Dr. Maja Andric, Transition to farming and human impact on the Slovenian landscape
The Holocene landscape development in Slovenia was very dynamic, with two major changes of the vegetation composition. Firstly, palynological record indicates that the composition of rather uniform early Holocene woodland of hazel (Corylus), oak (Quercus), elm (Ulmus) and lime (Tilia) changed at ca. 6800 cal. BC, when shade-tolerant tree taxa such as beech (Fagus) and fir (Abies) became widespread and distinctive phytogeographic regions appeared.
No major forest clearance occurred at the Neolithic transition to farming. However, small-scale forest clearance, burning and coppicing during the Neolithic period can be detected and these presumably led to the formation of mosaic environment and increased biodiversity. Second major change of vegetation intensive forest clearance resulting in formation of the present-day Slovenian landscape occurred much later (ca. 1000 cal. BC 1400 AD).
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Dr. Guido Barbujani, Current genetic diversity and the demographic impact of the Neolithic transition in Europe
Genetic data contain information on past demographic processes, and
can be used to reconstruct otherwise elusive aspects of human
prehistory. A controversial question is whether or not the Neolithic
transition entailed a substantial population replacement in
Europe. After reviewing some assumptions and limitations of current
methods for genetic inference, I shall describe an analysis in which
each European population is regarded as a hybrid between admixing
Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers. The results of
that and other population-genetic analyses suggest that a large share
of the ancestors of current Europeans lived in the Levant before the
Neolithic period.
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Dr. Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel, Expected paleoanthropological and archaeological signal from a Neolithic demographic transition on a worldwide scale
A signal of major demographic change was detected from a paleoanthropological database of 68 Meso-Neolithic cemeteries in Europe (reduced to 36 due to a sampling bias). The signal is characterized by a relatively abrupt change in the proportion of immature skeletons (aged 5- 19 years), relatively to all buried skeletons (5 years +). From the Meso to the Neolithic, the proportion rose from approximately 20% to 30%. This change reflects a noticeable increase in the birth rate over duration of approximately 500-700 years, and is referred to as the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). Another category of independent archaeological data, enclosures (N_700), which are interpreted as a response to population growth within the social area, reveals similar signal to the paleoanthropological data, at the same tempo. If this is a true signal, we should expect it to be detected also in all independent centres of agricultural invention worldwide, from China to Mesoamerica and S-E America, during the chronological window from 10,000 to 4000 years BP. The likely pattern of the NDT (the birth-rate rises, then the death rate before returning to homeostatic equilibrium) is the mirror image of the last natural demographic transition from the Western countries (decrease in the death rate, then in the birth-rate). In the independent agro-pastoral centres, the return to equilibrium was probably caused by the local emergence of new pathogens, mainly related to the coexistence of humans and animals. The NDT is at the historical root of the preindustrial populations that would gradually spread across the Earth and which are now rapidly disappearing.
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Dr. Amy Bogaard, The role of intensive crop cultivation in the spread of farming
Ecological analysis of crop and weed assemblages from early neolithic
sites in central Europe points to intensive cultivation involving
manuring, careful tillage and weeding. This paper considers the
possibility that intensive cultivation constituted the general form
of early crop husbandry from at least the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B
period in the Near East, when communities practised animal husbandry
alongside crop cultivation. The argument is made that a focus on the
model of cultivation in "naturally fertile" floodplain habitats
in discussions of the spread of farming to Europe has obscured the
importance of the plant and animal "package". The notion that
the use of manure formed part of the secondary products revolution is
also discussed.
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Dr. María Dolores Cámalich Massieu,
The Neolithic of Southeast of Spain and its problems.
The region of Vera Basin and the valley of the river Almanzora
(Almería) shows an intense dynamics of occupation during different
historical periods of Recent Prehistory, particularly between the
Early Neolithic and the final Late Bronze Age. Several factors, such
as the recurrent associations between diverse productions - including
the presence of cardial-impressed pots in Cabecicos Negros (Vera) -
and the distinctive characteristics of the type of occupation,
indicate that the oldest phase of occupation took place during the
Andalusian Early Neolithic. The socio-economic pattern is defined
both by the exploitation of numerous resources in an area of variable
size, and by the temporary occupation of settlements, with seasonal or
periodical variations. This constant mobility was aimed at obtaining
different subsistence goods, as well as obtaining and/or transforming
primary resources for manufacturing crafts and exchanging the excess
production with communities in the same area or from other regions.
Gradually, it is seen that the communities began a process of
aggregation and concentration, thereby leading to the appearance of
the first stable settlements. By the end of this period, the
settlements show a clearly defined spatial organisation and the first
standard burial structures. Consequently, it seems that the
communities had grown in size and the process of consolidation of
social inequalities had developed. At the same time, a system of
interactions between different social groups, based on mutual dependence, had been established. This system became the distinctive
feature of the political links between social groups during the third
millennium BP.
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Dr. W. G. Cavanagh,
Walking Backwards to Christmas: Looking Back at the Early Neolithic of S. Greece from a Later Perspective
In her recent review of the Early Neolithic period in Greece
Catherine Perlés has emphasised that "the density in the distribution
of sites shows important regional variations. The highest density and
number are found in Thessaly,
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Prof. Chen Quanjia,
The Mode of Production and Habitation: New Study on Neolithic Site of Zuojiashan in Jilin, Northeast China
By research work of excavated implement of manufacture and living,
all sorts of remains aground and animal bones Neolithic people's mode
for manufacture and habitation could be defined as follow at
Zuojiashan site: seasonal half-residential life, fishing,hunting and
gathering; a small quantity of domestic animals; without agriculture;
advanced bone tool manufacturing.
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Dr. Marius Mihai Ciuta,
The Neolithisation of The Carpatho-Danubian Region Between Two Paradigmatic Models: Vladimir Milojcic And Milutin Garasanin
This paper deals with the problems regarding the present stage of
the research concerning the understanding and reconstruction of the
neolithisation process in the Carpatho-Danubian area (the territories
between the lower course of the Danube river and the Romanian
Carpathians, including the depressions). However, the current
perception of this process, as well as of the development of Early
Neolithic in this area, is dependent on the way in which the main
theories (cultural-chronological systems) about the neolithisation of
the entire Balkan Peninsula appeared and developed during the second
half of the 20th century. Mainly, we are discussing two fundamental
theories: The first one considers the development of the Danubian (and
even Balkanic!) Early Neolithic from a global perspective (an
uniformitarian one), as corresponding to only one unitary culture that
has a vast area of development and multiple phases and stages
(Starcevo-Cris-Körös - I-IV). The second one tries to "divide" this
phenomenon (seen as a Cultural Complex) into two distinct phases or
stages ("The Anatolian-Balkan Complex of the Old Neolithic" and the
"Balkan-Danubian Complex") having enough specific characteristics to
be accepted as two different cultural phenomena, both in time and
concerning their cultural evolution. The paper starts from the
presentation of the recent discoveries from Romania, belonging to the
cultural horizon of the "White-on-Red Painted Pottery" Assemblage
(Pavuk 1993, together with the discoveries belonging to the similar
horizon from Hungary, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria:
Protosesklo-Protostarcevo-KaranovoI-Donja Branjevina I-II (?)-Gura
Baciului I-Ocna Sibiului I-Cârcea I-Precric etc. and aims to bring an
easily "changed" perspective concerning the way to perceive the
process of genesis and development of the first Neolithic life forms
in the Balkan-Danubian area.
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Dr. P. Dolukhanov,Dr. A. Shukurov & Dr. V. Timofeev
Modelling the Neolithic dispersal in northern Eurasia.
Since Childe (1925), the spread of early agricultural sites of
Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) in Central Europe was viewed as a
classical example of prehistoric migration. Recent studies (Whittle,
1996; Price, 2001) attach much greater significance to indigenous
adoption and contacts between invading farmers and local foragers
(Gronenborn, 1999). These views were strengthened by the discovery of
a distinct cultural tradition in the north-western part of the LBK
area, La Hoguette, viewed as belonging to local Mesolithic groups that
started practicing horticulture and herding before the arrival of the
LBK (Lünnig et al. 1989); Price et al., 2001).
Recently performed analysis based on the statistical processing of
a large database of radiocarbon dates shows that early agricultural
sites in Central Europe were spread within a limited-time span of
5600-4800 BC, with the coeval age of 5154+/-62 BC and the standard
deviation 183 years With the largest dimension of the LBK region of
about 1500 km (from Transdanubia to Franconia) and the time taken to
spread over that area of about 360 years (twice the standard deviation
of the LBK's coeval age), the propagation rate of the LBK is assessed
as about 4 km/yr. This value is consistent with the earlier estimates
of about 6 km/yr obtained by Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza (1973) and
Gikasta et al. (2003). The same writers assess the average rate of the
Neolithic dispersal in Europe as a whole as 1 km/s.
New evidence shows that pottery-making appeared at a very early age
in Eurasia. Until recently, the 'incipient' stages of Jomon Culture in
Japan with the age of c. 11000 BC were considered as the oldest. A
new centre of pottery making of a comparable age has been identified
in the Russian Far East, on the lower stretches of the Amur River,
with the similar age of c. 11,000 BC (Derevyanko & Medvedev 1997;
Kuzmin & Orlova 2000).
An important concentration of Neolithic sites, both settlements and
burials, has become known in the Baikal area of southern Siberia
(Khlobystin 1996). The radiocarbon dates for Kitoi Culture, lie in the
time-span of 6000-5300 BC. A still earlier age has been obtained for
the Neolithic burial of Lower Djilinda on the Vitim River: 7000-6000
BC.
Large series of radiocarbon dated became available for early
pottery cultures on East European Plain. The sites of the Yelshanian
Culture (Mamonov 2000) in a steppe area between the Lower Volga and
the Ural Rivers show the radiocarbon age of 8025- 7000 BC. Early
pottery layers of the Rakushechnyi Yar site on a small island in the
lower stretches of the River Don (Belanovskaya 1995) yield the age of
6500-5800 BC. The dates for the Sura Culture in the basin of the Lower
Dniepr (Telegin 1996; Kotova 2000) suggest the age of 6200-6000 BC.
The sites of Bug-Dniestrian Culture (Danilenko 1969; Markevich
1974; Kotova 2000) show a coeval age of 6121+/-143 BC (sigma = 101
years).The dates for the early pottery-bearing cultures in the boreal
European Russia (Upper Volga, Sperring and other) show a coeval age of
5417+/-30 BC (sigma = 160) years. The remaining dates include those which
are older (5800-6200 BC) and younger (4200-5200 BC) than the coeval
sample.
The rate of spread of the pottery-bearing cultures in East European
Plain, estimated from the extent of the region involved (ca 2500 km
for the distance from Yelshanian via Bug-Dniestrian to Upper Volga)
and the time of spread (ca 1600 years), is about 1.6 km/yr. This is
significantly smaller than the rate of spread of the LBK and yet
comparable to the rate of the Neolithisation of Europe. Hence, the
available evidence confirms the view that the Neolithisation in the
entire northern Eurasia had the character of a diffusion which
concrete character depended on local environments. The spread of
agricultural sites of the LBK in Central Europe may be viewed as a
rapid expansion of a cultural package; in its course the migratory
groups of south-east European origin apparently contacted and absorbed
local communities. This model may be viewed as corresponding to the
expansion of Indo-European languages in Central Europe and their
interaction with the proto-Uralic substratum.
The spread of pottery-making in the forest-steppe area of Eurasia
started in the Far Eastern at 11000-10000 BC and by 8000-7000 BC
reached the south-eastern confines of East European
Plain. Tentatively, this process may be approximated with the
proliferation of proto-Altaic languages, stemming from the east and
directed towards the west, and eventually encompassing the entire
forest-steppe. Significantly, the density of pottery-bearing sites
on East European Plain reaches its maximum at 5300-4900 BC, and thus
overlapping with the spread of the LBK in Central Europe. This
time-span corresponded to the Holocene climatic optimum with the
maximum rise of temperature and biological productivity. One may
suggest that at that time there occurred an infiltration of
Indo-European speaking groups into boreal Eastern Europe.
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Dr. Ivan Gatsov,
Neolithic chipped stone technology in South Bulgaria and NW Turkey
The paper presents the stage of research of prehistoric chipped
stone assemblages in Bulgarian and Turkish Thrace as well as from the
South Marmara area. It is was made an attempt to release the link
between settlement types, chipped stone assemblages, environmental
information and cultural identity in the region between Southern
Marmara and Stara planina mountain. It was made an attempt too to
detect the main features of stone technology during the transition
Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic/ Neolithic periods in the area considered.
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Dr. Claudio Giardino,
Obsidian Trades in Southern Thyrrhenian Sea: New Archaeological and Archaeometric Evidences from the Island of Capri
Obsidian was extensively traded during the Neolithic for the realization of tools and instruments. The first obsidian artefacts were found in Southern Italy in Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites.
There are rich and important obsidian sources in Thyrrhenian area, like Palmarola, Lipari and Sardinia.
The determination of trace-elements in obsidian artefacts in order to establish their place of origin gave in the past important results. Methods like optical spectroscopy and neutron activation analyses were largely applied.
To-day the development of non-destructive techniques, like X-ray fluorescence allowed to obtain significant results without damaging archaeological materials on the obsidians from Capri.
The island of Capri, in the Gulf of Naples, represented a focal point for the maritime routes in the trades of obsidian accross the Thyrrhenian sea. Numerous evidences of obsidian were spread in the island, where it was found in the past the largest number obsidian artifacts in Southern Italy and one of the few obsidian working places in the central Mediterranean.
New researches were now carried out at Capri, with a systematic project of field survey and with the re-examination of the prehistoric finds preserved in the museums of Naples and Capri. A large number of Neolithic sites were identified and they allowed a better understanding of the settlement strategy in the island.
The new archaeometric, non destructive analyses on the obsidian artefacts from Capri contributed to improve our knowledge of the prehistoric trades in southern Thyrrhenian sea.
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Dr. Paul Halstead,
Farming and feasting in the Neolithic of Greece: the ecological context of
fighting with food
Recent interdisciplinary research at LN Makriyalos, provides strong
evidence for collective food consumption on a massive scale. Less
fine-grained faunal data from other Neolithic sites in Greece suggests
that this is just an extreme example of widespread consumption at a
supra-household level. Studies of recent (trans)egalitarian
agricultural societies suggest that, in the Neolithic of Greece,
feasting may have played an important role in mobilising labour,
promoting social cohesion and forging alliances, but also in social
competition - fighting with food. It has also been noted by Hayden and
others that feasting is predicated on the existence of surplus, and
thus on the practice of storage and recognition of private property.
This paper seeks to develop this theme in two ways: (1) by exploring
ways in which feasting is not only enabled, but also strongly
promoted, by storage, delayed-return food production and sedentism;
and (2) by examining the particular significance of domestic animals
and meat consumption in surplus accumulation and feasting
respectively.
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Dr. Mary Jackes,
Is there evidence in Portugal of a Mesolithic/Neolithic demographic transition?
Newly re-discovered dental material from the mid-twentieth century
excavations by Roche and Veiga-Ferreira at Cabeço do Arruda, Muge,
Portugal was recorded photographically in 2001 by D. Lubell and has
been examined in the context of the detailed analyses and photographic
records previously undertaken on Arruda material by M. Jackes and
C. Meiklejohn. Muge sites are now being re-investigated by J. Rol?o
(Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa). The newly re-discovered material
(which had been placed in storage 40 years ago and forgotten) allows
us to re-examine the demography of late Mesolithic/early Neolithic
Iberia based on the primary burials in Mesolithic middens and the
disarticulated skeletons in the early Neolithic ossuary cave of Casa
da Moura. The need for a very specific approach to demography based
on calculation of the minimum number of individuals from dentitions is
outlined. Results are interpreted within the context of a large and
diverse comparative data base, and recent work by Bocquet-Appel on the
Neolithic demographic transition in Europe.
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Dr. Kjel Knutsson,
Stone Age Transitions. The Neolithization in Central Scandinavia
The paper is a summary of the Uppsala part of a series of individual research projects in connection with a joint research program, "Coast to Coast - Stone Age Societies in change", carried out as collaboration between the Departments of archaeology in Uppsala, Goeteborg, Lund and Stockholm. It covers the cultural development in Central Scandinavia in the early part of the Holocene, from the deglaciation (8000 cal BC) to the Late Neolithic (1800 cal BC). The historical substrate, the socio/spatial structures of hunter gatherer groups in the area, decisive for the character of the neolithization is discussed in terms of marriage networks between different exogamous bands and the development of a lineage-based society. Other themes taken up in the project is changes in relation to hunter gatherer social ideologies, the importance of history in cultural reproduction and change, the reuse of the past, social tensions and gender structures as expressed in the built environment, material culture as vehicles for power struggles and craft specialization in stratified societies. The paper ends with a critical evaluation of archaeology. The search for origins lures us to see what needs to be seen in prehistory. It is stated that the past has always been returned to and made active in socio-political processes; the modern world we live in is no exception.
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Dr. Eva Lenneis,
First indications for regional differences within the earliest LPC and long distance contacts - a possible key to the neolithization process in East Central - Europe
The consequence of more field work upon the earliest LPC in
Central Europe within the last two decades was also a dramatically
increasing knowledge of the ceramics. As there are only few main forms
and a small variability of the motives one got the impression of a
uniform ceramic over very big areas. This partly was due to the small
inventories known. Big new inventories from large-scale excavations
show a lot of differences as in the variations of some motives as in
the decoration technique. The distribution pattern of this attributes
is very interesting and may give first indications of regional groups,
their roots might be in the Mesolithic basis. New investigations on
flint raw materials show a rather complex communication network in
East Central Europe from Mesolithic on. In many cases it is not clear
what kind of goods were the equivalents of the high quality
flints. These equivalents could have been some perishable materials,
we never will know, but also non-flint stone artefacts, graphite, salt
or other. I will present the idea of an intended investigation project
on that subject. The paths of the exchange of all these goods might
give us an idea about the communication of farmers and hunter /
gatherers in the early 6 th millennium BC. I suppose that this
exchange network was the principal way Mesolithic people in East
Central Europe got the knowledge of farming and developed with it a
new lifestyle, known to us as LBK - culture.
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Dr. David Lubell,
Are land snails a signature for the transition to the Neolithic in the circum-Mediterranean?
Edible land snails are often abundant in late Pleistocene and
early Holocene archaeological deposits in the circum-Mediterranean.
While the most spectacular examples are the Capsian escargoti?res of
the Maghreb, pene-contemporaneous sites with abundant land snail
shells are known from Cantabria, the Pyrenees, southern France, Italy,
the Balkans, the Aegean, Cyprus, the Levant, the Zagros, the Caspian
and Cyrenaica. Is this pattern a signature of the "broad spectrum
revolution"? Fernández-Armesto in Near a Thousand Tables: a History
of Food (2002: 56-7) says that land snails "represent the key and
perhaps the solution to one of the greatest mysteries?why and how did
the human animal begin to herd and breed other animals for food?" He
goes on to argue that "snails are relatively easy to cultivate [and]
readily managed?can be raised in abundance and herded without the use
of fire, without any special equipment, without personal danger and
without the need to select and train lead animals or dogs to help?[and
that] they are close to being a complete food." This paper will
briefly review the occurrence of land snails in late Pleistocene and
early Holocene sites in the circum-Mediterranean, provide data on the
nutritional value, biology and ecology of the land snail species
found, and attempt to decide whether or not Fernández-Armesto's
hypothesis should be accepted or rejected.
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Dimitrij Mlekuz,
The lesson of the sheep: From hunting to herding on the east Adriatic coast
Herding was traditional subsistence practice on the east Adriatic coast
which took form in variety of transhumant practices. Its ubiquity lured
many researches to postulate existence of similar practices even in the
early Neolithic. Historic and ethnographic data was often used as
direct analogy or illustration of Neolithic subsistence strategies.
In this presentation I tackle the problem of early herding practices by
taking opposite route and different perspective. I am going to discuss
some theoretical implications of introduction of sheep and goats in the
hunter-fisher-gatherers communities on east Adriatic coast and
confront them with evidence. Questions I am particularly interested in
are: When were sheep and goats introduced? Where they came from? How
were they integrated into hunter-fisher-gatherer communities? How did
the 'agency' of sheep transform those communities? What were ecological
consequences of adoption of sheep and goats?
And finally, by taking perspective of sheep and goats, alternative
story of 'the process of neolithisation' of east Adriatic can be
written.
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Dr. Luiz Oosterbeek,
Archaeographic and Conceptual advances in interpreting Iberian Neolithization
Prehistoric research has evolved, in the last decade, from a mere
collaboration of disciplines into a new, trans-disciplinary, approach
to Prehistoric contexts. New stable research teams, involving
researchers with various scientific backgrounds (geology, botanic,
anthropology, history, mathematics, geography, etc.) working together,
have learned their diversified "vocabularies" and methodologies. As a
main result, a more holistic approach to Prehistory is to be
considered. Previous models on the Neolithic of the Atlantic side of
Iberia were focused on material culture and strict economics (this
being an important improvement concerning previous typological
series). Current research became open to discuss the meaning of
concepts like "food production", "chiefdom" or "territory". It also
dropped the "Portuguese/Spanish" frontier, that pervaded previous
models (to the limited exception of some interpretations for
megaliths. Finally, new and important data is now confirming that the
"Cardial Neolithic" coastal spread was only one, and a minor, element
in the Neolithization of the western seaboard.
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Dr. Onur Ozbek,
Recent results on the polished stone tools from the Neolithic site hf Hocaçesme (eastern Thrace)
The prehistoric ground stone implements (ground-edge axes, adzes,
chisels) found in Hocaçesme Neolithic site (N 40°42' E 026°07-08')
provide us information about their typology, technology and provenance
for the raw material. The paper concentrates mainly on the recent
assessment of these tools, which were important in daily life of the
prehistoric Hocacesme habitants between 6700-4000 BC. The raw material
sources for different types of rocks used in Hocaçesme, the relation
between the other sites in Eastern Thrace and Marmara region and some
models for the paleo- environment are discussed briefly.
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Dr. Slavisa Peric & Dr. Dubravka Nikolic, The question of stratigraphical position and
cultural characteristics of Lepenski Vir pottery
In several different attempts to explain the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition in the Danube Gorge, the sequence of the Lepenski Vir site has a significant role. Remarkable architectural achievements and expressive monumental sculpture confirm a long period of cultural stability, complex social organization and developed religious beliefs. Nevertheless, a great number of pottery sherds excavated at the site remained unpublished. Since the unexplored field documentation is sufficiently detailed to facilitate improved understanding of stratigraphy and relative position of the pottery in relation to architectural remains, the aim of this paper is to present the first results obtained from the analyses of the pottery assemblage at the site.
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Dr. Martin Richards,
Pioneers or steamrollers: Interpreting the genetic evidence for the spread of the Neolithic
Holocene expansions have been successfully demonstrated using
both mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome variation in the Pacific and
Africa. However, for Europe the genetic evidence has been more
difficult to interpret. This has led to continuing controversy between
geneticists who argue for a pioneer model of Near Eastern immigration
and others who argue for large-scale demic diffusion. The debate over
the interpretation of genetic evidence from living individuals has
become rather technical, but results to a large extent on
philosophical differences of approach to the analysis of modern
genetic data. This paper will attempt to guide the uninitiated through
this controversy, and also to assess the prospects for resolving the
difficulties by making use of ancient DNA.
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Dr. Lars Sundström, A Collective in Peril. The Process of Neolitisation from an Eastern
Central Swedish Perspective
A necessary point of departure for understanding the implications and
incorporation of domesticates in prehistoric society, i.e. emergence of
Funnel Beaker Culture in Sweden, is a general discussion of social
mechanisms in hunter-gatherer societies on one hand and peoples
reactions to changes threatening the social ideology, on the other. The
social ideology of hunting and gathering societies can be understood as
uphold by different social institutions that are all dependent on
geographical and social mobility. The discussion on social reactions to
change is based on four case studies. By combining these perspectives it
is possible to discuss the materiality of the early Neolithic as an
externalised and idealised social ideology with historical roots.
The case studies clearly indicate that the reaction involved the lifting
up of blurred and semiconscious structures to a conscious, ideological
level. Inherent in this awareness process has been an active use of
material culture, both in the production of symbols and in
communication. The most important argument for stating that the
Neolithisation must have meant a clear break with the earlier existence
is the observation of abandonment of mobile way of life, both
geographically and socially. This abandonment resulted in reactionary
processes, which involved material culture. Thus the material culture of
the Funnel-Beaker period can be perceived as instruments of reproduction
of a historically well-anchored egalitarian ideology. In the dispersed
settlement system of autonomous individual farmsteads the collective
aggregation sites are given a focal role of the discussion of social
reproduction.
The social mechanisms of the Early Neolithic society of Eastern Central
Sweden are investigated on local settlement level by an analysis of the
use and production of axes in locally available raw material. This study
involves a petrological investigation showing a system of local
management in relation to raw material extraction, production and
consumption. This system is considered as one way of upholding the
social ideology historically situated in the life style of hunters and
gatherers.
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Dr. Michel Louis Séfériadés,
An aspect of the Neolithization in Mongolia : the Mesolithic / Neolithic site of Tamsagbulag (Dornod district)
The French Archaeological Expedition for the Neolithic in Mongolia
(FAENM) conducted by the author was created in 1997 with the
intention, as its first project, of undertaking remote sensing
investigations and fieldwork at Tamsagbulag (Dornod District). Despite
only brief and superficial publications relating to former soviet
excavations directed by A. P. Okladnikov, it appeared that the site
was a key Mesolithic/Neolithic site in Central Asia, taking in account
the early results of excavations as well as two relatively recent
short synthesis by A. P. Derevyanko and D. Dorj (1992) and
A. P. Derevyanko (1994). Tamsagbulag lies in the desert steppe region
not far from Chinese border. It forms part of a lake which today is
almost completely dry, 1-2 km wide between the high south terraces
(Tamsagbulag 1) and lower north terraces (Tamsagbulag 2). It is the
type site for the Tamsagbulag culture (5th millennium BC). The
occupants were both sedentary hunter fisher-gatherers and
farmers. Semi-subterranean quadrangular houses without side doors have
been found. Individual burials (seated flexed and with the head facing
east or west) occur under the floor. Grave goods include necklaces
(red deer), mother of pearl and lapis-lazuli jewellery, bone points,
sickles, etc... Stone tool assemblages (microlithic and polished) are
rich. They consist of flint, jasper, tufa, chalcedony, quartz and
obsidian, and are specific to the area and site, with Tamsagbulag
nuclei reused as tools, tamsagbulag scarpers and bifacially retouched
arrowheads. Among the polished stone are hammers, adzes, querns and
pestles, etc? Pottery is attested. Paleobotanical and faunal samples
(millet, cattle, horse, etc.) are preserved, as is the bone
industry. The first project of the French expedition proposed to (1)
establish the importance of the site, its preservation and extent of
as yet unexcavated areas, (2) place the site within its modern and
early Holocene geomorphological and environmental contexts, and (3)
garner information on the process of neolithisation of eastern
Mongolia, the subsistence and social system of the hunter-gatherers
and farmers of the Dornod region which are not unlike those from the
opposite end of continent (Starcevo-Körös-Cris)
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Dr. Dimas Martín Socas,
La Cueva de el toro (Antequera, Málaga). A Neolithic stockbreeding community in the Andalusian region.
The occupation evidence shown by the cave El Toro, is that of a
unique stockbreeding community in the Andalusian region. The
calibrated dates for this occupation period go from the second quarter
of the sixth millennium up to the second millennium. BP. There is also
evidence of occasional occupation throughout later millennia up to the
Hispano-Muslim period. The nature of this occupation is determined by
the close link between the cave and the community which occupied it,
both continuously and periodically. Throughout the occupation levels,
the community's skillful control of technical processes and its
remarkable knowledge on how to transform local primary resources, have
shown that this community reached a high level of technological
development. However, its main economic activity was related to
agricultural and farming exploitation, particularly to stockbreeding.
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Dr. Peter Stadler,
Settlement from the Early Linear Ceramics Culture at Brunn am Gebirge, site Wolfholz.Transition from Late Starcevo Culture to Early Linear Ceramics or local development?
Between 1989 and 1999 at Brunn am Gebirge, Lower Austria, at the
southern border of Vienna, parts of a big early Neolithic settlement
could be prospected and excavated. The terrain is flat and has a
slight rise in the direction to the Northeast. The remains of
longhouses found belong to different separated groups, which were
called site I-V. 64 longhouses are known by now, most of them by
excavation, some of them only after their destruction by trenches and
a big part by magnetic prospection. But as not the whole area has been
prospected a total number of 100 houses can be expected. The excavated
area is about 100.000 m2. The houses are usually oriented South-North
with deviations to the West and also to the East at different
sites. Their dimensions are 20m length and 7-8m broadth. There are
different constructions visible, mainly in the better preserved part
of site III. If these differences are functional or chronological is
still under investigation. Currently we see the absolute time frame
between 5550-5200 BC for the whole settlement. The oldest part of the
settlement may be localized in site IIa, then followed by IIb, III, V,
IV and I. In the oldest parts Linear Ceramics is missing, the rough
ceramics is burnt at lower temperatures and has no or at least only
plastical ornaments. This kind of ceramics is very similar to that
from excavations in southern Hungary, attributed to the Late Star?evo
Culture. From sites III going the rise upwards to the younger parts of
the settlement Linear Ceramics is increasing. Parallel runs the
increasing use of fine ceramics besides the coarse one. On the other
hand the number of idols found is decreasing. Also for the stone
implements a development is visible in the same direction from the
oldest site II to the youngest site I. Of special interest is that we
found very many stone implements, more than 10.000, which is very much
in contrast to other Austrian sites. At the beginning the main raw
material is coming from Bakony-Szentgál, near lake Balaton in
Hungary. Local "Hornstein" is used very seldom. This percentages are
changing continuously from old to young. At the end of the development
in site I, we have only a small number of local lithic
material. Animal bones are not preserved in a big number at site
II. But we can also see a development in the usage of animals in the
course of time. In site III it seems that capra-ovis bones are
dominating and in the youngest site I bovis is preferred. So we see
there is a big change in the course of time. The most interesting
question is now: Did the settlers come from southern Hungary or is
there a local change from Mesolithic population to the first farmers
under the influences from the south? As we currently have almost no
knowledge about Mesolithic sites in Lower Austria, we tend currently
to the first solution, that settler immigrated from Southern Hungary
and formed here at Brunn am Gebirge one basis for the development of
the Linear Ceramics culture.
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Dr. Laurens C. Thissen,
The Role of Pottery in Agropastoralist Communities in Early Neolithic Romania
Possible causes as to the adoption of pottery are considered for early neolithic communities in the Lower Danube Plain, Romania. Assessment of cooking pots used for stone boiling may fit in with pre-neolithic food processing patterns, and blur traditional Mesolithic-Neolithic boundaries. Simultaneously, adoption of new tools reflecting changing life-styles and subsistence patterns afford glimpses into the choices, tensions and decisions assumed to have existed in a society in flux.
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Dr. Vladimir I. Timofeev,
On the problem of Eastern Europe Neolithization
The Neolithization of Eastern Europe was considered as a kind of
secondary phenomenon if to compare with the process in other parts of
the continent. The situation changed in the last decades. The
Radiocarbon data, reached in the area in question later then in
Central and Southern Europe, show the stages of the first Neolithic
elements appearance: 8500 - 8000 BP ( uncal ) - the earliest pottery (
Elshan type ) in the Forest-Steppe zone; not later then 8000 - 7500 BP
( uncal ) are dated the assemblages with evidences of domestication in
Steppe- and Forest-steppe zones; 7300 - 7000 BP ( uncal ) - the First
pottery in the Forest zone ( Upper Volgian Early Neolithic ); 6600 -
6400 BP ( uncal ) - the Early Neolithic in NW Russia, Baltic and
adjacent areas. The First pottery cultures materials in the main part
of the Forest zone indicate the process of their formation as
consisted of the components of different origin, the aboriginal ones,
connected with the local Mesolithic and the other ones, with roots
which could be retraced in more Southern areas and appeared the most
probably as the result of Diffusion.
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Dr. Julian Thomas,
Current arguments over the beginning of the Neolithic in Britain
Current arguments over the beginning of the Neolithic in Britain revolve
around a series of issues: indigenous adoption versus population movement;
the evidence for material culture change versus that for the adoption of
domesticated species; homogeneity versus regional diversity; the ambiguity
of dietary evidence; patterns of residence and settlement; the pace and
duration of change; the degree of distinctiveness of the British situation
in the broader European context. These questions are given a different
complexion and different degrees of prominence according to the conceptual
schemes employed by different groups of archaeologists. In this
contribution, I will address some of the most recent developments, and
consider whether the seemingly contradictory aspects of evidence and
arguments can be reconciled.
******
Prof. Xiaohong Wu & Prof. Chaohong Zhao, Some problems related to the Neolithization in China
The appearance of pottery, origin of agriculture and the existing of polished lithics are considered as marks of the beginning of Neolithic in China. The current discoveries and radiocarbon dates show that the appearance of pottery and the existing of polished lithics are much earlier than the origin of agriculture. The South China and North China have different patterns in the process of Neolithization. It is not only one model should be applied to interpret the transition from the Paleolithic to Neolithic in China.
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Dr. Zsuzsanna K. Zoffman,
The Prehistoric Populations of the Carpathian Basin
According to the Anthropological Evaluations
The present paper is giving an anthropological sketch of the
Prehistoric populations that lived in the Carpathian Basin during the
Neolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages. Grouping the finds according
to the archaeological cultures and based on taxonomic but mainly on
biostatistical analysis made by the author (distance analysis by
Penrose) the results of such an evaluation are indicating a possible
biological continuity of the autochtonous populations during the
concerning Prehistorical periods.
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Dr. Marek Zvelebil,
Homo Habitus: Structure, Agency and the passage of traditions in the transition to farming in central and northern Europe
In my contribution, I attempt to use the concepts of structure and
agency to elucidate at a regional scale the process of transition from
hunting-gathering to farming, and from Mesolithic communities of the
North European Plain to the Neolithic. I examine this cultural and
economic transformation in the area of present-day northern Poland and
Lithuania. I argue that the theory of structuration, judiciously
applied to archaeological evidence, can offer new insights and
understanding of both, the process of the transition itself, and the
motivation behind the culture change.
archaeology
neolithic seminars
10th seminar
Oddelek za arheologijo 2003