Changing subsistence economies in the course of the Neolithic transition: Isotopic sourcing of collagen isotopic ratios in human skeletons from early Neolithic Anatolia and Greece

Abstract

The Neolithic Transition in Europe was more complex and flexible as previously suggested. Around 6800 BCE, this new economy had reached Greece where some of the earliest European Neolithic sites are evidenced. To monitor this milestone of human living conditions, previously published conventional bivariate interpretations of collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in archaeological skeletons were subjected to an isotopic sourcing in an attempt to quantify the most important protein sources. This way, the process of changing subsistence economies during the earliest Neolithic in Europe should be assessed. We were capable of approximating the protein biomass contribution by vegetal food and to evaluate the proportion of meat derived from domesticates and game, thereby telling hunting from husbandry. According to the results, the Neolithic Transition in the Mediterranean was not characterized by a conspicuous change in nutritional habits although the Neolithic Package had arrived there in its fully developed form. Rather, slow and gradual adaptations that preserved major components of a hunting and gathering lifestyle are observable. This way, a stable subsistence was guaranteed in the course of the adaptation to a producing economy.