42 research outputs found
MobilitÀt und Wissenstransfer in diachroner und interdisziplinÀrer Perspektive
What effect do spatial mobility and migrations have on the diffusion of knowledge? In this volume, papers dealing with the topic have been collected from various culture-historical and theoretical disciplines. Chronologically they range from non-literate cultures to an insight into contemporary research on economic innovation. The interdisciplinary contributions reveal in different ways the relationships between spatial mobility and the transfer of knowledge, thus allowing the phenomenon to be structured in both historical and non-literate age
Spatial Effects of Technological Innovations and Changing Ways of Life
Die Forschergruppe A-II befasst sich mit den Wechselwirkungen zwischen
technologischen und sozialen VerÀnderungen und mit der Dynamik von Mensch-
Umwelt-Interaktionen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt hierbei auf der Untersuchung der
Genese raumbezogener wie auch raumwirksamer Erfindungen (Keramikproduktion,
Tierdomestikation, frĂŒhe Rad- und Wagentechnologie, Zugtiernutzung, frĂŒhes
Hirtentum, Reiternomadismus) und den Mechanismen der Verbreitung dieser
Innovationen. Hierbei gilt es zu untersuchen, inwiefern der zentrale Aspekt
der rÀumlichen und sozialen MobilitÀt einerseits als Folge bestimmter
technologischer Innovationen und andererseits als Voraussetzung fĂŒr die
Verbreitung von Innovationen angesehen werden kann. DarĂŒber hinaus werden an
mehreren Orten im eurasischen Steppenraum und in Zentralasien die
weitreichenden Auswirkungen technologischer Innovationen auf demographische,
soziale, ökonomische und rÀumliche Parameter in verschiedenen Projekten
untersucht. Zum Einsatz kommen dabei sowohl archÀologische Ausgrabungen unter
Hinzuziehung naturwissenschaftlicher Verfahren aus den Bereichen Geophysik,
ArchÀozoologie, PalÀoethnobotanik, Pedologie und Geomorphologie als auch reine
Laboranalysen an menschlichen und tierischen ZĂ€hnen und Knochen, zur Erhebung
von isotopenchemischen Daten. Als theoretische Grundlagen wurden und werden in
der Forschergruppe insbesondere die zentralen Begriffe Innovation, MobilitÀt
und Wissen diskutiert
The lives of houses: duration, context and history at Neolithic Uivar
There is a considerable mix of models for house durations in the literature on Neolithic Europe. This article presents a summary of a formal chronological model for the Neolithic tell of Uivar in western Romania. We provide estimates of house duration and relate houses to other features of the development of this tell, from the later sixth to the mid-fifth millennium calbc. Three wider implications are discussed: that the house must be contextualized case by case; that house duration gives powerful insights into the sociality of community; and that houses, surprisingly often taken rather for granted in Neolithic archaeology, should be fully integrated into the interpretation of Neolithic histories. From what perspective, anthropocentric or relational, that may best be done, is open to question; while it may be helpful to think in this case in terms of the lives and vitality of houses, the ability of people to create and vary history should not be set aside lightly
Ancient pigs reveal a near-complete genomic turnover following their introduction to Europe
Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by âŒ10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers âŒ8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disappeared and was replaced by haplotypes associated with European wild boars. This turnover could be accounted for by substantial gene flow from local European wild boars, although it is also possible that European wild boars were domesticated independently without any genetic contribution from the Near East. To test these hypotheses, we obtained mtDNA sequences from 2,099 modern and ancient pig samples and 63 nuclear ancient genomes from Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses revealed that European domestic pigs dating from 7,100 to 6,000 y BP possessed both Near Eastern and European nuclear ancestry, while later pigs possessed no more than 4% Near Eastern ancestry, indicating that gene flow from European wild boars resulted in a near-complete disappearance of Near East ancestry. In addition, we demonstrate that a variant at a locus encoding black coat color likely originated in the Near East and persisted in European pigs. Altogether, our results indicate that while pigs were not independently domesticated in Europe, the vast majority of human-mediated selection over the past 5,000 y focused on the genomic fraction derived from the European wild boars, and not on the fraction that was selected by early Neolithic farmers over the first 2,500 y of the domestication process
Temporalities in the study of mobility
The relationship between humans, their landscapes, and the natural environment is complex and underlies mutual non-material and material fluxes. Especially challenging is the attempt to reconstruct this relationship in order to understand the role and relevance of Space and Knowledge of Ancient Civilizations, the core theme of the cluster of excellence Exc 264 Topoi, funded from 2007â2019. In this book we present the results of an attempt to use a system-oriented concept of social ecology as tool for interdisciplinary collaboration and integrative research on aspects of human-environmental relationship. In six different interdisciplinary projects the developed social ecological model is applied and critically discussed
Notes for a Political Ecology of Non-Sedentary People
The research group Political Ecology of Non-Sedentary Communities encompasses
three research projects examining archaeological remains from various time
periods in the Nile Delta, the foothills of the Kopet Dag and in the steppe
region of western Eurasia; a fourth project in the group consists of climate
and ecological modeling for Europe over the past 6000 years. The researchers
in this group are investigating processes and dynamics which played out in
different geographic spaces and different chronological periods between 9000
and 300 BCE. We propose a triad of three terms, Umgebung, Umwelt, and Mitwelt
to serve as a conceptual basis for all of these projects, which vary greatly
in terms of the chronological period, location and the way of life of the
populations under study, as well as with respect to the archaeological
database. The projects can be described on the basis of evidence of
multifaceted practical actions. These actions on the part of the populations
under study, revealed only fragmentarily in the archaeological record, are
being investigated using the research strategies presented here. The
strategies have been developed from the discussion on political ecology
associated with discourses in the social sciences and humanities
Research into the Origin and Spread of Wool Production between the Near East and Central Europe
The objective of the research group Textile Revolution is to contribute to
research on the still largely unclear introduction of wool production in later
Neolithic and Chalcolithic societies from Western Asia to Central Europe.
Since direct evidence of wool depends on rare conditions of preservation, a
multi-proxy approach based on different kinds of indirect evidence was chosen.
The previous history of research on early wool production as well as the
domestication history of sheep are reviewed briefly. Anthropogenic impacts on
the landscape, possibly related to intensified grazing, are one kind of
indirect evidence that we take into account. For the later part of the
presumably long-lasting development of wool production, written sources are
available, the earliest of which date to the Late Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods
(end of the 4th to beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE) in Mesopotamia.
Indirect archaeological evidence consists of the tools used in textile
production, among which spindle whorls and loom weights occur most frequently.
Since they are not a priori specific to the type of fibre, be it linen or
wool, statistical evaluations of metric data are necessary. Zooarchaeological
analysis of large samples of animal bones from a wide spectrum of sites and
time slices is a further crucial element of our multi-proxy approach. Both the
demographic composition of herds and metric data indicating changes in animal
size can yield indirect evidence for incipient or increasing importance of
wool production. This article offers an overview of these different sources
and methods, specific to the disciplines involved, and presents some
preliminary results
Communicated by Michael Meyer
In diesem Artikel wird ein mathematisches Modell entwickelt fĂŒr die Ausbreitung des Wollschafs unter Hirten im Nahen Osten und in SĂŒdosteuropa zwischen 6200 und 4200 v. Chr. In unserem Modell werden Hirten als Agenten betrachtet, deren Bewegungen durch Zufallsprozesse gesteuert werden, sodass sich die Agenten mit gröĂerer Wahrscheinlichkeit in Regionen aufhalten, die attraktiv fĂŒr die Schafhaltung sind. Das Modell berĂŒcksichtigt auĂerdem soziale Interaktionen zwischen Agenten und erlaubt die Weitergabe der Innovation zwischen Agenten mit einer bestimmten Wahrscheinlichkeit. Die Parameter des agentenbasierten Modells werden an die verfĂŒgbaren archĂ€ologischen Daten angepasst. Ein Simulationsverfahren fĂŒr die rĂ€umliche und zeitliche Entwicklung des Ausbreitungsprozesses soll es ermöglichen, qualitative Effekte von verschiedenen Aspekten zu studieren, die den Ausbreitungsprozess beeinflussen
Late Neolithic Agriculture in Temperate Europe â A Long-Term Experimental Approach
Long-term slash-and-burn experiments, when compared with intensive tillage without manuring, resulted in a huge data set relating to potential crop yields, depending on soil quality, crop type, and agricultural measures. Cultivation without manuring or fallow phases did not produce satisfying yields, and mono-season cropping on freshly cleared and burned plots resulted in rather high yields, comparable to those produced during modern industrial agriculture - at least ten-fold the ones estimated for the medieval period. Continuous cultivation on the same plot, using imported wood from adjacent areas as fuel, causes decreasing yields over several years. The high yield of the first harvest of a slash-and-burn agriculture is caused by nutrient input through the ash produced and mobilization from the organic matter of the topsoil, due to high soil temperatures during the burning process and higher topsoil temperatures due to the soilâs black surface. The harvested crops are pure, without contamination of any weeds. Considering the amount of work required to fight weeds without burning, the slash-and-burn technique yields much better results than any other tested agricultural approach. Therefore, in dense woodland, without optimal soils and climate, slash-and-burn agriculture seems to be the best, if not the only, feasible method to start agriculture, for example, during the Late Neolithic, when agriculture expanded from the loess belt into landscapes less suitable for agriculture. Extensive and cultivation with manuring is more practical in an already-open landscape and with a denser population, but its efficiency in terms of the ratio of the manpower input to food output, is worse. Slash-and-burn agriculture is not only a phenomenon of temperate European agriculture during the Neolithic, but played a major role in land-use in forested regions worldwide, creating anthromes on a huge spatial scale.© 2017 the authorspublishedVersio
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