Scientists find that Britain was importing wheat 2,000 years before growing it

Researchers in Britain have found well-preserved fragments of wheat DNA in an ancient peat bog submerged off the Isle of Wight, suggesting that traders brought wheat to the area about 8,000 years ago.

Scientists believe that traders came to Britain and "encountered a less advanced hunter-gatherer society," the BBC reports. Vincent Gaffney, a professor at the University of Bradford, adds that "it now seems likely that the hunter-gather societies of Britain, far from being isolated, were part of extensive social networks that traded or exchanged exotic foodstuffs across much of Europe."

The DNA discovery was well-received by scientists, who say the fragments have given them a much clearer understanding of what happened as hunter-gatherers began growing crops. "The material remains left behind by the people that occupied Britain as it was finally becoming an island 8,000 years ago, show that these were sophisticated people with technologies thousands of years more advanced than previously recognized," says Garry Momber of the Maritime Archaeology Trust.

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