scholarly journals The spatiotemporal spread of human migrations during the European Holocene

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (16) ◽  
pp. 8989-9000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Racimo ◽  
Jessie Woodbridge ◽  
Ralph M. Fyfe ◽  
Martin Sikora ◽  
Karl-Göran Sjögren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
European Continent ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Natural Grasslands ◽  
Broad Leaf ◽  
Westward Movement

The European continent was subject to two major migrations of peoples during the Holocene: the northwestward movement of Anatolian farmer populations during the Neolithic and the westward movement of Yamnaya steppe peoples during the Bronze Age. These movements changed the genetic composition of the continent’s inhabitants. The Holocene was also characterized by major changes in vegetation composition, which altered the environment occupied by the original hunter-gatherer populations. We aim to test to what extent vegetation change through time is associated with changes in population composition as a consequence of these migrations, or with changes in climate. Using ancient DNA in combination with geostatistical techniques, we produce detailed maps of ancient population movements, which allow us to visualize how these migrations unfolded through time and space. We find that the spread of Neolithic farmer ancestry had a two-pronged wavefront, in agreement with similar findings on the cultural spread of farming from radiocarbon-dated archaeological sites. This movement, however, did not have a strong association with changes in the vegetational landscape. In contrast, the Yamnaya migration speed was at least twice as fast and coincided with a reduction in the amount of broad-leaf forest and an increase in the amount of pasture and natural grasslands in the continent. We demonstrate the utility of integrating ancient genomes with archaeometric datasets in a spatiotemporal statistical framework, which we foresee will enable future studies of ancient populations’ movements, and their putative effects on local fauna and flora.

scholarly journals A geostatistical approach to modelling human Holocene migrations in Europe using ancient DNA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Racimo ◽  
Jessie Woodbridge ◽  
Ralph M. Fyfe ◽  
Martin Sikora ◽  
Karl-Göran Sjögren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Local Fauna ◽  
Population Replacement ◽  
European Continent ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Geostatistical Approach ◽  
Broad Leaf ◽  
Westward Movement

AbstractThe European continent was subject to two major migrations of peoples during the Holocene: the northwestward movement of Anatolian farmer populations during the Neolithic and the westward movement of Yamnaya steppe peoples during the Bronze Age. These movements changed the genetic composition of the continent’s inhabitants, via admixture and population replacement processes. The Holocene was also characterized by major changes in vegetation composition, which altered the environment occupied by the original hunter-gatherer populations. Here, we use a combination of paleogenomics and geostatistical modelling to produce detailed maps of the movement of these populations over time and space, and to understand how these movements impacted the European vegetation landscape. We find that the dilution of hunter-gatherer ancestries and the Yamnaya steppe migration coincided with a reduction in the amount of broad-leaf forest and an increase in the amount of pasture lands in the continent. We also show that climate played a role in these vegetational changes. Additionally, we find that the spread of Neolithic farmer ancestry had a two-pronged wavefront, in agreement with similar findings based on patterns of the cultural spread of farming from radiocarbon-dated archaeological sites. With thousands of ancient genomes publicly available and in production, we foresee that the integration of ancient DNA with geostatistical techniques and large-scale archaeological datasets will revolutionize the study of ancient populations movements, and their effects on local fauna and flora.

Radiocarbon Dating of Aghios Antonios, Potos, and Intersite Chronological Variability in South Thasos, Greece

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 807-823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yannis Maniatis ◽  
Nerantzis Nerantzis ◽  
Stratis Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Northern Greece ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The North ◽  
Chronological Sequence ◽  
Hilltop Settlement ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Early Late ◽  
Of Greece

Radiocarbon dates obtained for the coastal hilltop settlement of Aghios Antonios Potos in south Thasos are statistically treated to define the absolute chronology for the start and the end of the various habitation and cultural phases at the site. The location was first occupied during the Final Neolithic (FN) between 3800 and 3600 BC, extending this much contested phase to the lowest up to now record for Thasos and the northern Greece. The site is continuously inhabited from Early Bronze Age I until the early Late Bronze Age (LBA; 1363 BC) when it was abandoned. Comparison with other sites in Thasos and particularly with the inland site of Kastri Theologos showed that the first occupation at Aghios Antonios came soon after the abandonment of Kastri in the beginning of the 4th millennium. In fact, after the decline and abandonment of Aghios Antonios in the LBA, the site of Kastri was reinhabited, leading to the hypothesis that part of the coastal population moved inland. The presumed chronological sequence of alternate habitation between the two settlements may evoke explanations for sociocultural and/or environmental dynamics behind population movements in prehistoric Thasos. A major conclusion of the project is that the 4th millennium occupation gap attested in many sites of Greece, especially in the north, is probably bridged in south Thasos, when the data from all sites are taken together. The mobility of people in Final Neolithic south Thasos may explain the general phenomenon of limited occupational sequences in the FN of north Greece.

A quantitative synthesis of Holocene vegetation change in Nigeria (Western Africa)

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110331
Author(s):  
Matthew Adesanya Adeleye ◽  
Simon Edward Connor ◽  
Simon Graeme Haberle
Keyword(s):  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
Chord Distance ◽  
Quantitative Synthesis ◽  
Climatic Regime ◽  
Pollen Records

Understanding long-term (centennial–millennial scale) ecosystem stability and dynamics are key to sustainable management and conservation of ecosystem processes under the currently changing climate. Fossil pollen records offer the possibility to investigate long-term changes in vegetation composition and diversity on regional and continental scales. Such studies have been conducted in temperate systems, but are underrepresented in the tropics, especially in Africa. This study attempts to synthesize pollen records from Nigeria (tropical western Africa) and nearby regions to quantitatively assess Holocene regional vegetation changes (turnover) and stability under different climatic regimes for the first time. We use the squared chord distance metric (SCD) to assess centennial-scale vegetation turnover in pollen records. Results suggest vegetation in most parts of Nigeria experienced low turnover under a wetter climatic regime (African Humid Period), especially between ~8000 and 5000 cal year BP. In contrast, vegetation turnover increased significantly under the drier climatic regime of the late-Holocene (between ~5000 cal year BP and present), reflecting the imp role of moisture changes in tropical west African vegetation dynamics during the Holocene. Our results are consistent with records of vegetation and climatic changes in other parts of Africa, suggesting the Holocene pattern of vegetation change in Nigeria is a reflection of continental-scale climatic changes.

scholarly journals Grassland fire ecology has roots in the late Miocene

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (48) ◽  
pp. 12130-12135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison T. Karp ◽  
Anna K. Behrensmeyer ◽  
Katherine H. Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Fire Ecology ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Feedback System ◽  
Terrestrial Vegetation ◽  
Precipitation Seasonality ◽  
Seasonal Extremes

That fire facilitated the late Miocene C4grassland expansion is widely suspected but poorly documented. Fire potentially tied global climate to this profound biosphere transition by serving as a regional-to-local driver of vegetation change. In modern environments, seasonal extremes in moisture amplify the occurrence of fire, disturbing forest ecosystems to create niche space for flammable grasses, which in turn provide fuel for frequent fires. On the Indian subcontinent, C4expansion was accompanied by increased seasonal extremes in rainfall (evidenced by δ18Ocarbonate), which set the stage for fuel accumulation and fire-linked clearance during wet-to-dry seasonal transitions. Here, we test the role of fire directly by examining the abundance and distribution patterns of fire-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and terrestrial vegetation signatures inn-alkane carbon isotopes from paleosol samples of the Siwalik Group (Pakistan). Two million years before the C4grassland transition, fire-derived PAH concentrations increased as conifer vegetation declined, as indicated by a decrease in retene. This early increase in molecular fire signatures suggests a transition to more fire-prone vegetation such as a C3grassland and/or dry deciduous woodland. Between 8.0 and 6.0 million years ago, fire, precipitation seasonality, and C4-grass dominance increased simultaneously (within resolution) as marked by sharp increases in fire-derived PAHs, δ18Ocarbonate, and13C enrichment inn-alkanes diagnostic of C4grasses. The strong association of evidence for fire occurrence, vegetation change, and landscape opening indicates that a dynamic fire–grassland feedback system was both a necessary precondition and a driver for grassland ecology during the first emergence of C4grasslands.

Language dispersals and the “Secondary Peoples’ Revolution”

2020 ◽  
pp. 806-814
Author(s):  
Mark James Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Ryukyu Islands ◽  
State Control ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
The Ryukyu Islands ◽  
Northeast Asian ◽  
Cattle Husbandry ◽  
The Bronze Age

Population growth and demic diffusion help explain the early Neolithic expansions of agriculture and Transeurasian languages in Northeast Asia. By the Bronze Age, alluvial agrarian states had come to possess considerable political and economic dominance over their subjects in the civilizational centers of Eurasia. At the same time, however, Bronze Age economies offered new opportunities for trade and secondary expansion into areas outside state control. This chapter argues that the resulting population movements—here termed the “secondary peoples’ revolution”—were of great significance in the post-Neolithic dispersals of Transeurasian languages. Four examples are briefly discussed: steppe nomadic pastoralism, Sakha horse and cattle husbandry, northeast Asian hunter-gatherers, and agriculture associated with trade/piracy networks in the Ryukyu Islands.

Mesolithic to Bronze Age Vegetation Change and Human Activity in the Exe Valley, Devon, UK

2003 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 161-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.M. Fyfe ◽  
A.G. Brown ◽  
B.J. Coles
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Valley Floor ◽  
Domestic Activity ◽  
Vegetation Disturbance ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Slope Vegetation ◽  
The Bronze Age

This paper presents the results of the first investigation of vegetation change and human activity from a river valley west of the Somerset Levels. The record is contrasted with the pollen and archaeological record from south-west uplands (Dartmoor and Exmoor) and the Somerset Levels. Vegetation change and archaeological evidence are shown to be generally consistent, with evidence from the middle valley of Mesolithic vegetation disturbance (with nearby lithics), Neolithic clearance of terraces and slopes in the lower valley and Neolithic–Bronze Age ceremonial and domestic activity, but in the upper reach the maintenance of wooded valley floor conditions probably with management until historic times. The valley floor and surrounding slope vegetation history is found to be significantly different to that of the uplands with lime and elm being significant components of the prehistoric woodland record. The data suggest that lime is restricted to terraces and lowlands below 200 m OD throughout the prehistoric period. The pollen data from the valley suggest the lowlands had a rich and mixed ecology providing a wide range of resources and that, despite less visible archaeological remains, human activity is manifest through palynological evidence from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. The largest expanse of valley-floor terrace, the Nether Exe Basin, which was at least partially deforested in the early Neolithic contains a rich assemblage of Neolithic–Bronze Age ceremonial, funerary and domestic archaeology associated with an early and clear palynological record of woodland clearance, arable and pastoral activity.

Two Tephra Layers Bracketing Late Holocene Paleoecological Changes in Northern Germany

2002 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christel van den Bogaard ◽  
Walter Dörfler ◽  
Rainer Glos ◽  
Marie-Josée Nadeau ◽  
Pieter M. Grootes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Volcanic Ash ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Explosive Volcanism ◽  
Peat Bogs ◽  
Northern Germany ◽  
Tephra Layers ◽  
Petrology And Geochemistry

AbstractPaleoecological records from two Holocene peat bogs in northern Germany are linked by two microscopic volcanic ash layers, correlated by petrology and geochemistry to explosive volcanism on Iceland. The younger “Microlite tephra” cannot be correlated to any known eruption, while the older tephra layer is identified as a deposit of the Hekla 3 eruption. The tephra layers are dated by an age–depth regression of accelerator mass spectrometry 14C ages that have been calibrated and combined in probability distributions. This procedure gives an age of 730–664 cal yr B.C. for the “Microlite tephra” event and 1087–1006 cal yr B.C. for the Hekla 3 event. Accordingly, the tephra layers were deposited during the late Bronze Age. At this time, human settlement slowly increased pressure on the environment, as indicated by changes in woodland pollen composition at the two bogs. The tephra-marker horizons further show that the palynologically defined transition from the Subboreal to the Subatlantic Period is synchronous in the investigated area. However, the macroscopic visible marker in peat, the change from fibrous to sapric peat, the “Schwarztorf-Weißtorf-Kontakt,” is asynchronous. Bog vegetation did not immediately react in unison to a climatic change at this pollen zone boundary; instead, the timing of vegetation change depended on the location within the bog.

Charophyte Population Dynamics during the Late Quaternary at Lake Bibersee, Switzerland

1999 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Nicolas Haas
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Lake Level ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Prehistoric Agriculture ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
Ph Values ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
The Town ◽  
Boreal Period

Oospores of 11 charophyte species were found in the Late Quaternary gyttja deposits of Lake Bibersee near the town of Zug. Except for the Boreal period rarely more than three different species were growing simultaneously during the Holocene. This compares well to typical Characeae lakes of the same size today, and shows that considerable changes in the hydrophyte diversity have taken place through time. During the first part of the Holocene the lake was oligotrophic and the species composition was mainly regulated by lake-level fluctuations due to climatic factors. During the younger periods of the Holocene the lake became mesotrophic, and pH values were for a longer period slightly alkaline. During the Early to Middle Bronze Age (1900–1400 BC) the considerable alterations in the hydrophyte composition and the simultaneous extensive prehistoric agriculture on the fertile shores of the lake point to human impact as the primary cause for changes in charophyte diversity.

Long-term deforestation in NW Spain: linking the Holocene fire history to vegetation change and human activities

2011 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 161-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joeri Kaal ◽  
Yolanda Carrión Marco ◽  
Eleni Asouti ◽  
Maria Martín Seijo ◽  
Antonio Martínez Cortizas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Activities ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Nw Spain ◽  
The Holocene

scholarly journals Sedimentation and vegetation history of a buried Meuse terrace during the Holocene in relation to the human occupation history (Limburg, the Netherlands)

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frieda S. Zuidhoff ◽  
Johanna A.A. Bos
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Early Holocene ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
River Terraces ◽  
Main River Channel

AbstractDuring several archaeological excavations on a river terrace of the river Meuse near the village of Lomm (southeast Netherlands) information was gathered for a reconstruction of the sedimentation and vegetation history during the Holocene. Various geoarchaeological methods – geomorphological, micromorphological and botanical analyses – were applied, while accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating provided an accurate chronology for the sediments.During the Early Holocene, many former braided river channels were deepened due to climate amelioration. Later, river flow concentrated in one main river channel to the west, at the location of the modern Meuse. The other channels were only active during floods, and infilling continued until the Bronze Age. Because of the higher setting of the Lomm terrace, it was only occasionally flooded and therefore formed an excellent location for habitation. Humans adapted to the changing landscape, as most remains were found on the higher river terraces or their slopes, a short distance from the Maas river. The Lomm terrace was more or less continuously inhabited from the Mesolithic onwards.During the Early Holocene, river terraces were initially densely forested with birch and pine. From the Boreal (Mesolithic) onwards, dense mixed forests with deciduous shrubs and trees such as hazel, oak, elm and lime developed. During the Atlantic (Meso/Neolithic), the deciduous forests became dominated by oak. Due to human activities from the Late Subboreal (Late Bronze Age) onwards, forests slowly became more open, yet remained relatively dense in comparison to other Dutch areas. The botanical data, however, show that within the Lomm study area there was a large difference in the composition, distribution and openness of the vegetation. The spatial variation in openness came into existence during the Late Bronze Age, as soon as the higher areas started to be used for human activities (i.e. habitation, agriculture and livestock herding). Due to human activities, the northern part of the study area became very open during the Early Roman period. In the lower-situated areas of the southern part, however, forests remained present much longer, until the Early Middle Ages. Due to large-scale deforestation in the Lomm area and hinterland during the Roman period and Middle Ages, the sediment load of the river increased, large floods occurred and overbank sediments were deposited, burying the archaeological remains. The largest increase in sedimentation occurred after the Middle Ages.

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