Onset Of Agriculture Research Articles

The Birth of Athena: A Teratological Approach

The birth of Athena, the Patron Deity of Athens, praised for her wisdom and craft skills, as an adult from Zeus’ head after a severe headache, is an abnormal and biologically impossible event that challenges traditional gender roles. This narrative takes to the extreme the impossibility of Nature to change the essentially feminine function of giving birth and the worldview previously embodied by the great Goddess or great Mother, the dominant figure during the Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages. There have been significant historical shifts in societal values and power dynamics since the Bronze Age. The onset of agriculture, animal domestication, and the discovery of metals allowed the manufacture of more powerful and effective weapons that led to the flourishing of male hegemony and patriarchy, establishing the prevalence of masculine over feminine values. This essay highlights the role of Nature Sciences and Medicine in understanding mythological creatures and narratives. Approaching the natural phenomena, the aforementioned disciplines can sometimes shed light on ancient narratives, since records of congenital malformations, which came down to us in worldwide artworks, often present images similar to those from the shelves of Anatomical Museums and Pathological Anatomy books. This essay discusses this possible relationship in the case of Athena’s birth, presenting a olivine stone head of Zeus from the Archaeological Museum, D. Diogo de Sousa in Braga (Portugal), which presents the crack from which Athena was born.

Human-plant interaction at the onset of agriculture: the PATH project

Plant domestication represents a major turning point in human history, resulting in the shift from a hunting/gathering/fishing-based economy to food production. Combining the analysis of ground stone tools and dental calculus, the PATH project aims to investigate dynamics of plant consumption, and the knowledge and toolkits involved in their processing.

An integrative skeletal and paleogenomic analysis of stature variation suggests relatively reduced health for early European farmers

Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ∼12,000 y B.P. This shift is hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a decline in physiological health as inferred from skeletal remains. Here, we consider osteological and ancient DNA data from the same prehistoric individuals to study human stature variation as a proxy for health across a transition to agriculture. Specifically, we compared “predicted” genetic contributions to height from paleogenomic data and “achieved” adult osteological height estimated from long bone measurements for 167 individuals across Europe spanning the Upper Paleolithic to Iron Age (∼38,000 to 2,400 B.P.). We found that individuals from the Neolithic were shorter than expected (given their individual polygenic height scores) by an average of −3.82 cm relative to individuals from the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic (P = 0.040) and −2.21 cm shorter relative to post-Neolithic individuals (P = 0.068), with osteological vs. expected stature steadily increasing across the Copper (+1.95 cm relative to the Neolithic), Bronze (+2.70 cm), and Iron (+3.27 cm) Ages. These results were attenuated when we additionally accounted for genome-wide genetic ancestry variation: for example, with Neolithic individuals −2.82 cm shorter than expected on average relative to pre-Neolithic individuals (P = 0.120). We also incorporated observations of paleopathological indicators of nonspecific stress that can persist from childhood to adulthood in skeletal remains into our model. Overall, our work highlights the potential of integrating disparate datasets to explore proxies of health in prehistory.

Soil Organic Carbon Mapping from Remote Sensing: The Effect of Crop Residues

Since the onset of agriculture, soils have lost their organic carbon to such an extent that the soil functions of many croplands are threatened. Hence, there is a strong demand for mapping and monitoring critical soil properties and in particular soil organic carbon (SOC). Pilot studies have demonstrated the potential for remote sensing techniques for SOC mapping in croplands. It has, however, been shown that the assessment of SOC may be hampered by the condition of the soil surface. While growing vegetation can be readily detected by means of the well-known Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), the distinction between bare soil and crop residues is expressed in the shortwave infrared region (SWIR), which is only covered by two broad bands in Landsat or Sentinel-2 imagery. Here we tested the effect of thresholds for the Cellulose Absorption Index (CAI), on the performance of SOC prediction models for cropland soils. Airborne Prism Experiment (APEX) hyperspectral images covering an area of 240 km2 in the Belgian Loam Belt were used together with a local soil dataset. We used the partial least square regression (PLSR) model to estimate the SOC content based on 104 georeferenced calibration samples (NDVI < 0.26), firstly without setting a CAI threshold, and obtained a satisfactory result (coefficient of determination (R2) = 0.49, Ratio of Performance to Deviation (RPD) = 1.4 and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) = 2.13 g kgC−1 for cross-validation). However, a cross comparison of the estimated SOC values to grid-based measurements of SOC content within three fields revealed a systematic overestimation for fields with high residue cover. We then tested different CAI thresholds in order to mask pixels with high residue cover. The best model was obtained for a CAI threshold of 0.75 (R2 = 0.59, RPD = 1.5 and RMSE = 1.75 g kgC−1 for cross-validation). These results reveal that the purity of the pixels needs to be assessed aforehand in order to produce reliable SOC maps. The Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR2) index based on the SWIR bands of the MSI Sentinel 2 sensor extracted from images collected nine days before the APEX flight campaign correlates well with the CAI index of the APEX imagery. However, the NBR2 index calculated from Sentinel 2 images under moist conditions is poorly correlated with residue cover. This can be explained by the sensitivity of the NBR2 index to both soil moisture and residues.

A substantial role of soil erosion in the land carbon sink and its future changes.

Realistic representation of land carbon sink in climate models is vital for predicting carbon climate feedbacks in a changing world. Although soil erosion that removes land organic carbon has increased substantially since the onset of agriculture, it is rarely included in the current generation of climate models. Using an Earth system model (ESM) with soil erosion represented, we estimated that on average soil erosion displaces 5% of newly fixed land organic carbon downslope annually in the continental United States. In the lower Mississippi river basin and the Cascades, the fraction can be as large as 40%. About 12% of the eroded organic carbon is eventually exported to inland waters, which is equal to 14% of the simulated net carbon gain by terrestrial ecosystems. By comparing the eroded organic carbon export to rivers with the particulate organic carbon export to oceans, we demonstrated that a large fraction of the carbon export to rivers could have been mineralized in inland waters. Importantly, with a direct comparison of eroded and exported soil organic carbon and land net carbon uptake, we found that ESMs that ignore soil erosion likely offset the erosional carbon loss by increasing heterotrophic respiration implicitly. But as soil erosion and heterotrophic respiration respond differently to a warming climate, this unrealistic compensation would lead to biased predictions of future land carbon sink.

The carbon sequestration potential of terrestrial ecosystems

T errestrial ecosystems, comprising vegetation and soil in uplands and wetlands, significantly impact the global carbon (C) cycle and, under natural conditions, are a sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). However, conversion of natural to managed ecosystems (i.e., agroecosystems, urban lands, and mined lands) depletes ecosystem C stocks, aggravates gaseous emissions, and exacerbates radiative forcing. Thus, the onset of agriculture around 8000 BC presumably transformed these sinks into a source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) (Ruddiman 2003), mostly CO2, CH4, and nitrous oxide (N2O), and depleted the terrestrial (soil, vegetation, and peatlands) C stocks. Ruddiman (2005) estimated the depletion of the terrestrial C stock (soil and vegetation) by 456 Pg (502.65 × 109 tn) since the onset of agriculture. Of this, the historic depletion of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock is estimated at 130 to 135 Pg (143.3 × 109 to 148.8 × 109 tn) (Sanderman et al. 2017; Lal 2018). Therefore, recarbonization of some of the terrestrial biosphere (soil and vegetation) is an important strategy to mitigate the anthropogenic climate change (ACC) and enhance other ecosystem services because of the link between SOC stock and atmospheric concentration of CO2 (Trenberth and Smith 2005). Recarbonizing the terrestrial biosphere involves…

The Roots of Global Inequality: The Role of Biogeography and Genetic Diversity

This paper adds further evidence supporting Jared Diamond’s hypothesis that global technological differences in the pre-modern era were fundamentally due to bio-geographic factors: the time elapsed since the onset of agriculture and husbandry, the size of the population relative to the territories, the shape of continents. An alternative hypothesis, that genetic diversity within populations is the ultimate cause of global inequalities, is also examined. Results show how there is no robust evidence supporting a possible effect of genetic diversity on international differences in population density and technology in the pre-modern era.

Quantifying the effects of land use and climate on Holocene vegetation in Europe

Early agriculture can be detected in palaeovegetation records, but quantification of the relative importance of climate and land use in influencing regional vegetation composition since the onset of agriculture is a topic that is rarely addressed. We present a novel approach that combines pollen-based REVEALS estimates of plant cover with climate, anthropogenic land-cover and dynamic vegetation modelling results. This is used to quantify the relative impacts of land use and climate on Holocene vegetation at a sub-continental scale, i.e. northern and western Europe north of the Alps. We use redundancy analysis and variation partitioning to quantify the percentage of variation in vegetation composition explained by the climate and land-use variables, and Monte Carlo permutation tests to assess the statistical significance of each variable. We further use a similarity index to combine pollen-based REVEALS estimates with climate-driven dynamic vegetation modelling results. The overall results indicate that climate is the major driver of vegetation when the Holocene is considered as a whole and at the sub-continental scale, although land use is important regionally. Four critical phases of land-use effects on vegetation are identified. The first phase (from 7000 to 6500 BP) corresponds to the early impacts on vegetation of farming and Neolithic forest clearance and to the dominance of climate as a driver of vegetation change. During the second phase (from 4500 to 4000 BP), land use becomes a major control of vegetation. Climate is still the principal driver, although its influence decreases gradually. The third phase (from 2000 to 1500 BP) is characterised by the continued role of climate on vegetation as a consequence of late-Holocene climate shifts and specific climate events that influence vegetation as well as land use. The last phase (from 500 to 350 BP) shows an acceleration of vegetation changes, in particular during the last century, caused by new farming practices and forestry in response to population growth and industrialization. This is a unique signature of anthropogenic impact within the Holocene but European vegetation remains climatically sensitive and thus may continue to respond to ongoing climate change.

Farming legumes in the pre-pottery Neolithic: New discoveries from the site of Ahihud (Israel).

New discoveries of legumes in the lower Galilee at the prehistoric site of Ahihud in Israel shed light on early farming systems in the southern Levant. Radiocarbon dating of twelve legumes from pits and floors indicate that the farming of legumes was practiced in southern Levant as early as 10.240–10.200 (1σ) ago. The legumes were collected from pits and other domestic contexts dated to the Early Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. The legumes identified include Vicia faba L. (faba bean), V. ervilia (bitter vetch), V. narbonensis (narbon vetch), Lens sp. (lentil), Pisum sp. (pea), Lathyrus inconspicuus (inconspicuous pea) and L. hirosolymitanus (jerusalem vetchling). Comparison with coeval sites in the region show how the presence of peas, narbon vetches, inconspicuous peas, jerusalem vetchlings and bitter vetches together with faba bean and lentils is unique to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, and might indicate specific patterns in farming or storing at the onset of agriculture.

Controls on erosion patterns and sediment transport in a monsoonal, tectonically quiescent drainage, Song Gianh, central Vietnam

AbstractThe Song Gianh is a small‐sized (~3500 km2), monsoon‐dominated river in northern central Vietnam that can be used to understand how topography and climate control continental erosion. We present major element concentrations, together with Sr and Nd isotopic compositions, of siliciclastic bulk sediments to define sediment provenance and chemical weathering intensity. These data indicate preferential sediment generation in the steep, wetter upper reaches of the Song Gianh. In contrast, detrital zircon U‐Pb ages argue for significant flux from the drier, northern Rao Tro tributary. We propose that this mismatch represents disequilibrium in basin erosion patterns driven by changing monsoon strength and the onset of agriculture across the region. Detrital apatite fission track and10Be data from modern sediment support slowing of regional bedrock exhumation rates through the Cenozoic. If the Song Gianh is representative of coastal Vietnam then the coastal mountains may have produced around 132 000–158 000 km3of the sediment now preserved in the Song Hong‐Yinggehai Basin (17–21% of the total), the primary depocenter of the Red River. This flux does not negate the need for drainage capture in the Red River to explain the large Cenozoic sediment volumes in that basin but does partly account for the discrepancy between preserved and eroded sediment volumes.OSLages from terraces cluster in the Early Holocene (7.4–8.5 ka), Pre‐Industrial (550–320 yearBP) and in the recent past (ca. 150 yearBP). The older terraces reflect high sediment production driven by a strong monsoon, whereas the younger are the product of anthropogenic impact on the landscape caused by farming. Modern river sediment is consistently more weathered than terrace sediment consistent with reworking of old weathered soils by agricultural disruption.

Agriculture increases individual fitness.

We question the need to explain the onset of agriculture by appealing to the second type of multilevel selection (MLS2). Unlike eusocial insect colonies, human societies do not exhibit key features of evolutionary individuals. If we avoid the mistake of equating Darwinian fitness with health and quality of life, the adoption of agriculture is almost certainly explicable in terms of individual-level selection and individual rationality.

The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming.

Weeds are currently present in a wide range of ecosystems worldwide. Although the beginning of their evolution is largely unknown, researchers assumed that they developed in tandem with cultivation since the appearance of agricultural habitats some 12,000 years ago. These rapidly-evolving plants invaded the human disturbed areas and thrived in the new habitat. Here we present unprecedented new findings of the presence of “proto-weeds” and small-scale trial cultivation in Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old hunter-gatherers' sedentary camp on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. We examined the plant remains retrieved from the site (ca. 150,000 specimens), placing particular emphasis on the search for evidence of plant cultivation by Ohalo II people and the presence of weed species. The archaeobotanically-rich plant assemblage demonstrates extensive human gathering of over 140 plant species and food preparation by grinding wild wheat and barley. Among these, we identified 13 well-known current weeds mixed with numerous seeds of wild emmer, barley, and oat. This collection provides the earliest evidence of a human-disturbed environment—at least 11 millennia before the onset of agriculture—that provided the conditions for the development of "proto-weeds", a prerequisite for weed evolution. Finally, we suggest that their presence indicates the earliest, small-scale attempt to cultivate wild cereals seen in the archaeological record.

Polygyny without wealth: popularity in gift games predicts polygyny in BaYaka Pygmies.

The occurrence of polygynous marriage in hunter–gatherer societies, which do not accumulate wealth, remains largely unexplored since resource availability is dependent on male hunting capacity and limited by the lack of storage. Hunter–gatherer societies offer the greatest insight in to human evolution since they represent the majority of our species' evolutionary history. In order to elucidate the evolution of hunter–gatherer polygyny, we study marriage patterns of BaYaka Pygmies. We investigate (i) rates of polygyny among BaYaka hunter–gatherers; (ii) whether polygyny confers a fitness benefit to BaYaka men; (iii) in the absence of wealth inequalities, what are the alternative explanations for polygyny among the BaYaka. To understand the latter, we explore differences in phenotypic quality (height and strength), and social capital (popularity in gift games). We find polygynous men have increased reproductive fitness; and that social capital and popularity but not phenotypic quality might have been important mechanisms by which some male hunter–gatherers sustained polygynous marriages before the onset of agriculture and wealth accumulation.

HORNED FIGURINES MADE OF STONE FROM THE NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC PERIODS AND THE DOMESTICATION OF SHEEP AND GOAT

At the time of writing, fourteen horned figurines made of stone have been uncovered in eight archaeological sites of the Levant and southern Anatolia dating to the Pottery Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods (6th and 5th millennium cal bc). Their striking stylistic similarity, together with their low frequency, requires a detailed analysis. The figurines, produced of locally accessible stone, feature the head of a horned animal with characteristic spiralling horns. No comparable figurines manufactured of a different raw material like clay or ivory have been uncovered. Three typological groups can be distinguished based on the shape of the horns, possibly identified as Capra falconeri (Group 1) and Ovis aries orientalis (Groups 2 and 3) in different degrees of stylization. Recent genetic studies demonstrate that these species were progenitors of the domestic sheep and goat, respectively. Figurines of the second and third typological groups are pierced, which suggests that they were worn as personal ornaments. This paper draws attention to these figurines as a coherent group and suggests some possible meanings in proto-historic society. Their stylistic homogeneity is tentatively ascribed to a shared iconographic language across the Levant at the onset of agriculture.

15,000 years of black carbon deposition – A post-glacial fire record from maar lake sediments (Germany)

Fires accompanied human development throughout the Holocene, leaving behind black carbon (BC) as residues from incomplete biomass burning. Here we used molecular fire markers, benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCAs), to reconstruct fire history in two Eifel maar lakes, Germany. We hypothesized to find indications for (i) changes in BC related to ecosystem changes, (ii) an increase in BC influx at the onset of agriculture until modern times, and (iii) a change in BC quality due to technical progress in combustion, e.g., at the beginning of agriculture and at the onset of the Bronze Age. To calculate absolute BC influx into the maar lakes, we multiplied BC contents with sedimentation rates. The BC influx rates were elevated during tundra-like vegetation in the Late Pleistocene (up to 7.7 g BC m−2 a−1), followed by relatively constant 2.5 g BC m−2 a−1 from the Bølling interstadial (>13.7 kilo years before present, ka BP) until the early Atlantic when forest began to develop. Thereafter, BC influx increased with the onset of land use of Neolithic cultures in the region from 7.5 ka BP to rates of 7–9 g BC m−2 a−1. Noteworthy, also the quality of BC changed: higher ratios of five-to six-times carboxylated benzenes (B5CA/B6CA) pointed at colder, arable fires approximately 1000 years after first Neolithic activity from 6 to 4 ka BP (B5CA/B6CA increased from 1.0 to 2.0). From 4 ka BP (Bronze Age) to modern times increasing burning temperatures as indicated by dropping B5CA/B6CA ratios (from 2.0 to 1.0) were related to metallurgy and industrialization. Between 2.5 and 1 ka BP maximum BC influx rates were reached with ca 15 g BC m−2 a−1. With increasing combustion efficiency and a reduction of wild fires during the last centuries, total BC influx decreased, suggesting that fossil fuel combustion contributed less to total BC input into the lake sediments than former vegetation fires.

Lake Belau and its catchment (northern Germany): A key archive of environmental history in northern central Europe since the onset of agriculture

The environmental history since the onset of agriculture was reconstructed from sediments and soils in the catchment area of Lake Belau (Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany). The established chronologies are based on varve counts, radiocarbon data, embedded Icelandic tephra (lake sediments), radiocarbon dates, and embedded artifacts (slope deposits). Neolithic land use triggered small-scale erosion. Lake trophic indicators and pollen data clearly reflect the onset of agriculture and the middle Neolithic expansion of agricultural activity. Despite numerous archaeological findings, less intensive field use and no soil erosion occurred during the older and younger Bronze Age. Perhaps, animal husbandry was more important than cereal cultivation. Between 2000 and 500 cal. bc, Aeolian input from a distant source can be observed. During the late Bronze Age and Pre-Roman Iron Age, intensified field use enabled severe soil erosion (gullies c. 200 cal. bc). The degradation of soils started in this period, influenced by excessive land use, climatic variability, and/or the reduction in Aeolian deposition. The Roman Iron Age and Migration Period were phases of reduced human impact and soil formation. During medieval times, the intensity of field use increased again and another phase of soil erosion (gully in the 14th century, probably reflecting the ‘Magdalenenflut’ 1342) and soil degradation started. After the late medieval crisis caused by the ‘black death’ and several armed conflicts, another increase in soil erosion may reflect the rearrangement of estates (18th−19th century) and introduction of industrial agriculture (20th century). A recurrence of high-intensity erosion events is indicated at c. 1540, 1710, and probably 1939 ad. Whereas the lake trophic status is influenced by human impact on the lake catchment, wetter and warmer climatic phases are reflected in increased carbonate precipitation modulated by solar activity, human impact, and the long-term evolution of vegetation and soils in the lake catchment.

Pulling teeth from history: DNA from ancient teeth can help to yield information about our ancestors' health, diet and diseases.

Molecular biology has made considerable contributions to the study of human history from the earliest days of our species, when our ancestors began to walk on the savannah, to the dawn of civilization and the more recent history of mankind. The analysis of contemporary mitochondrial DNA, for example, has told us that Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa; the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome has revealed that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis lived along each other and interbred before the latter disappeared; last year, the analysis of DNA extracted from a skeleton found under a parking lot in Leicester, UK, showed that it was the remains of King Richard III. Although the advent of next‐generation sequencing and advances in bioinformatics have boosted research using ancient DNA, a major hurdle has always been the quantity and quality of the DNA itself: DNA molecules quickly degrade over time into smaller fragments, and microbial contamination makes it challenging to identify human fragments within a sample. Intriguingly, teeth have proven to be an excellent source of high‐quality ancient DNA, yielding insights into the evolution of the human diet, disease and immunity since the onset of agriculture some 10,000 years ago. Dental calculus has been the most complete source of historical sequence data, especially for probing oral microbiome populations. At the same time, dental pulp—the connective tissue at the centre of teeth—has been an important source of information about ancient diseases. Archaeologist Keith Dobney, from the University of Aberdeen in the UK, and his colleagues first identified the potential of dental calculus as a source of information about past diets and microbial populations long before the advent of ancient DNA studies [1]. Now, almost 30 years later, Dobney is among those at the forefront of the revolution in ancient DNA analysis. “It appears that dental …

When I Don't Get What I Want, I Take It Because It's Mine. I–D Compensation and Incarcerated Adolescents in a Delayed-Return Society: An Application of Martin's Theory

Martin (1999a) proposes that present-day society differs from mankind's evolutionary past by a change from immediate returns, when living as hunter–gatherers, to a delayed-return system with the onset of agriculture and urban living. He assumes that a delayed-return system lacks frequent feedback necessary for goal orientation and perceived control, which may lead to various social psychological thinking errors, cognitive distortions and an external locus of control. This study was aimed at examining whether Martin's I-D compensation theory could be applied in a sample of incarcerated juvenile delinquents in The Netherlands who frequently lack adequate feedback and control. Using questionnaires (N = 144) and semi-structured interviews (N = 40) with adolescents in secure institutional facilities, the results showed that feedback in the form of responsiveness of group workers was positively related to behavioural competence and subsequently to fewer criminal cognitions and self-serving cognitive distortions. In addition, self-serving cognitive distortions were positively associated with an external locus of control. These results provide insight into antecedents of criminal behaviour, and can be used to develop efficacious institutional treatment for juvenile delinquents.

Modeling erosion and sediment transport since the onset of agriculture for two catchments in contrasting environments

Modeling erosion and sediment transport since the onset of agriculture for two catchments in contrasting environments

Rib lesions in skeletons from early neolithic sites in Central Germany: On the trail of tuberculosis at the onset of agriculture

As an infectious disease, tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major causes of death worldwide. Paleopathological and paleomicrobiological studies indicate a long standing association of the causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its human host. Since the occurrence and the epidemic spread of this pathogen seem to be closely linked to social and biological factors, it is of particular interest to understand better the role of TB during periods of social and nutritional change such as the Neolithic. In this study, 118 individuals from three sites in Saxony-Anhalt (Germany) dating to the Linear Pottery Culture (5400-4800 BC) were examined macroscopically to identify TB related bone lesions. In two individuals, Pott's disease was detected. In addition, periosteal reactions of varying degrees and frequency were observed mainly along the neck of the ribs in 6.5% (2/31) of subadults and 35.1% (20/57) of adults, with one site standing out markedly. Rib lesions, however, are not specific indicators of TB as they can also be caused by other diseases; so additional investigations were undertaken using histology and micro-CT scans to say more about the disease process. Supplementary molecular analyses indicate the presence of pathogens belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in individuals of all sites. Furthermore, we discuss the occurrence and spread of TB during the Neolithic with regard to nutritional aspects and possible risks of infection. The data presented provide important insights into the health status of Early Neolithic populations in Central Germany.