Arrival Of Farmers Research Articles

Potential anthropogenic influence on oribatid mite communities in ancient to modern settlements of the Russian Far East

ABSTRACT The southernmost Russian Far East represents a soil biodiversity hotspot in which settlements of ancient to modern ages form a mosaic within seminatural vegetation. We explored whether these settlements form potential “concentration points” of soil biodiversity by examining their oribatid mite (Acari: Oribatida) fauna. We sampled soils in nine settlements which were established during one of the three periods of territory colonization: “legendary”- before 1600, “imperial” – between the 1600s and 1917 and “soviet” – after 1917 and nine respective control sites with the seminatural vegetation located nearby. Forty-two species were identified from the collected material, of which 12 require further taxonomic examination. Species richness in control sites was higher (GLM, p < 0.05) than in the settlements – 8.9 ± 1.3 and 5.8 ± 1.0 (S.E.) per sample, respectively. The highest species richness among all settlements was in the “imperial” ones (8.7 ± 0.3) due to higher amount of cosmopolitan and oriental oribatids. We further speculate that elevated species richness in the settlements of the “imperial” period may be linked with the arrival of farmers from European Russia and Siberia in the nineteenth century. The younger “soviet” settlements had the boreal species Heminothrus humicola (Forsslund, 1955), indicating its invasion following the last wave of human migration.

The genomic history of southeastern Europe

Farming was first introduced to Europe in the mid-7th millennium BCE–associated with migrants from Anatolia who settled in the Southeast before spreading throughout Europe. To understand the dynamics of this process, we analyzed genome-wide ancient DNA data from 225 individuals who lived in southeastern Europe and surrounding regions between 12,000 and 500 BCE. We document a West-East cline of ancestry in indigenous hunter-gatherers and–in far-eastern Europe–early stages in the formation of Bronze Age Steppe ancestry. We show that the first farmers of northern and western Europe passed through southeastern Europe with limited hunter-gatherer admixture, but that some groups that remained mixed extensively, without the male-biased hunter-gatherer admixture that prevailed later in the North and West. Southeastern Europe continued to be a nexus between East and West, with intermittent genetic contact with the Steppe up to 2000 years before the migrations that replaced much of northern Europe’s population.

El Kowm Oasis, human settlement in the Syrian Desert during the Pleistocene

The area of the El Kowm oasis in the centre of today's Syria is a unique showcase of Middle Eastern prehistory not only for its geographic position within the Arabian Desert, but also for the depth of its history. In fact the core area, about a dozen kilometres across, with the numerous natural springs were an important attractor for game and humans, visiting regularly this region since more than 1.8 million years. All over the periods, from the Lower Palaeolithic to the arrival of farmers, definitely arid conditions prevailed, perfectly showing human adaption to this particular environment, as has been clearly demonstrated by several extensive excavations of exceptionally rich Palaeolithic sites. Exceptional preservation conditions due to a particular geological setting in the context of active or dry springs offer an extraordinary resolution of human behaviour within a limited landscape during the complete period of the Pleistocene, illustrating cognitive capacities of early man to cope readily with arid environments, challenge the migration routes proposed by Out of Africa diffusion models, typically considered to be corridors with a superior environmental potential.

A macro-fracture investigation of the backed stone tools from Dzombo Shelter, eastern Botswana

Foragers occupying Dzombo Shelter, eastern Botswana, and producing a Later Stone Age technology came into contact with incoming Iron Age food-producers at approximately AD 350. From the onset of their interactions the Later Stone Age record began to change. One such change was in stone tool preference; over much of southern Africa scraper frequencies increased whereas backed tools declined. However, between c. AD 900 and 1200 at Dzombo, backed tools inexplicably dominate the formal tool assemblage. This paper seeks to understand the role of backed tools at Dzombo from before the arrival of farmers until the establishment of the Mapungubwe state, c. AD 1220, in order to explain shifts in use and preference patterns. By performing a macro-fracture analysis it was possible to demonstrate an increased occurrence of fractures consistent with impact-related damage between approximately AD 350 and 1200, and it is suggested here that during this time hunting activities were intensified. The factors possibly driving this intensification are discussed and could relate to forager–farmer interactions or a shift in the site's function. As is shown, the former is more likely. The macro-analysis of backed tools provides greater clarity when viewing Dzombo's archaeological sequence and to some extent confirms earlier suggestions that in order to augment growing mercantile opportunities spurred on by the arrival of farmers, forager hunting activities increased.

Stone tools and foraging in northern Madagascar challenge Holocene extinction models

Past research on Madagascar indicates that village communities were established about AD 500 by people of both Indonesian and East African heritage. Evidence of earlier visits is scattered and contentious. Recent archaeological excavations in northern Madagascar provide evidence of occupational sites with microlithic stone technologies related to foraging for forest and coastal resources. A forager occupation of one site dates to earlier than 2000 B.C., doubling the length of Madagascar's known occupational history, and thus the time during which people exploited Madagascar's environments. We detail stratigraphy, chronology, and artifacts from two rock shelters. Ambohiposa near Iharana (Vohémar) on the northeast coast, yielded a stratified assemblage with small flakes, microblades, and retouched crescentic and trapezoidal tools, probably projectile elements, made on cherts and obsidian, some brought more that 200 km. (14)C dates are contemporary with the earliest villages. No food remains are preserved. Lakaton'i Anja near Antsiranana in the north yielded several stratified assemblages. The latest assemblage is well dated to A.D. 1050-1350, by (14)C and optically stimulated luminescence dating and pottery imported from the Near East and China. Below is a series of stratified assemblages similar to Ambohiposa. (14)C and optically stimulated luminescence dates indicate occupation from at least 2000 B.C. Faunal remains indicate a foraging pattern. Our evidence shows that foragers with a microlithic technology were active in Madagascar long before the arrival of farmers and herders and before many Late Holocene faunal extinctions. The differing effects of historically distinct economies must be identified and understood to reconstruct Holocene histories of human environmental impact.

Neolithic patrilineal signals indicate that the Armenian plateau was repopulated by agriculturalists

Armenia, situated between the Black and Caspian Seas, lies at the junction of Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan and former Mesopotamia. This geographic position made it a potential contact zone between Eastern and Western civilizations. In this investigation, we assess Y-chromosomal diversity in four geographically distinct populations that represent the extent of historical Armenia. We find a striking prominence of haplogroups previously implicated with the Agricultural Revolution in the Near East, including the J2a-M410-, R1b1b1(*)-L23-, G2a-P15- and J1-M267-derived lineages. Given that the Last Glacial Maximum event in the Armenian plateau occured a few millennia before the Neolithic era, we envision a scenario in which its repopulation was achieved mainly by the arrival of farmers from the Fertile Crescent temporally coincident with the initial inception of farming in Greece. However, we detect very restricted genetic affinities with Europe that suggest any later cultural diffusions from Armenia to Europe were not associated with substantial amounts of paternal gene flow, despite the presence of closely related Indo-European languages in both Armenia and Southeast Europe.

The birth of the gods and the origins of agriculture

List of plates List of figures Translator's note Foreword Preface Chronological table Introduction Part I. The Origins of Agriculture: 1. Natural environment and human cultures on the eve of the Neolithic 2. The first pre-agricultural villages: the Natufian 3. The Revolution in symbols and the origins of Neolithic religion 4. The first farmers: the socio-cultural context 5. The first farmers: strategies of subsistence 6. Agriculture, population, society: an assessment 7. The Neolithic Revolution: a transformation of the mind Part II. The Beginnings of Neolithic Diffusion: 8. A geographical and chronological framework for the first stages of diffusion 9. The birth of a culture in the northern Levant and the neolithisation of Anatolia 10. Diffusion into the central and southern Levant 11. The evidence of symbolism in the southern Levant 12. The dynamics of a dominant culture Part III. The Great Exodus: 13. The problem of diffusion in the Neolithic 14. The completion of the neolithic process in the 'Levantine nucleus' 15. The arrival of farmers on the Mediterranean littoral and in Cyprus 16. The sedentary peoples push east: the eastern Jezirah and the Syrian desert 17. Pastoral nomadism 18. Hypotheses for the spread of the Neolithic Conclusion Postscript Notes Bibliography Index.