The Early Neolithic in Greece: The First Farming Communities in Europe. By Catherine Perlès.

2003 ◽  
Vol 107 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-502
Author(s):  
Marianna Nikolaidou
Keyword(s):  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Farming Communities

scholarly journals The First Neolithic Occupation of La Cova del Randero (Pedreguer, Alicante, Spain)

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1492-1505
Author(s):  
Consuelo Roca de Togores Muñoz ◽  
Laura M. Sirvent Cañada ◽  
Silvia Martínez Amorós ◽  
Olga Gómez Pérez ◽  
Virginia Barciela González ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Ovis Aries ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Environmental Characteristics ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Multidisciplinary Study ◽  
Pastoral Communities ◽  
Mountain Environment

Abstract The excavations at “Cova del Randero” (Pedreguer, Alicante, Spain) began in 2007 within the programme of archaeological interventions of the Archaeological Museum of Alicante. The cavity, located in one of the valleys that connect the coast with the inland mountains, presents a wide sequence of occupations that begins in the Upper Palaeolithic and continues throughout the different phases of the Neolithic. The results of a multidisciplinary study, carried out in an archaeological context associated with the first Neolithic presence of the cavity, are presented here. This occupation is defined by a unique combustion structure to which a set of artefacts and biofacts are linked. This archaeological context, probably of a specific nature, is related to the first agro-pastoral communities settled in the area. The fireplace is well defined stratigraphically and sedimentologically because of its reddish soil, which corresponds to hunter-gatherer occupation levels of the cavity, and under the greyish sediments that characterise the use of the cave as a fold during the Middle Neolithic. This occupation event was dated both by the associated materials, among which a fragment of cardial ceramic was found, and by radiocarbon dating of a metacarpus of Ovis aries around 5075–4910 cal BC (epicardial Early Neolithic). This data allows us to link the occupation of the cavity at this time with pastoral activity in a medium mountain environment. However, it also allows us to infer the environmental characteristics in which the first farming communities of the mountains of Alicante were developed.

scholarly journals Territoriality and Settlement in Southern France in the Early Neolithic: Diversity as a Strategy?

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 923-938
Author(s):  
Claire Manen ◽  
Thomas Perrin ◽  
Laurent Bouby ◽  
Stéphanie Bréhard ◽  
Elsa Defranould ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Southern France ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Site Type ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract In the western Mediterranean, the question of the settlement patterns of the first farming communities remains a much debated issue. Frequently compared with the LBK model, based on hundreds of well-documented villages, the settlement organization of the Impressed Ware complex is still poorly characterized and highly diversified. New data obtained in Southern France (Languedoc) may shed light on this matter, based on new excavations, revised data, and a multi-proxy perspective (site type, domestic area, food supply strategies, activities, spheres of acquisition of raw material, and so forth). Rather than reproducing a pattern of site locations and settlement structuring, it seems that these Early Neolithic groups sought to optimize the location and structuring of their settlements in relation to the specific characteristics of the surrounding environment and available resources. We therefore propose that the diversity observed in the settlement organization of these first farming communities is a reflection of a social organization well-adapted to the diversity of the ecosystem.

scholarly journals Dental calculus reveals Mesolithic foragers in the Balkans consumed domesticated plant foods

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (37) ◽  
pp. 10298-10303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuela Cristiani ◽  
Anita Radini ◽  
Marija Edinborough ◽  
Dušan Borić
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Dental Calculus ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Human Teeth ◽  
Plant Foods ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Late Mesolithic

Researchers agree that domesticated plants were introduced into southeast Europe from southwest Asia as a part of a Neolithic “package,” which included domesticated animals and artifacts typical of farming communities. It is commonly believed that this package reached inland areas of the Balkans by ∼6200 calibrated (cal.) BC or later. Our analysis of the starch record entrapped in dental calculus of Mesolithic human teeth at the site of Vlasac in the Danube Gorges of the central Balkans provides direct evidence that already by ∼6600 cal. BC, if not earlier, Late Mesolithic foragers of this region consumed domestic cereals, such as Triticum monococcum, Triticum dicoccum, and Hordeum distichon, which were also the main crops found among Early Neolithic communities of southeast Europe. We infer that “exotic” Neolithic domesticated plants were introduced to southern Europe independently almost half a millennium earlier than previously thought, through networks that enabled exchanges between inland Mesolithic foragers and early farming groups found along the Aegean coast of Turkey.

scholarly journals Similarities and Differences Between Italian Early Neolithic Groups: The Role of Personal Ornaments

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1274-1294
Author(s):  
Roberto Micheli
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Group Affiliation ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Italian Peninsula ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Materials Used

Abstract The Early Neolithic is an interesting period for observing the changes that took place in material culture and also in the ideology that influenced the production of personal ornaments. Objects of adornment are useful for understanding how past peoples differentiated themselves on the basis of gender, age, or group affiliation. The Early Neolithic in Italy developed throughout the entire sixth millennium cal. BC, during which the first farming communities settled in the Italian peninsula and islands, with diverse Neolithic groups related to wider-ranging cultural spheres. Early Neolithic ornaments were mainly ring bracelets, manufactured beads and perforated shells or teeth. Through their choice and the raw materials used for their production, individuals and groups emphasized their diverse identities based on shared traditions. Focusing on some of the more significant sites, this article considers similarities and differences in forms and raw materials employed for ornaments by different Early Neolithic groups and how these could have been useful attributes to emphasise identities and in particular the membership of particular social or cultural groups.

scholarly journals Temporal dynamics of Linearbandkeramik houses and settlements, and their implications for detecting the environmental impact of early farming

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 1653-1670 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Meadows ◽  
Nils Müller-Scheeßel ◽  
Ivan Cheben ◽  
Helene Agerskov Rose ◽  
Martin Furholt
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Temporal Relationships ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Geophysical Prospection

Long-held ideas concerning early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) settlements in central Europe have been thoroughly challenged in recent years, for example, regarding their internal organisation or the use-life of individual houses. These topics have now also been addressed with the help of large radiocarbon (14C) datasets. In the light of this discussion, we present findings of our ongoing research at Vráble in south-western Slovakia. Intensive prospection by fieldwalking, geophysics and sedimentology, complemented by targeted excavations and archaeobotanical investigations, aims to unravel social and temporal relationships between three adjacent LBK settlements. A total of 23 of the c.300 houses revealed by geophysical prospection have been dated. Bayesian chronological modelling of this dataset, comprising 109 14C ages from 104 samples, indicates that the three LBK settlements at Vráble coexisted, and that overall the LBK settlement lasted for c. 200–300 years. Our results imply a ‘short’ use-life for individual houses (median c.20–30 y), suggesting that relatively few houses were inhabited simultaneously. Our data suggest that the overall LBK population at Vráble might have increased over the course of occupation, but probably never exceeded 200–300 individuals, based on the number of houses that could have been occupied contemporaneously. We compare the Vráble evidence with Bayesian chronologies for other LBK sites, and discuss the implications of these findings for models of population agglomeration and recognising the environmental impact of early farming communities.

scholarly journals Ancient European dog genomes reveal continuity since the Early Neolithic

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura R. Botigué ◽  
Shiya Song ◽  
Amelie Scheu ◽  
Shyamalika Gopalan ◽  
Amanda L. Pendleton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mutation Rate ◽  
Copy Number ◽  
Genetic Evidence ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Population Replacement ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Whole Genomes ◽  
Dog Breed ◽  
Dog Domestication

AbstractEurope has played a major role in dog evolution, harbouring the oldest uncontested Paleolithic remains and having been the centre of modern dog breed creation. We sequenced the whole genomes of an Early and End Neolithic dog from Germany, including a sample associated with one of Europe’s earliest farming communities. Both dogs demonstrate continuity with each other and predominantly share ancestry with modern European dogs, contradicting a previously suggested Late Neolithic population replacement. Furthermore, we find no genetic evidence to support the recent hypothesis proposing dual origins of dog domestication. By calibrating the mutation rate using our oldest dog, we narrow the timing of dog domestication to 20,000-40,000 years ago. Interestingly, we do not observe the extreme copy number expansion of the AMY2B gene that is characteristic of modern dogs and has previously been proposed as an adaptation to a starch-rich diet driven by the widespread adoption of agriculture in the Neolithic.

scholarly journals The Freston Causewayed Enclosure

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 2-25
Author(s):  
Tristan Carter ◽  
Nathaniel Jackson ◽  
Rose Moir ◽  
Dana Challinor ◽  
Charlotte Diffey
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea

Current models view southeast England as where Neolithic lifeways were first introduced to Britain from continental Europe c. 4000 cal BC, however, there has been little work detailing this process in coastal East Anglia. In 2019, work at the Freston causewayed enclosure provided the first view of a major gathering space associated with semi-mobile farming communities of the Early Neolithic in the county of Suffolk and located on a major estuary close to the North Sea. Excavation produced a rich assemblage of worked flint and Mildenhall Ware pottery (potentially for feasting), plus evidence for the consumption of cereals and hazelnuts.

scholarly journals Lost for words: an extraordinary structure at the early Neolithic settlement of WF16

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Mithen
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Southern Levant ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Hunting And Gathering ◽  
History Of ◽  
Do So

Abstract Extraordinariness is a useful concept for everyday life and for academic research, frequently invoked within archaeology. In this contribution I explore how this term might be defined and whether it is appropriate for a large early Neolithic structure excavated at the site of WF16 in the southern Levant, dating to c. 11,200 BP. I draw on research regarding categorisation, concepts and their relationships to words, to suggest that Structure O75 can usefully be considered as ‘extraordinary’ because it does not comfortably fit into a category of finds currently used by Neolithic archaeologists. To do so, a brief review of the history of Neolithic research is required because that has shaped the categories that archaeologists bring to the archaeological record and hence what might be viewed as either ordinary or extraordinary discoveries. I conclude that extraordinary objects such as Structure O75 are likely to have played an active role in the conceptual and linguistic developments that was associated with the transition from mobile hunting and gathering to sedentary farming communities.

scholarly journals Tell communities and wetlands in Neolithic Pelagonia, Republic of Macedonia

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 327-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goce Naumov
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Republic Of Macedonia ◽  
Agricultural Societies ◽  
Southwestern Area ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Painted Pottery

Pelagonia is the biggest valley in the Republic of Macedonia, positioned in its mountainous southwestern area. It was first inhabited around 6000 BC by agricultural societies, which established the tell settlements in the region. Their villages were densely concentrated in several regional centres located near wetlands and rivers. These farming communities produced a variety of ceramic household items with pronounced features of a distinct identity, such as white painted pottery, anthropomorphic house models, figurines, tablets and stamps. The particular landscape and isolated network of Early Neolithic tell societies in Pelagonia remained unaffected until the Late Neolithic, which was an outcome of the idiosyncratic and strong relationship between the environment, dwellings and human body. Therefore, the paper discusses the first farming communities in Pelagonia, as well as the process of how identity was manifested in regard to the wetland environment and networks.

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