The authors would like to express thanks to NERC for funding this research (Grant number NE/F021054/1, PI Richard Evershed), and the NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility in East Kilbride (EK158-03/10) for their financial assistance with the analytical research. Rona McGill was especially helpful with the Mass Spectrometry analysis of the zooarchaeological specimens. Many thanks to Richard Evershed and Lucy Cramp for their valuable insights at team meetings throughout this research. The authors would like to thank Claire Ingrem, Julia Best, and Adrienne Powell for providing valuable access to zooarchaeological datasets. Richard Madgwick provided valuable comments and discussions about the data. Thanks also to Alison Sheridan (National Museum of Scotland) for facilitating sampling of several key sites, and to Mark Elliot for providing access to the Dun Vulan zooarchaeological assemblage (Museum nan Eilean). Nick Card and Martin Carruthas (both Orkney College) provided samples from the Neolithic site of Ness of Brodgar and the Iron Age site of The Cairns, respectively. Janette Park and Linda Aiano (Orkney Museum) facilitated the sampling of faunal remains from Tofts Ness, Pool, and Mine Howe. Sheena Fraser and Glynnis kindly helped in selecting specimens from the recent Links of Noltland excavation and the Knowe O'Skea assemblages. Thanks to Tom Dawson for aiding with the sampling of the Baile Sear material, and for providing radiocarbon dating and isotopes. Many thanks to Ian Armit and Fiona Shapland for very kindly providing the radiocarbon certificates (funded by Historic Scotland) and isotopic information for several of the Iron Age sites. The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments that helped to improve this paper. Finally the authors would like to thank Cardiff University for generously proving funding to make this article Open Access.
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