Synchronous Environmental and Cultural Change in the Emergence of Agricultural Economies 10,000 Years Ago in the Levant

The commonly held belief that the emergence and establishment of farming communities in the Levant was a smooth socio-economic continuum during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (ca. 12,000-9,000 cal BP) with only rare minor disruptions is challenged by recently obtained evidence from this region. Using a database of archaeological radiocarbon dates and diagnostic material culture records from a series of key sites in the northern Levant we show that the hitherto apparent long-term continuity interpreted as the origins and consolidation of agricultural systems was not linear and uninterrupted. A major cultural discontinuity is observed in the archaeological record around 10,000 cal BP in synchrony with a Holocene Rapid Climate Change (RCC), a short period of climatic instability recorded in the Northern Hemisphere. This study demonstrates the interconnectedness of the first agricultural economies and the ecosystems they inhabited, and emphasizes the complex nature of human responses to environmental change during the Neolithic period in the Levant. Moreover, it provides a new environmental-cultural scenario that needs to be incorporated in the models reconstructing both the establishment of agricultural economy in southwestern Asia and the impact of environmental changes on human populations.Peer reviewe

The dIANA database – Resource for isotopic paleodietary research in the Baltic Sea area

Paleodietary research is a complex field, which requires large sets of background information. Owing to increasing interest and activity in the field, a substantial amount of archaeological isotope baseline data exist for Northern Europe, consisting mainly of animal bone collagen δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S values. However, the data are scattered into dozens of publications written in multiple languages and less-accessible formats, making the data laborious to use. This article presents the first compilation work of this data, the open access dIANA database (Dietary Isotopic baseline for the Ancient North; https://www.oasisnorth.org/diana.html), aimed to support (paleo)dietary research in the Baltic Sea area. The database work is complemented with new analyses of archaeological and (pre-)modern domestic and wild fauna from Finland and Russia broadening the selection of analysed species in the database. We present and discuss data examples, which on one hand show existing spatiotemporal isotope patterns related to diet and differences in the environmental carbon sources and on the other, also visualize the current status of baseline research and the need for further analyses in the circum-Baltic area.Paleodietary research is a complex field, which requires large sets of background information. Owing to increasing interest and activity in the field, a substantial amount of archaeological isotope baseline data exist for Northern Europe, consisting mainly of animal bone collagen δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S values. However, the data are scattered into dozens of publications written in multiple languages and less-accessible formats, making the data laborious to use. This article presents the first compilation work of this data, the open access dIANA database (Dietary Isotopic baseline for the Ancient North; https://www.oasisnorth.org/diana.html), aimed to support (paleo)dietary research in the Baltic Sea area. The database work is complemented with new analyses of archaeological and (pre-)modern domestic and wild fauna from Finland and Russia broadening the selection of analysed species in the database. We present and discuss data examples, which on one hand show existing spatiotemporal isotope patterns related to diet and differences in the environmental carbon sources and on the other, also visualize the current status of baseline research and the need for further analyses in the circum-Baltic area.Peer reviewe

Bringing home animals : Final-stage Jomon and Okhotsk Culture food technologies

In this thesis, organic residues preserved in ancient pottery are used to reconstruct diversity andchange in the foodways of Late Holocene hunter-gatherer communities in coastal northern Hokkaido(1750 BCE–1250 CE). The Late Holocene period of this region is very dynamic, and characterised by numerous migrations and cultural replacements. The research into these processes has generally focused on typological variation in pottery, which is a device each of the period’s different culturesmade widespread use of. This thesis takes a novel approach, and uses pottery residue analysis to investigate long-term patterns of continuity and change in cooking practices, employing the conceptof cuisine to interpret the results. In particular, the Okhotsk Cultures (400–1100 CE) form a central focus of the thesis, and their complex animal cosmology, diverse subsistence and multifaceted household activities offer a rich context in which to examine changing foodways.The primary goal is understanding long-term and “macro-scale” patterns of continuity and change, and this also requires improving existing chronological frameworks, which largely rely on pottery typologies rather than radiocarbon dating. Refining and improving existing chronologies therefore forms the second goal of the thesis. The third goal is to examine foodways at a morecontextual “micro-scale”. This involves studying how pottery use was organised within the domestic space of a single Okhotsk Culture long-house, and how these practices were informed by social relations and the cosmology of human-animal interactions.The present thesis consists of an extended introduction, which sets the research in a wider regional and culture-historical setting, and also presents the main methods, concepts and approaches. The central research question is whether the close association between use of pottery and the processing of aquatic resources, which was established by the Early Holocene, does in fact persist into these Late Holocene cultures. The core of the thesis tackles this question by presenting five journal articles, which focus on the archaeological sites of Hamanaka 2, Kafukai 1 and 2, and Menashidomari. The overall results indicate that this older pattern was starting to break down, and that a range of new and more diverse cooking practices was emerging. The thesis also demonstrates that these important shifts in cuisine can also be tied into much higher-resolution chronological frameworks using new methods and approaches. Finally, the “micro-scale” analysis of containerfunction within a single household suggests that some sort of symbolic distinction was made between different sources of foods

Bringing home animals : Final-stage Jomon and Okhotsk Culture food technologies

In this thesis, organic residues preserved in ancient pottery are used to reconstruct diversity andchange in the foodways of Late Holocene hunter-gatherer communities in coastal northern Hokkaido(1750 BCE–1250 CE). The Late Holocene period of this region is very dynamic, and characterised by numerous migrations and cultural replacements. The research into these processes has generally focused on typological variation in pottery, which is a device each of the period’s different culturesmade widespread use of. This thesis takes a novel approach, and uses pottery residue analysis to investigate long-term patterns of continuity and change in cooking practices, employing the conceptof cuisine to interpret the results. In particular, the Okhotsk Cultures (400–1100 CE) form a central focus of the thesis, and their complex animal cosmology, diverse subsistence and multifaceted household activities offer a rich context in which to examine changing foodways.The primary goal is understanding long-term and “macro-scale” patterns of continuity and change, and this also requires improving existing chronological frameworks, which largely rely on pottery typologies rather than radiocarbon dating. Refining and improving existing chronologies therefore forms the second goal of the thesis. The third goal is to examine foodways at a morecontextual “micro-scale”. This involves studying how pottery use was organised within the domestic space of a single Okhotsk Culture long-house, and how these practices were informed by social relations and the cosmology of human-animal interactions.The present thesis consists of an extended introduction, which sets the research in a wider regional and culture-historical setting, and also presents the main methods, concepts and approaches. The central research question is whether the close association between use of pottery and the processing of aquatic resources, which was established by the Early Holocene, does in fact persist into these Late Holocene cultures. The core of the thesis tackles this question by presenting five journal articles, which focus on the archaeological sites of Hamanaka 2, Kafukai 1 and 2, and Menashidomari. The overall results indicate that this older pattern was starting to break down, and that a range of new and more diverse cooking practices was emerging. The thesis also demonstrates that these important shifts in cuisine can also be tied into much higher-resolution chronological frameworks using new methods and approaches. Finally, the “micro-scale” analysis of containerfunction within a single household suggests that some sort of symbolic distinction was made between different sources of foods

Synchronous Environmental and Cultural Change in the Emergence of Agricultural Economies 10,000 Years Ago in the Levant

The commonly held belief that the emergence and establishment of farming communities in the Levant was a smooth socio-economic continuum during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (ca. 12,000-9,000 cal BP) with only rare minor disruptions is challenged by recently obtained evidence from this region. Using a database of archaeological radiocarbon dates and diagnostic material culture records from a series of key sites in the northern Levant we show that the hitherto apparent long-term continuity interpreted as the origins and consolidation of agricultural systems was not linear and uninterrupted. A major cultural discontinuity is observed in the archaeological record around 10,000 cal BP in synchrony with a Holocene Rapid Climate Change (RCC), a short period of climatic instability recorded in the Northern Hemisphere. This study demonstrates the interconnectedness of the first agricultural economies and the ecosystems they inhabited, and emphasizes the complex nature of human responses to environmental change during the Neolithic period in the Levant. Moreover, it provides a new environmental-cultural scenario that needs to be incorporated in the models reconstructing both the establishment of agricultural economy in southwestern Asia and the impact of environmental changes on human populations

Settlement type, architecture and internal organization.

<p>Note the major differences between Göbekli (above) and Halula (below).</p

Settlement patterns.

<p>The history of the settlements in the studied region from <i>ca</i>. 10,600 to 8,500 cal BP.</p

Summed probability distribution of each settlement analyzed.

<p>Generated in CalPal [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0134810#pone.0134810.ref030" target="_blank">30</a>] using IntCal04 calibration curve.</p

Archaeobotanical record.

<p>Evidence for crops and wild progenitors in the Euphrates valley and neighbouring regions/study area (modified from ref. [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0134810#pone.0134810.ref024" target="_blank">24</a>]). The chronological time span of each site has not been altered from that on the original chart but adapted to cal BP. *Note that, in this summary authors did not consider data on morphologically domestic two-grained einkorn at Mureybet IV conclusive enough to be included, while it has been in other publications [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0134810#pone.0134810.ref009" target="_blank">9</a>].</p

Summed probability distribution of 450 ¹⁴C dates.

<p>Generated in CalPal [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0134810#pone.0134810.ref030" target="_blank">30</a>] using the IntCal04 calibration curve and in OxCal [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0134810#pone.0134810.ref031" target="_blank">31</a>] using the IntCal13 calibration curve (upper segments) and summed probability distribution of both settlement groups (coloured in green and blue) analyzed separately but displayed together in the same chart for comparison (lower segments). Note that even though computer implementations are different, the results are the same, strengthening the reliability of our observations.</p