scholarly journals Isotopic evidence for residential mobility of farming communities during the transition to agriculture in Britain

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 150522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Neil ◽  
Jane Evans ◽  
Janet Montgomery ◽  
Chris Scarre
Keyword(s):  
Residential Mobility ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Transition To Agriculture ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Local Hunter ◽  
Early Farmers

Development of agriculture is often assumed to be accompanied by a decline in residential mobility, and sedentism is frequently proposed to provide the basis for economic intensification, population growth and increasing social complexity. In Britain, however, the nature of the agricultural transition ( ca 4000 BC) and its effect on residence patterns has been intensely debated. Some authors attribute the transition to the arrival of populations who practised a system of sedentary intensive mixed farming similar to that of the very earliest agricultural regimes in central Europe, ca 5500 BC, with cultivation of crops in fixed plots and livestock keeping close to permanently occupied farmsteads. Others argue that local hunter–gatherers within Britain adopted selected elements of a farming economy and retained a mobile way of life. We use strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel from an Early Neolithic burial population in Gloucestershire, England, to evaluate the residence patterns of early farmers. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that early farming communities in Britain were residentially mobile and were not fully sedentary. Results highlight the diverse nature of settlement strategies associated with early farming in Europe and are of wider significance to understanding the effect of the transition to agriculture on residence patterns.

In the light of new data: The population of the first farming communities in the eastern Marmara region

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-77
Author(s):  
M. Songül Alpaslan-Roodenberg ◽  
Jacob Roodenberg
Keyword(s):  
Demographic Data ◽  
Mortuary Practices ◽  
Marmara Region ◽  
Sea Of Marmara ◽  
Degenerative Arthritis ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
High Infant Mortality ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Attitude Toward Death ◽  
Early Farmers

AbstractFollowing on from a few decades of osteological analysis this study presents an assessment of the data retrieved from human population samples provided by four early farming sites, namely Ilıpınar, Menteşe, Barcın and Aktopraklık, located in the lake basins southeast of the Sea of Marmara. It highlights various aspects of that population such as demographic data, health, trauma, and ancient people’s attitude toward death. The research aims to identify and discuss similarities and dissimilarities between the studied Neolithic settlements in this region, especially with regard to paleo-demographic data and the use of violence. With exception of a small group of burials at Aktopraklık that contrasted with regular inhumations, it seems that mortuary practices barely differed from one community to another, and transcended across regional boundaries. The use of wooden planks covering the bottom of grave pits, which were first discovered at Ilıpınar, may serve as an example. Early farmers of the eastern Marmara region suffered mostly from joint diseases and degenerative arthritis. Their life expectancy was similar for adults of both sexes, at between 25–40 years, while two of the four communities showed high infant mortality.

scholarly journals Interactions between earliest Linearbandkeramik farmers and central European hunter gatherers at the dawn of European Neolithization

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey G. Nikitin ◽  
Peter Stadler ◽  
Nadezhda Kotova ◽  
Maria Teschler-Nicola ◽  
T. Douglas Price ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Nitrogen Isotope ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Central European ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Range Of Variation

AbstractArchaeogenetic research over the last decade has demonstrated that European Neolithic farmers (ENFs) were descended primarily from Anatolian Neolithic farmers (ANFs). ENFs, including early Neolithic central European Linearbandkeramik (LBK) farming communities, also harbored ancestry from European Mesolithic hunter gatherers (WHGs) to varying extents, reflecting admixture between ENFs and WHGs. However, the timing and other details of this process are still imperfectly understood. In this report, we provide a bioarchaeological analysis of three individuals interred at the Brunn 2 site of the Brunn am Gebirge-Wolfholz archeological complex, one of the oldest LBK sites in central Europe. Two of the individuals had a mixture of WHG-related and ANF-related ancestry, one of them with approximately 50% of each, while the third individual had approximately all ANF-related ancestry. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios for all three individuals were within the range of variation reflecting diets of other Neolithic agrarian populations. Strontium isotope analysis revealed that the ~50% WHG-ANF individual was non-local to the Brunn 2 area. Overall, our data indicate interbreeding between incoming farmers, whose ancestors ultimately came from western Anatolia, and local HGs, starting within the first few generations of the arrival of the former in central Europe, as well as highlighting the integrative nature and composition of the early LBK communities.

Going Over: The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in North-West Europe

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Data Set ◽  
North West ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
The One ◽  
Early Farmers ◽  
Rich Data

The processes involved in the transformation of society from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers were complex. They involved changes not only in subsistence but also in how people thought about themselves and their worlds, from their pasts to their animals. Two sets of protagonists have often been lined up in the long-running debates about these processes: on the one hand incoming farmers and on the other indigenous hunter-gatherers. Both have found advocates as the dominant force in the transitions to a new way of life. North-west Europe presents a very rich data set for this fundamental change, and research has both extended and deepened our knowledge of regional sequences, from the sixth to the fourth millennia bc. One of the most striking results is the evident diversity from northern Spain to southern Scandinavia. No one region is quite like another; hunter-gatherers and early farmers alike were also varied and the old labels of Mesolithic and Neolithic are increasingly inadequate to capture the diversity of human agency and belief. Surveys of the most recent evidence presented here also strongly suggest a diversity of transformations. Some cases of colonization on the one hand and indigenous adoption on the other can still be argued, but many situations now seem to involve complex fusions and mixtures. This wide-ranging set of papers offers an overview of this fundamental transition.

scholarly journals Interactions between earliest Linearbandkeramik farmers and central European hunter gatherers at the dawn of European Neolithization

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexey G. Nikitin ◽  
Peter Stadler ◽  
Nadezhda Kotova ◽  
Maria Teschler-Nicola ◽  
T. Douglas Price ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Nitrogen Isotope ◽  
Western Anatolia ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Central European ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Range Of Variation

ABSTRACTArchaeogenetic research over the last decade has demonstrated that European Neolithic farmers (ENFs) were descended primarily from Anatolian Neolithic farmers (ANFs). ENFs, including early Neolithic central European Linearbandkeramik (LBK) farming communities, also harbored ancestry from European Mesolithic hunter gatherers (WHGs) to varying extents, reflecting admixture between ENFs and WHGs. However, the timing and other details of this process are still imperfectly understood. In this report, we provide a bioarchaeological analysis of three individuals interred at the Brunn 2 site of the Brunn am Gebirge-Wolfholz archeological complex, one of the oldest LBK sites in central Europe. Two of the individuals had a mixture of WHG-related and ANF-related ancestry, one of them with approximately 50% of each, while the third individual had approximately all ANF-related ancestry. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios for all three individuals were within the range of variation reflecting diets of other Neolithic agrarian populations. Strontium isotope analysis revealed that the ~50% WHG-ANF individual was non-local to the Brunn 2 area. Overall, our data indicate interbreeding between incoming farmers, whose ancestors ultimately came from western Anatolia, and local HGs, starting within the first few generations of the arrival of the former in central Europe, as well as highlighting the integrative nature and composition of the early LBK communities.

scholarly journals Estimating the relative importance of demic and cultural diffusion in the spread of the Neolithic in Scandinavia

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (148) ◽  
pp. 20180597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquim Fort ◽  
Maria Mercè Pareta ◽  
Lasse Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Spread Rate ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Cultural Diffusion ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Wave Of Advance ◽  
Early Farmers ◽  
Parameter Values ◽  
Demic Diffusion

Using a database of early farming sites in Scandinavia, we estimate that the spread rate of the Neolithic was in the range 0.44–0.66 km yr −1 . This is substantially slower (by about 50%) than the rate in continental Europe. We interpret this result in the framework of a new mathematical model that includes horizontal cultural transmission (acculturation), vertical cultural transmission (interbreeding) and demic diffusion (reproduction and dispersal of farmers). To parametrize the model, we estimate reproduction rates of early farmers using archaeological data (sum-calibrated probabilities for the dates of early Neolithic Scandinavian sites) and use them in a wave-of-advance model for the first time. Comparing the model with the archaeological data, we find that the percentage of the spread rate due to cultural diffusion is below 50% (except for very extreme parameter values, and even for them it is below 54%). This strongly suggests that the spread of the Neolithic in Scandinavia was driven mainly by demic diffusion. This conclusion, obtained from archaeological data, agrees qualitatively with the implications of ancient genetic data, but the latter are yet too few in Scandinavia to produce any quantitative percentage for the spread rate due to cultural diffusion. We also find that, on average, fewer than eight hunter–gatherers were incorporated in the Neolithic communities by each group of 10 pioneering farmers, via horizontal and/or vertical cultural transmission.

Late Mesolithic Armature Variability in the Southern North Sea Basin: Implications for Forager-LinearbandkeramikContact Models of the Transition to Agriculture in Belgium and the Southern Netherlands

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick Robinson ◽  
Joris Sergant ◽  
Philippe Crombé
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Regional Variability ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Southern North Sea ◽  
Southern Netherlands ◽  
Contact Models ◽  
Transition To Agriculture ◽  
Early Farmers

Lithic armatures have been widely noted as key evidence for interpreting the role of indigenous Mesolithic traditions in the spread of the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture, and therefore early agriculture, across temperate Europe. Their role as evidence for the continuity of Mesolithic ‘identities’ has been emphasized without the use of a unified, systematic recording methodology of armatures from both Late–Final Mesolithic (LM–FM) and LBK sites that places armatures in their broader context as part of projectile technologies of late hunter-gatherers and early farmers. In this paper, we present the results of recent research in the southern North Sea basin that utilized a systematic and unified recording methodology to analyse armature assemblages from LM–FM and LBK sites on an inter-regional scale. We report that there is much more inter-regional variability in armature assemblages during the LM than traditionally considered in efforts to interpret similarities and possible cultural transmission processes between Mesolithic and LBK populations. This paper calls for a reassessment of inter-regional LM variability in the construction of Mesolithic-LBK contact models and a focus that places armatures in their broader social and technological contexts.

Use of Stable Isotope Analysis to Reveal Relationships between Diet and Tooth Ablation Types in Jomon Period Japan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soichiro Kusaka
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Stable Isotope Analysis ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Stable Isotope Ratios ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Important Evidence ◽  
Lower Incisors

This chapter discusses the practice of ritual tooth ablation in Japan in relation to diet and migration. Ablation was practiced extensively among hunter-gatherers, and the tradition typically followed one of two patterns, type 4I and type 2C, depending on whether the lower incisors or canines were extracted, respectively. To test the hypothesis that a dependence on marine resources for food differed depending on ablation type during childhood and adulthood, stable isotope ratios of bone collagen and tooth enamel were measured. It was discovered that diets did vary among individuals with different ablation types in the Inariyama population. The findings provide important evidence that biocultural dietary differences were related to ablation type in the Jomon period.

scholarly journals Seasonal calving in European Prehistoric cattle and its impacts on milk availability and cheese-making

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Balasse ◽  
Rosalind Gillis ◽  
Ivana Živaljević ◽  
Rémi Berthon ◽  
Lenka Kovačiková ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Cheese Making ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Oxygen Isotope Ratios ◽  
Economic Practices ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Stable Oxygen ◽  
Neolithic Europe

AbstractPresent-day domestic cattle are reproductively active throughout the year, which is a major asset for dairy production. Large wild ungulates, in contrast, are seasonal breeders, as were the last historic representatives of the aurochs, the wild ancestors of cattle. Aseasonal reproduction in cattle is a consequence of domestication and herding, but exactly when this capacity developed in domestic cattle is still unknown and the extent to which early farming communities controlled the seasonality of reproduction is debated. Seasonal or aseasonal calving would have shaped the socio-economic practices of ancient farming societies differently, structuring the agropastoral calendar and determining milk availability where dairying is attested. In this study, we reconstruct the calving pattern through the analysis of stable oxygen isotope ratios of cattle tooth enamel from 18 sites across Europe, dating from the 6th mill. cal BC (Early Neolithic) in the Balkans to the 4th mill. cal BC (Middle Neolithic) in Western Europe. Seasonal calving prevailed in Europe between the 6th and 4th millennia cal BC. These results suggest that cattle agropastoral systems in Neolithic Europe were strongly constrained by environmental factors, in particular forage resources. The ensuing fluctuations in milk availability would account for cheese-making, transforming a seasonal milk supply into a storable product.

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