelle M Alexander, Stuart Henderson, Jason Newton, Jonathan Finch, Matthew J Collins

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Ethics and applications of isotope analysis in archaeology.American journal of biological anthropology · 2025
    Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Sean P DohertyDepartment of Archaeology and History, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. sean@palaeome.org.
Michelle M AlexanderDepartment of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK.
Stuart HendersonDepartment of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Jason NewtonNERC National Environmental Isotope Facility, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride, UK.
Jonathan FinchDepartment of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK.
Matthew J CollinsDepartment of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Between the sixteenth and nineteenth century, British agriculture underwent a 'revolutionary' transformation. Yet despite over a century of research and the recognised centrality of agricultural developments to industrialisation and population growth, the character or chronology of any 'revolution' during this period remains contentious. Enquiry has been hampered by the fragmented and locally specific nature of historic accounts and the broad dating of early-modern zooarchaeological assemblages. To address this, we conducted stable isotope analysis on 658 legal documents written on sheepskin parchment; a unique biological resource that records the day, month and year of use (AD 1499 to 1969). We find these provide a high temporal resolution analysis of changing agricultural practices and episodes of disease. Most significantly, they suggest that if an 'Agricultural Revolution' occurred in livestock management, it did so from the mid-nineteenth century, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

Indexed as

AgricultureLivestockAnimalsPopulation Growth

Identifiers

PMID36624123
PMCPMC9829728

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.