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

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-476 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals The Beginning of the Neolithic in Southeast Anatolia

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.

scholarly journals Demic and cultural diffusion propagated the Neolithic transition across different regions of Europe

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (106) ◽  
pp. 20150166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquim Fort
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Models ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
Cultural Diffusion ◽  
Demic Diffusion

The Neolithic transition is the shift from hunting–gathering into farming. About 9000 years ago, the Neolithic transition began to spread from the Near East into Europe, until it reached Northern Europe about 5500 years ago. There are two main models of this spread. The demic model assumes that it was mainly due to the reproduction and dispersal of farmers. The cultural model assumes that European hunter–gatherers become farmers by acquiring domestic plants and animals, as well as knowledge, from neighbouring farmers. Here we use the dates of about 900 archaeological sites to compute a speed map of the spread of the Neolithic transition in Europe. We compare the speed map to the speed ranges predicted by purely demic, demic–cultural and purely cultural models. The comparison indicates that the transition was cultural in Northern Europe, the Alpine region and west of the Black Sea. But demic diffusion was at work in other regions such as the Balkans and Central Europe. Our models can be applied to many other cultural traits. We also propose that genetic data could be gathered and used to measure the demic kernels of Early Neolithic populations. This would lead to an enormous advance in Neolithic spread modelling.

Roots of diversity in aLinearbandkeramikcommunity: isotope evidence at Aiterhofen (Bavaria, Germany)

Antiquity ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (330) ◽  
pp. 1243-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny Bickle ◽  
Daniela Hofmann ◽  
R. Alexander Bentley ◽  
Robert Hedges ◽  
Julie Hamilton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Mobility Strategies ◽  
Isotope Evidence ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
Local Hunter

The early Neolithic in northern Central Europe ought to be the theatre in which incoming farmers meet local hunter-gatherers, with greater or lesser impact. By way of contrast, the authors use isotope analysis in a cemetery beside the Danube to describe a peaceful, well-integrated community with a common diet and largely indigenous inhabitants. Men and women may have had different mobility strategies, but the isotopes did not signal special origins or diverse food-producing roles. Other explanations attend the variations in the burial rites of individuals and their distribution into cemetery plots.

scholarly journals Population Replacement in Early Neolithic Britain

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selina Brace ◽  
Yoan Diekmann ◽  
Thomas J. Booth ◽  
Zuzana Faltyskova ◽  
Nadin Rohland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Genomic Data ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Genetic Affinity ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Population Replacement ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
Neolithic Cultures

The roles of migration, admixture and acculturation in the European transition to farming have been debated for over 100 years. Genome-wide ancient DNA studies indicate predominantly Anatolian ancestry for continental Neolithic farmers, but also variable admixture with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers1–9. Neolithic cultures first appear in Britain c. 6000 years ago (kBP), a millennium after they appear in adjacent areas of northwestern continental Europe. However, the pattern and process of the British Neolithic transition remains unclear10–15. We assembled genome-wide data from six Mesolithic and 67 Neolithic individuals found in Britain, dating from 10.5-4.5 kBP, a dataset that includes 22 newly reported individuals and the first genomic data from British Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Our analyses reveals persistent genetic affinities between Mesolithic British and Western European hunter-gatherers over a period spanning Britain’s separation from continental Europe. We find overwhelming support for agriculture being introduced by incoming continental farmers, with small and geographically structured levels of additional hunter-gatherer introgression. We find genetic affinity between British and Iberian Neolithic populations indicating that British Neolithic people derived much of their ancestry from Anatolian farmers who originally followed the Mediterranean route of dispersal and likely entered Britain from northwestern mainland Europe.

A New Narrative?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Nowakowska
Keyword(s):  
Master Narratives ◽  
European Context ◽  
Early Signs ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Different Sources

Our three existing master narratives of the early Reformation in Poland are all over a century old and mutually contradictory, drawing on different sources to serve differing confessional and national/ist agendas. This chapter offers a fresh narrative of the impact of Lutheranism on the Polish composite monarchy to c.1540, synthesizing these older accounts and updating them with new research findings. This is a narrative in three parts: early signs (1517–24), the great Reformation year (1525), and aftershocks (1526–40). The chapter discusses the challenges of measuring ‘Lutheran’ sentiment, sets these Polish-Prussian events clearly in their comparative European context, and considers what implications they might have for that bigger, familiar tale. It stresses the precocity of Sigismund I’s monarchy, which saw the most far-reaching urban and violent Reformation in 1520s Europe (Danzig), a peasant Reformation rising, and Christendom’s first territorial-princely Reformation, in Ducal Prussia.

scholarly journals Environmental Changes and Cultural Transitions in SW Iberia during the Early-Mid Holocene

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3580
Author(s):  
Cristina Val-Peón ◽  
Juan I. Santisteban ◽  
José A. López-Sáez ◽  
Gerd-Christian Weniger ◽  
Klaus Reicherter
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Local Resources ◽  
Climate Events ◽  
The Impact

The SW coast of the Iberian Peninsula experiences a lack of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological data. With the aim to fill this gap, we contribute with a new palynological and geochemical dataset obtained from a sediment core drilled in the continental shelf of the Algarve coast. Archaeological data have been correlated with our multi-proxy dataset to understand how human groups adapted to environmental changes during the Early-Mid Holocene, with special focus on the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition. Vegetation trends indicate warm conditions at the onset of the Holocene followed by increased moisture and forest development ca. 10–7 ka BP, after which woodlands are progressively replaced by heaths. Peaks of aridity were identified at 8.2 and 7. 5 ka BP. Compositional, textural, redox state, and weathering of source area geochemical proxies indicates abrupt palaeoceanographic modifications and gradual terrestrial changes at 8.2 ka BP, while the 7.5 ka BP event mirrors a decrease in land moisture availability. Mesolithic sites are mainly composed of seasonal camps with direct access to the coast for the exploitation of local resources. This pattern extends into the Early Neolithic, when these sites coexist with seasonal and permanent occupations located in inland areas near rivers. Changes in settlement patterns and dietary habits may be influenced by changes in coastal environments caused by the sea-level rise and the impact of the 8.2 and 7.5 ka BP climate events.

scholarly journals Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer: A Perspective from Central Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-165
Author(s):  
Ilaria Pergolini ◽  
I. Ekin Demir ◽  
Christian Stöss ◽  
Klaus Emmanuel ◽  
Robert Rosenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pancreatic Cancer ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Pancreatic Surgery ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Tumor Board ◽  
Standards Of Care ◽  
The Impact

Background: This survey aimed to register changes determined by the COVID-19 pandemic on pancreatic surgery in a specific geographic area (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) to evaluate the impact of the pandemic and obtain interesting cues for the future. Methods: An online survey was designed using Google Forms focusing on the local impact of the pandemic on pancreatic surgery. The survey was conducted at 2 different time points, during and after the lockdown. Results: Twenty-five respondents (25/56) completed the survey. Many aspects of oncological care have been affected with restrictions and delays: staging, tumor board, treatment selection, postoperative course, adjuvant treatments, outpatient care, and follow-up. Overall, 60% of respondents have prioritized pancreatic cancer patients according to stage, age, and comorbidities, and 40% opted not to operate high-risk patients. However, for 96% of participants, the standards of care were guaranteed. Discussion/Conclusions: The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had an important impact on pancreatic cancer surgery in central Europe. Guidelines for prompt interventions and prevention of the spread of viral infections in the surgical environment are needed to avoid a deterioration of care in cancer patients in the event of a second wave or a new pandemic. High-volume centers for pancreatic surgery should be preferred and their activity maintained. Virtual conferences have proven to be efficient during this pandemic and should be implemented in the near future.

Confirmation of the first Neolithic rondel-type enclosure in Poland

Antiquity ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 86 (334) ◽  
pp. 1084-1096 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Kobyliński ◽  
Otto Braasch ◽  
Tomasz Herbich ◽  
Krzysztof Misiewicz ◽  
Louis Daniel Nebelsick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Aerial Photography ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Danube Region

The early Neolithic rondel is a large curvilinear ditched and palisaded enclosure found in increasing numbers in Central Europe. It has close links with the tells of the Danube region, themselves highly suggestive instruments of the earliest Neolithic. Here the authors extend the distribution of rondels further to the north-east, with the discovery and verification of the first example in Poland. As they point out, it is aerial photography that made this advance possible and we can expect many more discoveries, given appropriate investment in the art.

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