A simulation of the Neolithic transition in Western Eurasia

Farming and herding were introduced to Europe from the Near East and Anatolia; there are, however, considerable arguments about the mechanisms of this transition. Were it people who moved and outplaced the indigenous hunter- gatherer groups or admixed with them? Or was it just material and information that moved-the Neolithic Package-consisting of domesticated plants and animals and the knowledge of its use? The latter process is commonly referred to as cultural diffusion and the former as demic diffusion. Despite continuous and partly combined efforts by archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, paleontologists and geneticists a final resolution of the debate has not yet been reached. In the present contribution we interpret results from the Global Land Use and technological Evolution Simulator (GLUES), a mathematical model for regional sociocultural development embedded in the western Eurasian geoenvironmental context during the Holocene. We demonstrate that the model is able to realistically hindcast the expansion speed and the inhomogeneous space-time evolution of the transition to agropastoralism in Europe. GLUES, in contrast to models that do not resolve endogenous sociocultural dynamics, also describes and explains how and why the Neolithic advanced in stages. In the model analysis, we uncouple the mechanisms of migration and information exchange. We find that (1) an indigenous form of agropastoralism could well have arisen in certain Mediterranean landscapes, but not in Northern and Central Europe, where it depended on imported technology and material, (2) both demic diffusion by migration or cultural diffusion by trade may explain the western European transition equally well, (3) [...]Comment: Accepted Author Manuscript version accepted for publication in Journal of Archaeological Science. A definitive version will be subsequently published in the Journal of Archaological Scienc

Neolithic pottery finds at the wetland site of Bazel-Kruibeke (Flanders, Belgium): evidence of long-distance forager-farmer contact during the late 6th and 5th millennium cal BC in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt area

The salvage excavation of the wetland site of Bazel-Kruibeke yielded the first firm evidence of forager-farmer contact in the Scheldt valley already from the late LBK onwards. From then on contact most likely gradually increased leading to a piecemeal introduction of Neolithic commodities and knowledge. Around the middle of the 5th millennium cal BC the technique of pottery production and very likely also stock-breeding were adopted from contemporaneous farmer communities in the loess belonging to the (Epi-)Rossen tradition. At the transition from the 5th to the 4th millennium cal BC exchange with the Michelsberg/Spiere group culture led to an almost complete acculturation of these local communities probably also involving the introduction of agriculture in the Lower Scheldt basin

Primerjava prve in druge stopnje neolitizacije na območju Poljske (da o tretji sploh ne govorimo)

The origins of the Neolithic in Polish territories are associated with migrations of groups of the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBK) after the mid-6th millennium BC. Communities of this culture only settled in enclaves distinguished by ecological conditions favourable to farming (‘LBK neolithisation’). This situation persisted into the 5th millennium BC, when these enclaves were inhabited by post-Linear groups. This state of affairs changed from c. 4000 BC onwards due to the formation and spectacular territorial expansion of the Funnel Beaker culture (TRB). In the territories under consideration this expansion covered the areas previously inhabited by both hunter-gatherers (‘TRB neolithisation’) and farmers. Some of the Late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers did not accept TRB patterns. They successfully carried on their traditional lifestyle until the Early Bronze Age although some changes in their material culture are visible (including ‘ceramisation’).Začetki neolitika na območju Poljske so povezani z migracijami skupin linearno trakaste kulture (LTK) v drugi polovici 6. tisočletja pr. n. št. Te skupine so se naselile v enklavah, za katere so značilne ekološke razmere ugodne za kmetijsko ( ‘neolitizacija LTK’). Takšno stanje se je ohranilo do 5. tisočletja pr. n. št., ko so te enklave poselile po-linearne skupine. Poselitev se je bistveno spremenila šele od ok. 4000 pr. n. št. naprej z oblikovanjem in spektakularnim širjenjem nosilcev kulture lijakastih čaš. Na Poljskem je ta poselitev zajela tudi območja, ki so jih pred tem poseljevali tako lovci in nabiralci ( ‘neolitizacija kulture lijakastih čaš’) kot poljedelci. Nekatere skupine pozno mezolitskih lovcev in nabiralcev niso sprejele vzorca kulture lijakastih čaš in so uspešno ohranili svoj način življenja vse do zgodnje bronaste dobe, čeprav lahko zaznamo nekatere spremembe v njihovi materialni kulturi (tudi ‘keramizacijo’)

Models of Neolithisation of Northeastern Iberian

Altres ajuts: The archaeological excavation at La Draga and Coves del Fem was funded by the Departament de Cultura (Generalitat de Catalunya) CLT009/18/00026 and CLT009/18/.The goal of this article is to discuss the significance of the archaeological evidence from the sites of La Draga (Banyoles, Spain) and Coves del Fem (Ulldemolins, Spain), in the context of the neolithisation of Northeastern Iberia. The 14C dates have been analysed using Bayesian statistics. The stratigraphy of Coves del Fem covers the transition between the last hunter-gatherers of the region and the first farmers. The chronological sequence covers approximately 1,300 years, from 6065-5990 cal BC to 4700-4550 cal BC. The site of La Draga was occupied by the first farmers circa 5300-5230 cal BC when a wooden platform was constructed and first used. Subsequent repairs of the wooden piles have been dated as well. Another use of the wooden platform is documented around 5200-5085 cal BC, although until now new construction evidence has not been documented. La Draga site was reoccupied later, when several travertine structures dated in two moments between the years 5100-4900 cal BC and 4950-4700 cal BC were constructed and used. The radiocarbon dates of Coves del Fem and La Draga support the existence of two different models of neolithisation in Northeastern Iberia. In the southern part of the territory, Coves del Fem suggests that the Holocene hunter-gatherer populations remained in the area until the arrival of the first farmers, in a model similar to the one observed at the Ebro basin. On the contrary, the site of La Draga supports the hypothesis of the first farmers colonising a previously unoccupied territory

Different models for the Neolithisation of Albania

According to the archaeological evidence, the Neolithisation process in Albania seems to have passed through three different phases, with chronological gaps between them. The earliest phase is represented at the Vlusha site, where coarse monochrome pottery was found in the same layer as microlithic tools. The second phase can be traced back to the Konispol site, where Impresso pottery appeared immediately above the Mesolithic layer. The third phase is represented by the Podgorie I site, which is characterised by red monochrome slipped ware, white-painted pottery, polychrome pottery, as well as pottery with impresso and barbotine decoration. Arheološki podatki kažejo, da je proces neolitizacije v Albaniji potekal v treh različnih fazah z vmesnimi kronološkimi prekinitvami. Najzgodnejšo fazo predstavlja najdišče Vlusha, kjer je bila odkrita groba enobarvna (monokromna) lončenina v isti plasti kot mikrolitska orodja. Drugo fazo smo prepoznali na najdišču Konispol, kjer se lončenina, okrašena v stilu Impresso, pojavlja tik nad mezolitsko plastjo. Tretjo fazo predstavlja najdišče Podgorie I, za katerega je značilna rdeče premazana enobarvna (monokromna) lončenina, belo slikana lončenina, večbarvna (polikromna) lončenina, kakor tudi lončenina, okrašena z vbodi in barbotinom

Time and palaeoenvironment in the Neolithisation of the Povolzhye forest-steppe

The paper presents the Early Neolithic Elshanka culture in Povolzhye forest-steppe. Along with the presentation of pottery assemblage the radiocarbon dates are presented and analysed. The paper addresses the question of an early pottery production in the region.Članek predstavlja zgodnjeneolitsko kulturo Elshanka v gozdni stepi Povolzhye. Predstavljeni in analizirani so keramični zbiri in radiokarbonski datumi. Članek se ukvarja tudi z vprašanjem o zgodnji produkciji keramike v regiji

Book review: Julian Thomas The Birth of Neolithic Britain: An Interpretive Account.

The Birth of Neolithic Britain is the fourth major work by the acclaimed Julian Thomas, one of the leading proponents of interpretive archaeology or archaeology informed by philosophy, anthropology and discussions in the arts and social sciences in general. After exposing the assumption and prejudices of archaeologists’ narratives of the Neolithic and presenting innovative explanations of the shift from hunting-gathering to farming as well as other issues in Rethinking the Neolithic (1991; reworked and updated version Understanding the Neolithic in 1999), questioning Western conceptualisations of time, identity, materiality with the help of archaeological case studies in the ‘Heideggerian’ Time, Culture and Identity (1996) and further contextualised archaeology as part of a (post)modern worldview in Archaeology and Modernity (2004), this book seems to be a relevant continuation of Thomas’s work. This is probably the first significant work on Neolithisation since Graeme Barker’s global overview The Agricultural Revolution in Prehistory (2006, Oxford: Oxford University Press), this time with a focus on Europe and particularly Britain

Neolithisation in Polish territories : different patterns, different perspectives, and Marek Zvelebil's ideas

The neolithisation of Polish territories, approached from a global perspective, seems to proceed in both a complex and heterogeneous way. This was primarily caused by the highly transitional location. Additionally, the more or less fundamental differences in our understanding of the pivotal terms and phenomena play a major role in the insufficient and ambiguous state of knowledge on the discussed topic. Nevertheless, the fact that groups of classic foragers and foragers with selected elements of the Neolithic package existed simultaneously with farming communities is of the utmost importance. This paper examines possibilities for enriching the current state of knowledge with ideas on various aspects of neolithisation processes worked out by Marek Zvelebil. The opinion is put forward that Marek Zvelebil’s work can still provide both theoretical foundations and practical inspiration for further research on neolithisation in East-Central Europe