Search results for "mesolithic"
showing 10 items of 71 documents
New Aspects of the Mesolithic-Neolithic Cemeteries and Settlement at Zvejnieki, Northern Latvia
2017
The paper reflects upon recent international research at Zvejnieki in northern Latvia, a renowned complex of a burial ground and two settlement sites used in the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Since its discovery and first excavations in the 1960s, Zvejnieki continues to produce evidence that provides new grounds for understanding mortuary practises and ancient lifeways. This information is relevant for other contemporary sites in Europe revealing new and hitherto unexpected elements of burial traditions. It is suggested that the Zvejnieki population was partly mobile, and the site was one of the places to bury the dead. The ancestral link was established through transportation and use of occupa…
Step by step – The neolithisation of Northern Central Europe in the light of stable isotope analyses
2018
Abstract There is a long lasting debate on the nature of the neolithisation process in the northern European lowlands and in southern Scandinavia. Early evidence of domesticates and crop cultivation indicate a transition to farming in this area during the late 5th millennium cal BC. However, there is limited information how this process took place and to what extent the new economy was adopted during the subsequent centuries. Here we present new results of more than 50 stable isotope samples of human remains (13C/15N) from northern Central Europe covering the period from the Mesolithic to the early Bronze Age. They show a high relevance of aquatic resources during the early Mesolithic. Food…
Emerging genetic patterns of the european neolithic: Perspectives from a late neolithic bell beaker burial site in Germany
2011
The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in Europe is associated with demographic changes that may have shifted the human gene pool of the region as a result of an influx of Neolithic farmers from the Near East. However, the genetic composition of populations after the earliest Neolithic, when a diverse mosaic of societies that had been fully engaged in agriculture for some time appeared in central Europe, is poorly known. At this period during the Late Neolithic (ca. 2,8002,000 BC), regionally distinctive burial patterns associated with two different cultural groups emerge, Bell Beaker and Corded Ware, and may reflect differences in how these societies were organized. Ancie…
Tracing the genetic origin of Europe’s first farmers reveals insights into their social organization
2014
Farming was established in Central Europe by the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK), a well-investigated archaeological horizon, which emerged in the Carpathian Basin, in today's Hungary. However, the genetic background of the LBK genesis has not been revealed yet. Here we present 9 Y chromosomal and 84 mitochondrial DNA profiles from Mesolithic, Neolithic Starčevo and LBK sites (7th/6th millennium BC) from the Carpathian Basin and south-eastern Europe. We detect genetic continuity of both maternal and paternal elements during the initial spread of agriculture, and confirm the substantial genetic impact of early farming south-eastern European and Carpathian Basin cultures on Central European p…
Inferences on Sicilian Mesolithic subsistence patterns from cross-sectional geometry and entheseal changes
2020
International audience; Using cross-sectional geometry (CSG), entheseal changes (ECs), and presence of external auditory meatus exostosis (EAE), this study tests hypothesis-bases on isotopic and zooarchaeological evidence-that in the Sicilian Mesolithic terrestrial rather than marine resources were predominantly exploited, in substantial continuity with previous Epigravettian hunters. Results show similarities in the general frequency of ECs-a rough proxy for overall activity-with Late Pleistocene hunters, in contrast with Mesolithic coastal foragers or Neolithic herders/farmers. Yet, CSG suggests that this possible continuity in the type of resources exploited was accompanied by a behavior…
“To ‘seafood’ or not to ‘seafood’?” An isotopic perspective on dietary preferences at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Western Mediterranean
2018
Abstract Stable isotope investigations of the Prehistory of the Western Mediterranean have increased exponentially during the last decade. This region has a high number of Mesolithic and Neolithic carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio data available compared with other world areas, resulting from the interest in the “transition” between hunter-gathering and farming. This type of analysis is important as one of the few tools that give direct information on the poorly understood dietary transition from hunter-gatherer to agro-pastoralist subsistence in the Mediterranean Basin. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis on bulk collagen are especially useful for exploring marine vs. terrestrial p…
Funerary practices or food delicatessen? Human remains with anthropic marks from the Western Mediterranean Mesolithic
2017
Abstract The identification of unarticulated human remains with anthropic marks in archaeological contexts normally involves solving two issues: a general one associated with the analysis and description of the anthropic manipulation marks, and another with regard to the interpretation of their purpose. In this paper we present new evidence of anthropophagic behaviour amongst hunter-gatherer groups of the Mediterranean Mesolithic. A total of 30 human remains with anthropic manipulation marks have been found in the Mesolithic layers of Coves de Santa Maira (Castell de Castells, Alicante, Spain), dating from ca. 10.2–9 cal ky BP. We describe the different marks identified on both human and fa…
Spatial and Temporal Diversity During the Neolithic Spread in the Western Mediterranean: The First Pottery Productions
2017
Actual research into the neolithization process and the development of farming communities in the Western Mediterranean reveals a diverse and complex cultural landscape. Dispersal routes and rhythm of diffusion of the agro-pastoral economy, Mesolithic inheritance, regional interactions between communities, and functional adaptations all have to be explored to trace how Mediterranean societies were reshaped during this period. The different pottery traditions that accompany the Neolithic spread and its economic development are of course interconnected (the “impressed ware”), but they also show some degree of polymorphism. This variability has been variously interpreted, but rarely quantified…
AEA 2012 Conference Reading: Socioecological dynamics at the time of Neolithic transition in Iberia
2015
The Western Mediterranean, spanning southern Italy to Portugal, can be considered a single archaeological unit where the diagnostic characteristics of Early Neolithic contexts share common elements, marked by the spread of Cardium-Impressed ceramics. Although some consensus exists regarding the origin of these wares in southern Italy, the debate surrounding its process of expansion to the west remains open. Iberia is a key region for the analysis of the neolithisation process due to its location at the end of the Neolithic Mediterranean expansion. This view includes the problems linked with the mechanism of this spread and the evolutionary dynamics of the early agricultural societies. Our g…
Pressure-Knapping Blade Production in the North-Western Mediterranean Region During the Seventh Millennium cal B.C.
2012
A review of selected Mesolithic blade and trapeze complex series in the north-western Mediterranean reinforces the hypothesis of a common use of pressure techniques for bladelet production during the seventh millennium cal B.C. This paper deals with the specificity and variability of these techniques and the consistency of the blade production methods. Mesolithic pressure technique seems to have been quickly diffused within the western Mediterranean basin, earlier than the spread of Early Neolithic communities in the same area. It then proceeded from a regional development, distinct from the Mesopotamian and Anatolian cores.