London: The French introduced farming in Britain almost 6000 years ago, according to a new archaeological finding.
Also, it has been suggested that Brits would have stayed on as hunter-gatherers if it were not for innovations introduced by the Gallic newcomers.
Mark Collard and his team from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, studied carbon-14 dates for ancient bones, wood and cereal grains from locations across Great Britain to reach the conclusion.
They noted the change in population density with time, indicating that around 6000 years ago the population quadrupled in just 400 years.
It was in the same time period farming emerged in Britain, reports New Scientist.
Collard claims such huge population explosion completely annuls the possibility of farming being independently started by indigenous hunter-gatherers.
ANI
First Published: Tuesday, December 08, 2009, 11:28