Dental microwear from Natufian hunter-gatherers and early Neolithic farmers: Comparisons within and between samples

The Neolithic period is characterized by major cultural transformations and human migrations, with lasting effects across Europe. To understand the population dynamics in Neolithic Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea area, we investigate the genomes of individuals associated with the Battle Axe Culture (BAC), a Middle Neolithic complex in Scandinavia resembling the continental Corded Ware Culture (CWC). We sequenced 11 individuals (dated to 3330–1665 calibrated before common era (cal BCE)) from modern-day Sweden, Estonia, and Poland to 0.26–3.24× coverage. Three of the individuals were from CWC contexts and two from the central-Swedish BAC burial ‘Bergsgraven’. By analysing these genomes together with the previously published data, we show that the BAC represents a group different from other Neolithic populations in Scandinavia, revealing stratification among cultural groups. Similar to continental CWC, the BAC-associated individuals display ancestry from the Pontic–Caspian steppe herders, as well as smaller components originating from hunter–gatherers and Early Neolithic farmers. Thus, the steppe ancestry seen in these Scandinavian BAC individuals can be explained only by migration into Scandinavia. Furthermore, we highlight the reuse of megalithic tombs of the earlier Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) by people related to BAC. The BAC groups likely mixed with resident middle Neolithic farmers (e.g. FBC) without substantial contributions from Neolithic foragers.

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What Have Genetics Ever Done for Us? The Implications of aDNA Data for Interpreting Identity in Early Neolithic Central Europe

European Journal of Archaeology ◽

10.1179/1461957114y.0000000083 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 454-476 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Daniela Hofmann

Keyword(s):

Central Europe ◽

Genetic Data ◽

Fundamental Change ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Migration Process ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Neolithic Transition ◽

Transition Models ◽

New Research ◽

The Impact

This paper is concerned with the impact of ancient DNA data on our models of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in central Europe. Beginning with a brief overview of how genetic data have been received by archaeologists working in this area, it outlines the potential and remaining problems of this kind of evidence. As a migration around the beginning of the Neolithic now seems certain, new research foci are then suggested. One is renewed attention to the motivations and modalities of the migration process. The second is a fundamental change in attitude towards the capabilities of immigrant Neolithic populations to behave in novel and creative ways, abilities which in our transition models were long exclusively associated with hunter-gatherers.

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Beating ploughshares back into swords: warfare in theLinearbandkeramik

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00095211 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 81 (312) ◽

pp. 332-342 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Mark Golitko ◽

Lawrence H. Keeley

Keyword(s):

Early Neolithic ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Western Germany ◽

Neolithic Europe ◽

People First

Armed with a number of powerful arguments, the authors invite us to face up to the evidence for violence in early Neolithic Europe.Linearbandkeramik(LBK) people first attacked the hunter-gatherers they encountered and then entered a period of increasingly violent warfare against each other, culminating in an intense struggle in the area of central and western Germany. The building of fortifications, physical mutilation and cannibalism, while no doubt enacted with ritual airs, nevertheless had their context and purpose in the slaughter of enemies.

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The Beginning of the Neolithic in Southeast Anatolia

Documenta Praehistorica ◽

10.4312/dp.47.5 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 47 ◽

pp. 76-95

Author(s):

Necmi Karul

Keyword(s):

Food Production ◽

Time Span ◽

Technological Innovations ◽

Way Of Life ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Multifaceted Approach ◽

Fresh Perspective ◽

Southeast Anatolia ◽

New Research

New research in southeastern Anatolia at Early Neolithic sites has brought a fresh perspective on the emergence of the Neolithic way of life in southwest Asia. In addition to providing more details on the transition to settled life, food production, and technological innovations, this more recent work has increased our understanding of both the time span and geography of the last hunter-gatherers and the earliest farmers in the wider region. Now the picture of the beginning of the Neolithic is more complex and fragmented. This complexity necessitates a multifaceted approach to the questions of the emergence of the Neolithic. In this regard, the data coming from Pre-Pottery Neolithic A sites in southeastern Anatolia, particularly in the Upper Tigris Basin, is remarkable. In this paper the transitional stage to the Neolithic in the region and new data from Gusir Höyük is discussed according to the architectural data.

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Interpersonal violence or hunting accident among the last hunter-gatherers? A flint projectile embedded in a thoracic vertebra from the Early Neolithic site of Tell Mureybet, Syria

Paléorient ◽

10.3406/paleo.2017.5764 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 25-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Bérénice Chamel ◽

Hélène Coqueugniot ◽

Olivier Dutour ◽

Loic Mindaoui ◽

Françoise Le Mort

Keyword(s):

Interpersonal Violence ◽

Thoracic Vertebra ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Neolithic Site

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Hunter-gatherers transformed: the transition to agriculture in northern and western Euope

Antiquity ◽

10.1017/s0003598x00039363 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 66 (252) ◽

pp. 664-676 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Ian Armit ◽

Bill Finlayson

Keyword(s):

Early Neolithic ◽

Resource Base ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Process Of Change ◽

Northwest Europe ◽

Southern Scandinavia ◽

Transition To Agriculture ◽

Gradual Transformation ◽

Late Mesolithic

The quantity and quality of material from the late Mesolithic/early Neolithic in southern Scandinavia has dominated the study of this important period in northwest Europe. Recent evidence from the west of Scotland suggests that, despite a rich and varied resource base similar in many ways to that in southern Scandinavia, a very different process of change occurs. The evidence suggests a very gradual transformation, with selected parts of the farming socio-economy being being adopted at varying rates. This situation is compared with that in various parts of Europe and is considered to fit in well with a pattern of great regional diversity in the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic.

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The genetics of an early Neolithic pastoralist from the Zagros, Iran

10.1101/059568 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

M. Gallego-Llorente ◽

S. Connell ◽

E. R. Jones ◽

D. C. Merrett ◽

Y. Jeon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Food Production ◽

Large Population ◽

Zagros Mountains ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

The Caucasus ◽

Western Iran ◽

Agricultural Transition ◽

Cultural Diffusion ◽

A Site

AbstractThe agricultural transition profoundly changed human societies. We sequenced and analysed the first genome (1.39×) of an early Neolithic woman from Ganj Dareh, in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, a site with early evidence for an economy based on goat herding,ca. 10,000 BP. We show that Western Iran was inhabited by a population genetically most similar to hunter-gatherers from the Caucasus, but distinct from the Neolithic Anatolian people who later brought food production into Europe. The inhabitants of Ganj Dareh made little direct genetic contribution to modern European populations, suggesting they were somewhat isolated from other populations in the region. Runs of homozygosity are of a similar length to those from Neolithic Anatolians, and shorter than those of Caucasus and Western Hunter-Gatherers, suggesting that the inhabitants of Ganj Dareh did not undergo the large population bottleneck suffered by their northern neighbours. While some degree of cultural diffusion between Anatolia, Western Iran and other neighbouring regions is possible, the genetic dissimilarity of early Anatolian farmers and the inhabitants of Ganj Dareh supports a model in which Neolithic societies in these areas were distinct.

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF EARLY NEOLITHIC RUSSIAN POTTERY TECHNOLOGY

Samara Journal of Science ◽

10.17816/snv20153214 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 142-153

Author(s):

Michela Spataro

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Northern Eurasia ◽

Southern Europe ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

Research Programmes ◽

Agricultural Societies ◽

Southern Russia ◽

Early Farmers ◽

Neolithic Pottery

Ceramics appeared in southern Russia at about the same time as in southern Europe, at ca. 6000 cal BC, but whilst pottery was introduced into southern Europe, together with plant and animal domesticates, from southwest Asia, early Neolithic pottery in eastern Europe was probably developed locally by hunter-gatherers, or derived from other pre-agricultural societies in northern Eurasia. In this paper, four sherds from four different regions of central and southern Russia are analysed using the same methods previously employed in two large-scale research programmes on early Neolithic pottery from the Adriatic and the central Balkans. The four pots were made with different tempering agents and were generally low-fired, but while they may represent different technological traditions to the southern European pottery, the overall technical quality of the hunter-gatherer pottery is no less developed than that of the early farmers.

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Genomic and dietary transitions during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Sicily

10.1101/2020.03.11.986158 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Marieke S. van de Loosdrecht ◽

Marcello A. Mannino ◽

Sahra Talamo ◽

Vanessa Villalba-Mouco ◽

Cosimo Posth ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Material Culture ◽

Eastern Europe ◽

Central Position ◽

Neolithic Period ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Hunter Gatherers ◽

South Eastern ◽

South Eastern Europe ◽

Early Farmers ◽

Late Mesolithic

AbstractSouthern Italy is a key region for understanding the agricultural transition in the Mediterranean due to its central position. We present a genomic transect for 19 prehistoric Sicilians that covers the Early Mesolithic to Early Neolithic period. We find that the Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (HGs) are a highly drifted sister lineage to Early Holocene western European HGs, whereas a quarter of the Late Mesolithic HGs ancestry is related to HGs from eastern Europe and the Near East. This indicates substantial gene flow from (south-)eastern Europe between the Early and Late Mesolithic. The Early Neolithic farmers are genetically most similar to those from the Balkan and Greece, and carry only a maximum of ∼7% ancestry from Sicilian Mesolithic HGs. Ancestry changes match changes in dietary profile and material culture, except for two individuals who may provide tentative initial evidence that HGs adopted elements of farming in Sicily.One-sentence summaryGenome-wide and isotopic data from prehistoric Sicilians reveal a pre-farming connection to (south-) eastern Europe, and tentative initial evidence that hunter-gatherers adopted some Neolithic aspects prior to near-total replacement by early farmers.

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