scholarly journals Crops, Cattle and Human DNA – The Motala Site and the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in Östergötland, Southern Sweden

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-106
Author(s):  
Göran Gruber ◽  
Tom Carlsson ◽  
Alexander Gill
Keyword(s):  
New Economy ◽  
Southern Sweden ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
Human Dna ◽  
Transition To Agriculture ◽  
Source Materials

Palaeogenetic research has recently questioned the notion that the transition to agriculture in south- ern Scandinavia was initiated by local groups of hunter-gatherers who adopted the new economy at the onset of the Neolithic. Instead, the transition is claimed to have been brought about by farmers who migrated to the region from the continent. In this paper we examine whether the idea of a migra- tion can be upheld when set against archaeologi- cal source materials from Östergötland in southern Sweden. Our findings indicate that the notion of a local adoption is supported by the archaeological sources from the area. We also claim that available palaeogenetic sources do not contradict the inter- pretation that local groups of hunter-gatherers ini- tiated the transition to agriculture.

scholarly journals Skull and limb morphology differentially track population history and environmental factors in the transition to agriculture in Europe

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1767) ◽  
pp. 20131337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel ◽  
Jay T. Stock ◽  
Ron Pinhasi
Keyword(s):  
Population History ◽  
Shape Variation ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
Demographic Processes ◽  
Transition To Agriculture ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Behavioural Factors ◽  
Cranial Shape ◽  
Limb Morphology

The Neolithic transition in Europe was a complex mosaic spatio-temporal process, involving both demic diffusion from the Near East and the cultural adoption of farming practices by indigenous hunter–gatherers. Previous analyses of Mesolithic hunter–gatherers and Early Neolithic farmers suggest that cranial shape variation preserves the population history signature of the Neolithic transition. However, the extent to which these same demographic processes are discernible in the postcranium is poorly understood. Here, for the first time, crania and postcranial elements from the same 11 prehistoric populations are analysed together in an internally consistent theoretical and methodological framework. Results show that while cranial shape reflects the population history differences between Mesolithic and Neolithic lineages, relative limb dimensions exhibit significant congruence with environmental variables such as latitude and temperature, even after controlling for geography and time. Also, overall limb size is found to be consistently larger in hunter–gatherers than farmers, suggesting a reduction in size related to factors other than thermoregulatory adaptation. Therefore, our results suggest that relative limb dimensions are not tracking the same demographic population history as the cranium, and point to the strong influence of climatic, dietary and behavioural factors in determining limb morphology, irrespective of underlying neutral demographic processes.

The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in western Scotland: a review and new evidence from Tiree

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Mithen ◽  
Anne Pirie ◽  
Sam Smith ◽  
Karen Wicks
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Population Replacement ◽  
Dietary Analysis ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
Contradictory Evidence ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Existing Data

Although both the Mesolithic and Neolithic of western Scotland have been studied since the early 20th century, our knowledge of both periods remains limited, as does our understanding of the transition between them – whether this is entirely cultural in nature or involves the arrival of new Neolithic populations and the demise of the indigenous Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. The existing data provide seemingly contradictory evidence, with that from dietary analysis of skeletal remains suggesting population replacement and that from settlement and technology indicating continuity. After reviewing this evidence, this chapter briefly describes ongoing fieldwork in the Inner Hebrides that aims to gain a more complete understanding of Mesolithic settlement patterns, without which there can only be limited progress on understanding the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition.

The invention of hunter-gatherers in seventeenth-century Europe

2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Pluciennik
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Green Movement ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
University Courses ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Development Agencies ◽  
Academic Conferences

AbstractWhy do we still speak of foragers and farmers? The division of societies into categories including ‘savage’ hunter-gatherers and ‘civilised’ farmers has its roots in seventeenth-century northwestern Europe, but has implications for archaeologists and anthropologists today. Such concepts still provide the frameworks for much intellectual labour including university courses, academic conferences and publications, as well as providing the basis for moral and political evaluations of contemporary societies and practices for a wide range of people, from governments to development agencies, ‘alternative’ archaeologies and parts of the Green movement. This paper examines some of the currents which contributed towards their establishment, and argues that writing ‘across’ such deep-seated categories may be the only way to challenge their hegemony and develop new questions. As an example recent trends in data and interpretation of the ‘mesolithic-neolithic transition’ in western Europe are discussed.

Hunter-Gatherers: Seventeenth or Eighteenth-Century Invention?

2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Barnard
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Archaeological Theory ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
Broad Agreement

Mark Pluciennik's paper offers an insightful review of those seventeenth-century philosophical issues that influence archaeological theory, even today. I am in broad agreement on the significance of the seventeenth century, though I prefer to see that century as a prelude to the eighteenth. To my mind, it is only in the eighteenth century that hunter-gatherers become ‘invented’ in a form that is fully recognisable in modern archaeological terms (Barnard 2002a). In this commentary I shall concentrate on that issue with reference to Pluciennik's ‘six inter-related factors’, commenting but briefly where appropriate on his attempt to ‘write across’ boundaries through his example of the interpretation of the mesolithic-neolithic transition.

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.

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