Neolithisation Process Research Articles

12,000-year-old spindle whorls and the innovation of wheeled rotational technologies

‘The wheel and axle’ revolutionized human technological history by transforming linear to rotary motion and causing parts of devices to move. While its ancient origins are commonly associated with the appearance of carts during the Bronze Age, we focus on much earlier wheel-shaped find–an exceptional assemblage of over a hundred perforated pebbles from the 12,000-year-old Natufian village of Nahal Ein-Gev II, Israel. We analyze the assemblage using 3D methodologies, incorporating novel study applications to both the pebbles and their perforations and explore the functional implications. We conclude that these items could have served as spindle whorls to spin fibres. In a cumulative evolutionary trend, they manifest early phases of the development of rotational technologies by laying the mechanical principle of the wheel and axle. All in all, it reflects on the technological innovations that played an important part in the Neolithization processes of the Southern Levant.

The process of neolithization and consequent changes in the region of Istanbul

During the last few decades, our knowledge of processes leading to the establishment of food-producing communities in regions peripheral or exterior to that of the core areas of primary neolithization has increased considerably, making it possible to better understand the interaction of migrant farmers with local indigenous communities and how they adapted to environmental conditions that were much different from the places they came from. The paper will limit its focus to discussing the process of neolithization in the region around Istanbul, where the emigrant farmers merged with the Mesolithic community of the Ağaçlɩ culture and developed a new socio-economic model forming the Fikirtepe culture.

Weaving social networks from cultural similarities on the neolithisation process in the Western Mediterranean: Evolutionary trajectories using projectile tools.

In this paper, we concentrate on the neolithisation process in Mediterranean Iberia through a diachronic view (from 8600-6800 cal. BP), focusing on social interaction as a factor in articulating new cultural ties. To do this, we apply techniques centred on similarities in material culture by applying Social Network Analysis (SNA). For the first time, we point to the geometric projectiles, taking into account their recurrence in both Mesolithic and Neolithic groups as part of their characteristic hunting equipment. We hypothesise that patterns of cultural variability would express the changing flow of information between communities according to their mobility strategies (last hunter-gatherer groups), including economic and social behaviour, and that these relationships will be restructured with the arrival of the newcomer farmers and herders and their new spatial and social arrangement. The results obtained allow us to describe a connected and homogeneous Late Mesolithic network dramatically structured by the Neolithic arrival. Since then, a heterogenous pattern emerged, involving connected periods, network ruptures, and small-world phenomena. The emergence of this characteristic could support the flow of information when the network presents a clustered structure, the last probably due to regionalisation events. These diachronic dynamics fit well with demographic and socioecological trends observed from regional literature.

The initial process of Neolithization in China

The initial process of Neolithization in China

Testing the presence of cereal-type pollen grains in coastal pre-Elm Decline peat deposits: Fine-resolution palynology at Roudsea Wood, Cumbria, UK

By the time of the Mid-Holocene Ulmus pollen decline (UD) ca. 5100 14C bp (ca. 5900 cal. BP), the Neolithic was becoming well established in Britain and Ireland. The importance of cereal cultivation as part of the initial neolithization process in the British Isles is uncertain, as archaeological sites of the first Neolithic remain elusive. Palaeoecologists have recorded cereal-type pollen grains in peat deposits that pre-date the UD significantly, but as some wild grasses can produce pollen that closely resembles cereal pollen grains, these early pollen records are not trusted as evidence of cereal cultivation. Some of these wild grass taxa grow in coastal wetland environments, making cereal-type pollen from such locations particularly open to question. This study uses fine-resolution palynology through a sequence of coastal hydroseral deposits that contain no evidence of human activity, to look for the presence of wild grass pollen of cereal size and morphology. Our results show that while such grains are not recorded at 1 cm resolution, at contiguous 2 mm resolution sampling sporadic occurrences of large grass pollen of possible cereal-type, resembling Hordeum, were detected. Morphology suggests that these cereal-type grains are of wild grass origin, almost certainly Glyceria, but their presence suggests that high-resolution analyses of coastal zone sediments will often discover cereal-type grains. Great care must be taken in identifying cereal-type pollen in coastal palaeo-wetland sediments, and rigorous identification protocols should be applied. Where grains could still be of cultivated cereal-type, the presence of other disturbance indicators is an important factor in inferring their origin.

Feet on the ground: Marine archaeomalacology resources during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula is the ideal setting for the study of the use of marine resources in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. Previous studies have focused on specific geographical areas and on a single chronological period. Instead, we offer here a synthesis of the peninsula covering a broad period of time, thus allowing a study of the role of marine resources in the Neolithisation process. Published data on the exploitation of marine molluscs from 59 archaeological levels, close to the coast and dated between 10,400 and 4650 cal BP, in the Iberian Peninsula are reviewed in order to examine the change that occurred in the consumption of marine resources following the introduction of domestic plants and animals. The analysis of the composition and diversity of assemblages collected at each site has allowed us to identify specialisation in the management strategy of marine molluscs during the Neolithic. Regional variability in the diversity of species collected, particularly in the Cantabrian region, where there is continuity in the management of molluscs between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, could be linked to the pace at which agriculture and animal husbandry were adopted. In short, together with environmental factors, the establishment of farming practices may have had a slight impact on the specialisation in the management of coastal environments.

Archaeology, rapid climate changes in the Holocene, and adaptive strategies

The article presents the concepts of repeating cycles of rapid climate variability in the Holocene, including rapid cooling cycles, cold events, ice-rafting events, and rapid climate change recorded in palaeoclimate archives. It also discusses the concepts of adaptation strategies embedded in the catastrophic scenarios of collapse on the one hand, and panarchy, resilience, and adaptation cycle on the other, i.e. the processes of transforming social hierarchical structures into dynamic, adaptive entities. In the rapid climate change series we focus on the 9.2 ka and 8.2 ka climate events associated with the Neolithisation process and the transition to farming. The 5.9 IRD event and/or period of rapid climate change from 6000–5200 cal yr BP are associated with the cultural, economic, and demographic collapse of the Early Neolithic Linear Pottery culture in central and western Europe. We also discuss the triad of recent weakening of North Atlantic ocean circulation, decreased solar activity, and the hypothesised transition to a cold period, the well-known historical scenario associated with the transition to Little Ice Age between 1450 and 1850.

Understanding the local dynamics

This study addresses the dynamics of the Neolithic expansion in the Central Balkans by reconstructing its direction and speed of spread. The Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) method is applied to the earliest radiocarbon dates from Starčevo culture sites in Serbia. Local speed estimates are derived from the earliest dates within specified spatial bins. The results confirm the assumed south-to-north direction, revealing rapid progression, particularly in the southernmost region. The possibility of pioneering scouting groups was also discussed. The results confirm the arrhythmicity of the Neolithization processes and higher local spread rates while offering new insights into Starčevo culture mobility.

Early husbandry practices in highland areas during the Neolithic: the case of Coro Trasito cave (Huesca, Spain)

Research on animal management strategies in high mountain areas during the early Neolithic (5,700–4,500 cal BC) has been conditioned by the presumption that human occupations in highland areas had a prominent seasonal character and the economic practices focused mainly on the exploitation of wild resources. The results obtained in the framework of research developed recently on settlement dynamics during the early Neolithic in the highland areas indicate the existence of relatively permanent occupations and the exploitation of domestic resources. Regarding livestock, the role of caprine transhumance in highland areas has been highlighted traditionally, conferring a marginal role to husbandry activities and emphasizing principally the temporary maintenance of herds of sheep and goats. In this study, we use the archaeozoological data and δ13C and δ15N stable isotopes composition of the faunal bones collagen to characterize the husbandry practices in Coro Trasito cave (Huesca, Spain). The results obtained demonstrated the presence of diverse herd foddering strategies within husbandry practices characterized by taxonomic diversity and multipurpose exploitation suggests that during the Neolithic, Coro Trasito cave played a more complex role than sheepfold. Moreover, the presence of the four main domestic species indicates the adaptation of herds of Coro Trasito to the cave environment, flocks with diverse dietary needs and reproductive behaviors. The results are discussed with an integrated analysis of the data related to animal management strategies in highland areas (more than 1,500 m. asl) during the early Neolithic, in particular in the central Pyrenees area. This study offers new elements to study the complexity of neolithization processes in the central Pyrenees and how these areas were quickly integrated into a broader economic system.

From prehistoric shores: Marine shell ornaments, landscape, interaction and the Neolithic transition in Anatolia

As one of the most portable of artefacts, marine shells used as personal ornaments help archaeologists define the relationships of prehistoric communities with landscapes. The transition from mobile hunter-gatherer to largely sedentary lifeways that lies at the centre of the Neolithic process transformed human-landscape relationships. In this article we collate marine and freshwater shell ornament distribution data and multiple variables in ornament choice and production for the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transition period in Anatolia. This produces a diachronic perspective on changes in human interactions with the landscape through the Neolithic transition process. We compare this with existing interpretations of the western spread of Neolithic populations and lifeways to determine both the sustainability of marine resource procurement through the sedentarization process and investigate multi-directional interactions and influences through time.

Early Neolithic of the Middle Don in the Light of Current Research (based on materials from the Cherkasskaya-5 site)

The article deals with the latest overview of the Early Neolithic site Cherkasskaya-5, located in the Middle Don, southern part of the forest-steppe zone, Voronezh Oblast. The site is characterized by particular preservation of organic remains and a range of materials available for dating, which is rare for sites of the Don forest-steppe area. The first radiocarbon dates, along with particular early Neolithic flint assemblage, allowed attributing the complex to the early Neolithic. First archaeozoological analysis suggested the presence of bones of domesticated species. However recent re-examination of the faunal collection did not allow identifying any domesticated species. New AMS-radiocarbon dates made on organic crust and animal bones confirmed the Early Neolithic age of the site. Direct dating of the organic wrapping of a Cretaceous sinker allowed refining the age of the early Neolithic period to the first quarter of the 6th mill BC. Excavations conducted in 2014–2015 allowed obtaining a ceramic collection, which does not have any analogies within the surrounding Neolithic sites of the Middle and Upper Don region, and finds more similarities with Lower Volga ceramic tradition. It allows us to put a new glance at the process of Neolithisation of the region.

Palynological studies shed new light on the Neolithisation process in central Europe

A precisely dated, high-resolution palynological profile shows that around 5680 BCE a community that grew crops and raised livestock settled on the northern periphery of the area later covered by the LBK colonisations. This indicates that pioneer farmers reached this region around 300 years earlier than estimated by recognised models of the Neolithisation process. These findings point to the need for a revision of the Neolithisation model, not only regarding dating but also in terms of reassessing the role played by demographic pressure. The authors believe that the impact of the latter is widely overestimated, because the migration could also be caused by conflicts resulting from ethnic diversity and competition for prestige and access to the most valuable lands. Cooperation with hunter-gatherer communities could have been an additional factor that may have been particularly significant during the period of pioneering colonisation. The paper discusses the role of palynology in contemporary research on Neolithisation.

The Feral Animal Question: Implications for Recognizing Europe's First Farmers

The presence of domestic animals is a key feature of the Neolithic. Their earliest presence in archaeological contexts across the European continent is often interpreted as reflecting farming practices. However, domestic animals often escape, survive, and become feral. Using the comparative example of colonial North America, this article's aim is to illustrate what happens when livestock are introduced to a new, continental temperate environment. Taking a dual historical and archaeological perspective, the author reiterates and elaborates on the suggestion that feral animals were almost certainly a feature of the European Neolithization process.

Genome-wide analysis of a collective grave from Mentesh Tepe provides insight into the population structure of early neolithic population in the South Caucasus

Despite the localisation of the southern Caucasus at the outskirt of the Fertile Crescent, the Neolithisation process started there only at the beginning of the sixth millennium with the Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture of yet unclear origins. We present here genomic data for three new individuals from Mentesh Tepe in Azerbaijan, dating back to the beginnings of the Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture. We evidence that two juveniles, buried embracing each other, were brothers. We show that the Mentesh Tepe Neolithic population is the product of a recent gene flow between the Anatolian farmer-related population and the Caucasus/Iranian population, demonstrating that population admixture was at the core of the development of agriculture in the South Caucasus. By comparing Bronze Age individuals from the South Caucasus with Neolithic individuals from the same region, including Mentesh Tepe, we evidence that gene flows between Pontic Steppe populations and Mentesh Tepe-related groups contributed to the makeup of the Late Bronze Age and modern Caucasian populations. Our results show that the high cultural diversity during the Neolithic period of the South Caucasus deserves close genetic analysis.

Neolithic hydroclimatic change and water resources exploitation in the Fertile Crescent

In the first millennia of the Holocene, human communities in the Fertile Crescent experienced drastic cultural and technological transformations that modified social and human-environments interactions, ultimately leading to the rise of complex societies. The potential influence of climate on this “Neolithic Revolution” has long been debated. Here we present a speleothem record from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, covering from Early Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic periods (~ 11 to 7.3 ka, 9000–5300 BCE). The record reveals the influence of the Siberian High on regional precipitation, and shows large hydroclimatic variability at the multicentennial scale. In particular, it highlights wetter conditions between 9.7 and 9.0 ka, followed by an abrupt reduction of precipitation between 9.0 and 8.5 ka, and a wetter interval between 8.5 and 8.0 ka. A comparison with regional and local archaeological data demonstrates an influence of recorded hydroclimatic changes on settlement patterns (size, distribution, permanent vs. seasonal occupation) and on the exploitation of water resources by Neolithic to Chalcolithic populations. Our record does not show prominent hydroclimatic changes at 9.3 and 8.2 ka, thus not supporting direct influence of such rapid and widespread events on the process of Neolithization and its cultural dispersal.

Different manifestations of Neolithization in Northwest Anatolia?

The Neolithic way of life was first established in Northwest Anatolia before the middle of the 7th millennium BC. The recently excavated sites of Barcın Hoyuk and Bahcelievler have yielded archaeological evidence for the earliest Neolithic levels in the region and provide new archaeobotanical datasets. To compare different adaptations to the changes brought on by the Neolithization processes, we studied 348 archaeobotanical samples from Phases VIe and VId1 at Barcın and 63 samples from the contemporaneous levels, Phase 6 and Phase 5, at Bahcelievler. The economic plants include hulled and naked six-row barley, einkorn, emmer, bread/hard wheat, small-sized naked wheat, lentil, bitter vetch, pea, chickpea, flax, hazelnut, bramble, and pistacia. Our analyses show small but significant differences between the sites in the selected economic plant ranges, among the cereals, pulses as well as gathered plants.

Resinous deposits in Early Neolithic pottery vessels from the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula

The use of resinous substances, certainly one of the earliest technologies developed by humans, was well-known by Holocene hunter-gatherers at the onset of the Neolithisation process across Europe. Recent research has revealed the use of birch bark tar in the central Mediterranean far from this taxon’s endemic regions both in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods and shows that the first farmers from the Fertile Crescent hafted lithic tools and waterproofed artefacts using bitumen.The generalised absence of these natural products in south-western Europe may have thus forced a reformulation of Early Neolithic technologies by exploring and benefitting from existing knowledge in local European hunter-gatherer societies. However, information on resin use from the western Mediterranean is still scarce. Here, we report on the analysis of organic residues from 168 pottery sherds by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry from 10 archaeological sites in this region dating from the second half of the VIth millennium to the first half of the Vth millennium cal BC. In a limited number of samples, minor amounts of several diterpenoids diagnostic of aged Pinaceae resins were detected as mixtures with fats.The presence of pine in the palynological and carpological record supports the human exploitation of this taxon, but its minimal incidence in the anthracological record suggests that other species were selected as fuelwood. This supports the hypothesis that Pinaceae resins were used in association with pottery sporadically but ubiquitously either as its contents, or as post-firing treatments to waterproof the vessels. This demonstrates the development of adhesive technologies and resin-involved labour processes specific to Early Neolithic societies.

From Foragers to Fisher-Farmers: How the Neolithisation Process Affected Coastal Fisheries in Scandinavia

AbstractThe Neolithisation process altered human dependence on wild food sources, and dominant models of the Neolithic transition in Scandinavia still focus on cultural divisions. This study emphasises the evidence of creolization processes, in particular the exploitation of Atlantic Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) among Neolithic fisher-farmers north and east of the Skagerrak Sea in Scandinavia (4000–2350 cal BCE). The site Jortveit in Southern Norway, where Bluefin tuna was caught with toggling harpoons, is used as a point of departure. In order to understand this phenomenon, the first empirical review of prehistoric toggling harpoons in Central and Eastern Europe is presented. Toggling harpoons first appeared in the late Vinĉa Culture, then in the Gumelniţa, Cucuteni-Trypillia, and Sredny Stog cultural complexes further east, and finally in Central Europe and Scandinavia during the time of the Funnel Beaker Culture. Considering the accumulated evidence of long distance contact from Eastern to Central Europe and Scandinavia in the early fourth millennium BCE, it is argued that toggling harpoon technology was distributed through trade networks. Its appearance around the Skagerrak Sea in the Neolithic reflects fisher-farmers using a creolized fishing technology, inspired by Eneolithic societies.

New materials about the Neolithic period of the North Caspian Sea region

The paper is devoted to the results of the research materials of Kairshak site of the North Caspian Sea region. The relevance of the topic is determined by the role of this region in the Neolithic process of Eastern Europe. The ceramic tradition of the early Neolithic is one of the oldest in this region. Technical and technological analysis of ceramics indicates that the dishes were made of silt with an addition of freshwater molluscs. Different vessels are typologically identified. An ornament is made by a drawn line and a single prick. The set of features allows to assign the collection of ceramics to the Kairshak type. Stone tools are characterized by plate-flake technique. End scrapers dominated. Arrowed and other forms are rarely met. The second category concludes geometrical microliths of segment type. The number of sharp points isnt big. An amount of indicators indicates that the complex has an early Neolithic character. A kind of animal is identified with an archeozoological method kulan. The radiocarbon date indicates the end of the 6th millennium BC. This contradicts the available data bank on the chronology of the Kairshak type sites. According to all characteristics of the stone and ceramic inventory, the discovered complex is most similar to the materials of the Kairshak I.

Diet at the onset of the Neolithic in northeastern Iberia: An isotope–plant microremain combined study from Cova Bonica (Vallirana, Catalonia)

The emergence of Neolithic societies was transformative, impacting many aspects of life, particularly diet. The process of Neolithization in Iberia is increasingly understood as the arrival of new people from the Central Mediterranean, who dispersed along the Iberian coasts introducing cereal production, herding, and Cardial pottery and associated material culture. Although research has clarified aspects of the cultigen-dominated economy of these new people, questions remain due to the limitations of conventional archaeobotanical and archaeozoological methods that tend to produce indirect evidence. The extent to which these early farmers adopted Mesolithic staples, which are often difficult to detect with other methods, remains unclear. Furthermore, questions surround the nature of methods of food preparation Cardial Neolithic people used when incorporating grains into their diet. In this study, we examined direct evidence of the diet from the Iberian Cardial Neolithic site of Cova Bonica (Vallirana, Baix Llobregat, Catalonia) using CN stable isotopes on bone and plant microremains trapped in dental calculus from six human individuals and associated fauna. Isotopes show a diet based on terrestrial C3 resources, with no isotopic evidence of aquatic or C4 resource consumption. Plant microremains (starches and phytoliths) provide evidence of cereal use, as well as of other plant foods. However, perhaps due to Bonica’s early farmers’ choice of grain variety, their grain processing methods, or due to specific dental calculus formation factors, the grain assemblages are rather limited and provide scarce information on food preparation.