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

Millets across Eurasia: chronology and context of early records of the genera Panicum and Setaria from archaeological sites in the Old World

We have collated and reviewed published records of the genera Panicum and Setaria (Poaceae), including the domesticated millets Panicum miliaceum L. (broomcorn millet) and Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv. (foxtail millet) in pre-5000 cal b.c. sites across the Old World. Details of these sites, which span China, central-eastern Europe including the Caucasus, Iran, Syria and Egypt, are presented with associated calibrated radiocarbon dates. Forty-one sites have records of Panicum (P. miliaceum, P. cf. miliaceum, Panicum sp., Panicum type, P. capillare (?) and P. turgidum) and 33 of Setaria (S. italica, S. viridis, S. viridis/verticillata, Setaria sp., Setaria type). We identify problems of taphonomy, identification criteria and reporting, and inference of domesticated/wild and crop/weed status of finds. Both broomcorn and foxtail millet occur in northern China prior to 5000 cal b.c.; P. miliaceum occurs contemporaneously in Europe, but its significance is unclear. Further work is needed to resolve the above issues before the status of these taxa in this period can be fully evaluated

Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe

Update notice Author Correction: Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe (Nature, (2022), 608, 7922, (336-345), 10.1038/s41586-022-05010-7) Nature, Volume 609, Issue 7927, Pages E9, 15 September 2022In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years(1). Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions(2,3). Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectoriesthan uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank(4,5) cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent individuals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation-proxies for these drivers-provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.Peer reviewe

Holocene fluctuations in human population demonstrate repeated links to food production and climate

We consider the long-term relationship between human demography, food production, and Holocene climate via an archaeological radiocarbon date series of unprecedented sampling density and detail. There is striking consistency in the inferred human population dynamics across different regions of Britain and Ireland during the middle and later Holocene. Major cross-regional population downturns in population coincide with episodes of more abrupt change in North Atlantic climate and witness societal responses in food procurement as visible in directly dated plants and animals, often with moves toward hardier cereals, increased pastoralism, and/or gathered resources. For the Neolithic, this evidence questions existing models of wholly endogenous demographic boom–bust. For the wider Holocene, it demonstrates that climate-related disruptions have been quasi-periodic drivers of societal and subsistence change

The Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe. EUROEVOL Dataset 3: Archaeobotanical Data

The collection of this dataset was carried out under the auspices of the Cultural Evolution of Neolithic Europe project (EUROEVOL) led by Professor Stephen Shennan, UCL. The dataset represents one of the largest collections of archaeobotanical data for the Neolithic of Europe (<strong>Figure 1</strong>), comprising c.8300 records for c.1500 different species, genera and families and representing over a million identified items. This is one of three datasets resulting from the EUROEVOL project; the other two comprising the core spatial and temporal structure of the project, including all radiocarbon dates (EUROEVOL Dataset 1) and zooarchaeological data (EUROEVOL Dataset 2) – <a href="http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1469811/" target="_blank">http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1469811/</a>

Plant Economies in the Neolithic Eastern Adriatic: Archaeobotanical Results from Danilo and Pokrovnik

Malo se zna o počecima poljodjelstva u Hrvatskoj (oko 6000. cal BC) i proveden je tek mali broj istraživanja usmjerenih na otkrivanje strategija preživljavanja u to doba. U ovom su članku predstavljeni novi arheobotanički podaci sa srednjoneolitičkog nalazišta Danilo Bitinj i ranoneolitičkog te srednjoneolitičkog nalazišta Pokrovnik, što je značajan doprinos dosadašnjim spoznajama o počecima poljodjelstva u tom području.The beginning of farming in Croatia (ca. 6000 cal BC) is little understood and few archaeobotanical studies have been conducted to explore the nature of subsistence economies at this time. This paper presents new archaeobotanical data from the middle Neolithic site of Danilo Bitinj and the early/middle Neolithic site of Pokrovnik, providing a significant contribution to the current evidence on early farming in the region

Early Neolithic agriculture in Southwest Asia and Europe: re-examining the archaeobotanical evidence

Agriculture is widely recognized as a defining characteristic of the Neolithic period in Southwest Asia and Europe, but, despite many years of research, and the discovery of much new arch a eobotanical evidence, there have been few attempts to investigate its origins and spread in the region as a whole. Now, in a new project at the Institute of Archaeology, the scattered evidence for the emergence and dispersal of crops is being systematically assessed and documented both spatially and chronologically

Plant economies in the Neolithic Eastern Adriatic : archaeobotanical results from Danilo and Pokrovnik

The beginning of farming in Croatia (ca. 6000 cal BC) is little understood and few archaeobotanical studies have been conducted to explore the nature of subsistence economies at this time. This paper presents new archaeobotanical data from the middle Neolithic site of Danilo Bitinj and the early/middle Neolithic site of Pokrovnik, providing a significant contribution to the current evidence on early farming in the region. Malo se zna o počecima poljodjelstva u Hrvatskoj (oko 6000. cal BC) i proveden je tek mali broj istra-živanja usmjerenih na otkrivanje trategija preživljavanja u to doba. U ovom su članku predstavljeni novi arheobotanički podaci sa srednjoneolitičkog nalazišta Danilo Bitinj i ranoneolitičkog te srednjoneolitičkog nalazišta Pokrovnik, što je značajan doprinos dosadašnjim spoznajama o počecima poljodjelstva u tom području

The chronology of culture:a comparative assessment of European Neolithic dating approaches

Archaeologists have long sought appropriate ways to describe the duration and floruit of archaeological cultures in statistical terms. Thus far, chronological reasoning has been largely reliant on typological sequences. Using summed probability distributions, the authors here compare radiocarbon dates for a series of European Neolithic cultures with their generally accepted ‘standard’ date ranges and with the greater precision afforded by dendrochronology, where that is available. The resulting analysis gives a new and more accurate description of the duration and intensity of European Neolithic cultures