Framing agricultural intensification in western Iberia during the Late Neolithic: A new insight through the faunal record from Los Barruecos site

Abstract The Pitted Ware culture continues to attract attention from scholars. Being chronologically situated in the Neolithic, the Pitted Ware phenomenon breaks with our traditional view on cultural and social evolution by representing a return to, or continuation of, an otherwise abandoned hunter-gatherer lifestyle. One of the key issues for trying to understand the Pitted Ware Culture is its chronology – when and where did this phenomenon emerge for the first time, how did it spread and when and why did it end? In order to clarify these issues this paper presents the hitherto largest sample of new as well as old recalibrated and error corrected radiocarbon dates from Pitted Ware sites all over Scandinavia. From more than 900 radiocarbon dates, we are able to look through the many obstacles that often hamper the interpretation of the limited numbers of individual dates obtained from single sites. Furthermore, we are able to present a model showing a rapid spread of the “Pitted Ware Culture” or “Pitted Ware phenomenon” from a supposed origin in central eastern Sweden (c. 3400 cal BC) to vast, mostly coastal, areas on the Scandinavian Peninsula and northeastern Denmark. The rapid spread can be explained by Pitted Ware engagement in far-reaching flint exchange networks. The end of the Pitted Ware phenomenon (c. 2200 cal BC) can be seen as a consequence of the agricultural intensification and expansion northwards during the Late Neolithic.

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Water management and agricultural intensification of rice farming at the late-Neolithic site of Maoshan, Lower Yangtze River, China

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683614522310 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 24 (5) ◽

pp. 531-545 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Yijie Zhuang ◽

Pin Ding ◽

Charles French

Keyword(s):

Water Management ◽

Yangtze River ◽

Agricultural Intensification ◽

Rice Farming ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Neolithic Site ◽

Lower Yangtze

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Social organization in the Orcadian Neolithic: identification of elite domestic structures and settlements through analysis of excavation data

Scottish Archaeological Journal ◽

10.3366/saj.2018.0093 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 25-53 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David MacInnes

Keyword(s):

Social Organization ◽

Qualitative Data ◽

Social Hierarchy ◽

Published Data ◽

Early Neolithic ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

New Approach ◽

Qualitative Evidence ◽

Methods Of Analysis ◽

The Subject

The nature of social organization during the Orcadian Neolithic has been the subject of discussion for several decades with much of the debate focused on answering an insightful question posed by Colin Renfrew in 1979. He asked, how was society organised to construct the larger, innovative monuments of the Orcadian Late Neolithic that were centralised in the western Mainland? There are many possible answers to the question but little evidence pointing to a probable solution, so the discussion has continued for many years. This paper takes a new approach by asking a different question: what can be learned about Orcadian Neolithic social organization from the quantitative and qualitative evidence accumulating from excavated domestic structures and settlements?In an attempt to answer this question, quantitative and qualitative data about domestic structures and about settlements was collected from published reports on 15 Orcadian Neolithic excavated sites. The published data is less extensive than hoped but is sufficient to support a provisional answer: a social hierarchy probably did not develop in the Early Neolithic but almost certainly did in the Late Neolithic, for which the data is more comprehensive.While this is only one approach of several possible ways to consider the question, it is by exploring different methods of analysis and comparing them that an understanding of the Orcadian Neolithic can move forward.

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Quixwood Moor near Grantshouse: the recovery of an All-Over Corded Beaker dating to the transition of the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age

Scottish Archaeological Journal ◽

10.3366/saj.2017.0081 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 39 (1) ◽

pp. 108-115

Author(s):

Bob Will ◽

Beverley Ballin Smith ◽

Susan Ramsay

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Early Bronze Age ◽

Late Neolithic

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Technological adaptation in Grooved Ware pottery from the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney, or how to make your cordons stick

Scottish Archaeological Journal ◽

10.3366/saj.2014.0050 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 36-37 (1) ◽

pp. 51-63 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Roy Towers ◽

Nick Card

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Pottery Production ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Exterior Surface ◽

Technological Adaptation ◽

Reflectance Transformation Imaging

This paper describes a hitherto unidentified adaptation in Grooved Ware pottery at the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney ( Fig. 1 ). The technological technique adopted appears designed to cope with a common problem of Grooved Ware potters at the Ness: that of detached cordons, where applied decorative cordons on the exterior surface of the vessels are knocked off or simply fall off. The evidence shows that, in the case of one large pottery deposit from the site, some vessel exteriors were specially prepared in order to ensure cordon adhesion. The Ness of Brodgar site is introduced, issues surrounding pottery production and applied decoration in the Late Neolithic, particularly in Orkney, are noted and the problem-solving sherds are described. The paper is illustrated in part by the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI).

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Cattle, Sheep/Goats and Pigs from Northern and Central Hampshire: Iron Age, Roman and Early Saxon Faunal Remains from Excavation Assemblages

Hampshire Studies ◽

10.24202/hs2020016 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 75 (1) ◽

pp. 255-272

Author(s):

Anthony C. King

Keyword(s):

Iron Age ◽

Agricultural Intensification ◽

Animal Husbandry ◽

Faunal Remains ◽

Wool Production ◽

Animal Economy

This paper is a survey of overall species counts from northern and central Hampshire sites, of Iron Age, Roman and early Saxon date, and their implications for chronological changes in animal husbandry and diet. Three zones, around Basingstoke, Andover, and central Hampshire, are compared with each other, and also with the Roman urban centres of Silchester and Winchester. The Andover region shows the greatest degree of continuity from Iron Age to Roman times and later, while the Basingstoke region has a pattern of change from sheep/goat dominated assemblages to ones with higher cattle numbers. This may be due to agricultural intensification, and an orientation of the animal economy in northern Hampshire more towards the Thames Valley and supply to Silchester, than an earlier 'Wessex pattern' more focussed on sheep and wool production.

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