Evolutionary Demography and the Population History of the European Early Neolithic

In this paper I propose that evolutionary demography and associated theory from human behavioral ecology provide a strong basis for explaining the available evidence for the patterns observed in the fi rst agricultural settlement of Europe in the 7th–5th millennium cal. BC, linking together a variety of what have previously been disconnected observations and casting doubt on some long-standing existing models. An outline of relevant aspects of life history theory, which provides the foundation for understanding demography, is followed by a review of large-scale demographic patterns in the early Neolithic, which point to rapid population increase and a process of demic diffusion. More localized socioeconomic and demographic patterns suggesting rapid expansion to local carrying capacities and an associated growth of inequality in the earliest farming communities of central Europe (the Linear Pottery Culture, or LBK) are then outlined and shown to correspond to predictions of spatial population ecology and reproductive skew theory. Existing models of why it took so long for farming to spread to northern and northwest Europe, which explain the spread in terms of the gradual disruption of hunter-gatherer ways of life, are then questioned in light of evidence for population collapse at the end of the LBK. Finally, some broader implications of the study are presented, including the suggestion that the pattern of an initial agricultural boom followed by a bust may be relevant in other parts of the world

Pottery spread in ancient foragers

Although we have been able to track how cultural innovations spread among farming populations in prehistoric Europe, we know relatively little about this among European hunter-gatherers. Dolbunova et al. use a range of techniques to shed light on how the making and use of pottery spread among early-to-mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers west of the Urals

Introduction: Demography and Cultural Macroevolution

The papers in this special issue of Human Biology, which derive from a conference sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Center for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, lay some of the foundations for an empirical macroevolutionary analysis of cultural dynamics. Our premise here is that cultural dynamics—including the stability of traditions and the rate of origination of new variants—are infl uenced by independently occurring demographic processes (population size, structure, and distribution as these vary over time as a result of changes in rates of fertility, mortality, and migration). The contributors focus on three sets of problems relevant to empirical studies of cultural macroevolution: large-scale reconstruction of past population dynamics from archaeological and genetic data; juxtaposition of models and evidence of cultural dynamics using large-scale archaeological and historical data sets; and juxtaposition of models and evidence of cultural dynamics from large-scale linguistic data sets. In this introduction we outline some of the theoretical and methodological issues and briefl y summarize the individual contributions

Bell Beakers and Their Context in Central Europe: A New Approach

After a brief history of previous research on the Bell Beaker cultures of Central Europe, it is argued that traditional explanations for the presence of Bell Beakers in this area, in terrns of the immigration of a ’Beaker people’, are unsatisfactory, and result at least in part from a lack of attention to the context in which Beakers are found; it is suggested that the widespread Bell Beaker objects are, in fact, prestige goods. In the following three chapters certain expectations derived from this argument are tested for three different regions of Central Europe: Bohemia, Moravia, and Central Germany. This analysis shows that the assumptions about Bell Beaker relative chronology on which earlier theories have been based are incorrect, and at the same time leads to some modifications of the model proposed above. In the light of these results the connections between different parts of Central Europe, and between Central and Western Europe, are examined and a hypothesis is offered to account for them in terms of the diffusion of innovations with prestige overtones. After the development of this relatively static picture of a functioning system in which the Bell Beakers and their associated objects have a role, the approach shifts to a study of changes through time in Central Europe and the impact the appearance of Bell Beakers has on this sequence. A detailed presentation of the regional chronology is given, followed by a discussion of changes in economy and settlement pattern. In the two succeeding chapters the change from Corded Ware to Bell Beakers is examined in more detail, with particular reference to Bohemia. Finally, in the conclusion, the argument is summarised and extended, with a discussion of the situation outside Central Europe and some suggestions as to why the Bell Beaker phenomenon may have occurred when it did. The point is made, however, that the Bell Beaker ’problem’ is far more complex than is usually acknowledged, and that before it is possible to embark on large-scale explanations it is necessary to establish for each area exactly what it is that has to be explained

Ornamental plant domestication by aesthetics-driven human cultural niche construction

Unlike plants that were domesticated to secure food, the domestication and breeding of ornamental plants are driven by aesthetic values. Here, we examine the major elements of the extended evolutionary synthesis (EES) theory that bridges the gap between the biology of ornamental plant domestication and the sociocultural motivations behind it. We propose that it involves specific elements of cumulative cultural evolution (CCE), plant gene-human culture coevolution (PGHCC), and niche construction (NC). Moreover, ornamental plant domestication represents an aesthetics-driven dimension of human niche construction that coevolved with socioeconomic changes and the adoption of new scientific technologies. Initially functioning as symbolic and aesthetic assets, ornamental plants became globally marketed material commodities as a result of the co-dependence of human CCE and prestige-competition motivations

Archaeology, demography and life history theory together can help us explain past and present population patterns.

Population matters. Demographic patterns are both a cause and a consequence of human behaviour in other important domains, such as subsistence, cooperation, politics and culture. Demographers interested in contemporary and recent historical populations have rich data at their fingertips; the importance of demography means many interested parties have gathered demographic data, much of which is now readily available for all to explore. Those interested in the demography of the distant past are not so fortunate, given the lack of written records. Nevertheless, the emergence in recent years of a new interest in the demography of ancient populations has seen the development of a range of new methods for piecing together archaeological, skeletal and DNA evidence to reconstruct past population patterns. These efforts have found evidence in support of the view that the relatively low long-term population growth rates of prehistoric human populations, albeit ultimately conditioned by carrying capacities, may have been owing to 'boom-bust' cycles at the regional level; rapid population growth, followed by population decline. In fact, this archaeological research may have come to the same conclusion as some contemporary demographers: that demography can be remarkably hard to predict, at least in the short term. It also fits with evidence from biology that primates, and particularly humans, may be adapted to environmental variability, leading to associated demographic stochasticity. This evidence of the fluctuating nature of human demographic patterns may be of considerable significance in understanding our species' evolution, and of understanding what our species future demographic trajectories might be. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography'

Long-Term Demographic Trends in Prehistoric Italy: Climate Impacts and Regionalised Socio-Ecological Trajectories

The Italian peninsula offers an excellent case study within which to investigate long-term regional demographic trends and their response to climate fluctuations, especially given its diverse landscapes, latitudinal range and varied elevations. In the past two decades, summed probability distributions of calibrated radiocarbon dates have become an important method for inferring population dynamics in prehistory. Recent advances in this approach also allow for statistical assessment of spatio-temporal patterning in demographic trends. In this paper we reconstruct population change for the whole Italian peninsula from the Late Mesolithic to the Early Iron Age (10,000–2800 cal yr BP). How did population patterns vary across time and space? Were fluctuations in human population related to climate change? In order to answer these questions, we have collated a large list of published radiocarbon dates (n = 4010) and use this list firstly to infer the demographic trends for the Italian peninsula as a whole, before addressing each of five sub-regions in turn (northern, central, and southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia). We also compare population fluctuations with local paleoclimate proxies (cave, lake, marine records). At a pan-regional scale, the results show a general rapid and substantial increase in population in the Early Neolithic with the introduction of farming at around 8000 cal yr BP and further dramatic increases during the Bronze and Iron Age (~ 3800–2800 cal yr BP). However, different regional demographic trajectories exist across different regions of Italy, suggesting a variety of localised human responses to climate shifts. Population and climate appear to have been more closely correlated during the early–mid Holocene (Mesolithic–Neolithic), while later in the Holocene (Bronze–Iron Ages) they decouple. Overall, across the Holocene the population dynamics varied by region and depended on the long-term socio-ecological dynamics prevailing in a given area. Finally, we include a brief response to the paper ‘Radiocarbon dated trends and central Mediterranean prehistory’ by Parkinson et al. (J Word Prehist 34(3), 2021)—synchronously published by Journal of World Prehistory but wholly independently developed—indicating how our conclusions accord with or differ from one another

Holocene regional population dynamics and climatic trends in the Near East: a first comparison using archaeo-demographic proxies

This paper illustrates long-term trends in human population and climate from the Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene (14,000-2500 cal. yr. BP) in order to assess to what degree climate change impacted human societies in the Near East. It draws on a large corpus of archaeodemographic data, including anthropogenic radiocarbon dates (n=10,653) and archaeological site survey (n=22,533), and 16 hydro-climatic records from cave speleothems and lake sediments. Where possible, inferred population dynamics and climatic trends have been made spatially congruent, and their relationships have been statistically tested. Demographic proxies and paleoclimatic records have been compared for the greater Near East as a whole and for seven major geo-cultural regions (Anatolia, Arabia, Cyprus, Iran, Levant, Mesopotamia, and South Caucasus). This approach allows us to identify regionalised patterns in population and climate trends. The results suggest a clear relationship between population and climate in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene (14,000-8326 cal. yr. BP) with population increasing in concomitance with wetter climatic conditions. During the Middle Holocene (8326-4200 cal. yr. BP) there is an increased regionalisation of demographic patterns, followed by marked interregional contrasts in the Late Holocene (4200-2500 cal. yr. BP). We identify a decoupling of demographic and climatic trends from the Middle Holocene onwards, and relate this to the existence of more complex societies. These were less vulnerable to gradual climatic shifts due to their logistical infrastructure, social organisation and technological capacity. We also assess the impact of five Rapid Climate Changes (RCC) which occurred during the study period on population levels. Although all five RCC (the so-called 10.2 k, 9.2 k, 8.2 k, 4.2 k, and 3.2 k cal. yr. BP events) are visible to some degree in our palaeoclimatic and demographic proxies, there are marked regional variations in magnitude and duration

A non-equilibrium neutral model for analysing cultural change

Neutral evolution is a frequently used model to analyse changes in frequencies of cultural variants over time. Variants are chosen to be copied according to their relative frequency and new variants are introduced by a process of random mutation. Here we present a non-equilibrium neutral model which accounts for temporally varying population sizes and mutation rates and makes it possible to analyse the cultural system under consideration at any point in time. This framework gives an indication whether observed changes in the frequency distributions of a set of cultural variants between two time points are consistent with the random copying hypothesis. We find that the likelihood of the existence of the observed assemblage at the end of the considered time period (expressed by the probability of the observed number of cultural variants present in the population during the whole period under neutral evolution) is a powerful indicator of departures from neutrality. Further, we study the effects of frequency-dependent selection on the evolutionary trajectories and present a case study of change in the decoration of pottery in early Neolithic Central Europe. Based on the framework developed we show that neutral evolution is not an adequate description of the observed changes in frequency

The origins and spread of stock-keeping: the role of cultural and environmental influences on early Neolithic animal exploitation in Europe

It has long been recognised that the proportions of Neolithic domestic animal species—cattle, pig and sheep/goat—vary from region to region, but it has hitherto been unclear how much this variability is related to cultural practices or to environmental constraints. This study uses hundreds of faunal assemblages from across Neolithic Europe to reveal the distribution of animal use between north and south, east and west. The remarkable results present us with a geography of Neolithic animal society—from the rabbit-loving Mediterranean to the beef-eaters of the north and west. They also demonstrate that the choices made by early Neolithic herders were largely determined by their environments. Cultural links appear to have played only a minor role in the species composition of early Neolithic animal societie